Part XIV

When we moved to Larry's apartment/condo/townhouse (I am really not sure which it was), I slept on the couch. He had HBO and I watched Christmas programs over and over and over. I really don't remember much about this time as we lived there only about a month and a half. One night Larry hit my Mom and we moved back to Granny's in Fort Smith. We spent the week between Christmas and New Years at Granny's and shortly thereafter, Mom came to talk to me. She said that Larry wanted us to come back, that he agreed to be nicer and that we would live in Fort Smith. She said it was up to me. I am not kidding, up to me...an eleven year old. Even though it is how I grew up, I am still shocked that my Mom was so incapable of making a difficult decision that she asked her eleven year old son what to do and let me make the decision. What was I to do? She wanted to go, so I agreed. My decision making was not very good at the time either.

So, we moved into a house a few blocks away from Granny's house and when winter break was over, I went back to the school I had been attending in Fort Smith. Larry was a truck-driving delivery guy for a distributor of pre-packaged food, so we were always full up on biscuit and sausage sandwiches, TV dinners and the like. Larry was mean and it took him no time at all before he started to beat Mom again, except now he began to beat me too. We were prisoners in the house and I was only allowed out of the house for school. Mom was not allowed to leave at all, if he even thought she had gone out without him, he would fly into a jealous rage and both of us would get hit.

Sometime that winter, I got the Russian flu and at one point my temp went above 106 degrees. Later a biology teacher would tell me that one gets brain damage at that temperature and I believe it, I have never again been as smart as I was at ten. During the week and a half I was off school with the flu, I watched General Hospital a lot. It was during the "Luke & Laura" times on that show. I also began to be weirded out by my body. Pre-pubescence is not fun for anyone. I began to get hair in strange places and thinking it was all wrong, I took Larry's electric razor to my privates. This is not something I suggest...it was painful and not at all an experience all boys should have. Additionally, his after-shave said it was cooling and could heal the roughness of shaving. You know that scene in Home Alone where McCauley Culkin puts aftershave on his face and screams? This was much, much worse. I didn't buy an electric razor until I was almost 40 and I think it is due to this one stupid moment.

In March, we celebrated my 12th birthday by going to Granny's house. Larry had to work but had approved this one little outing. We never went back. Five days later, Mom put me on a plane for California and I moved back to Dad's house. It was early March of 1979 and I just remember that we went that night to Aloha skating rink and for the first time, it was safer to be with my Dad than to be where I had been.