Summer Fun

An excerpt from my book "Every Woman..."

In the summers, her mother would drive them into the country where their father was building them a big custom home. They would drive past the cows and the open fields with the windows down and the air blowing through their hair in the old Pontiac Grand Am. They belonged to a pretty fancy club out in the country where their father would golf and they would swim all day.

Each time they drove out there, they would drive by the property to see the progress on the house however nothing ever changed. It was a halfway framed home sitting on a plot of dirt. And there were always excuses…trouble with permitting, not having enough guys out there to help, etc., etc. Celeste would always ask her mother, “When will it be done?! When can we move up here?!” And her mother, knowing the real story behind her father’s “custom-home building” and “golfing”, would always tell her “Soon, dear. It will be done soon. Now let’s go swim!” Their mother was pretty good at distracting them from the truth of their lives. Fun in the sun was always the answer!

Celeste and her sisters loved the pool! And loved swimming! They were Southern California girls all the way! Being in the water let them detach from their lives and live in the moment, whether they were body boarding at the beach, doing canon balls at the country club, or eating popsicles in their blow-up pool in their backyard. They loved it and they loved summer!

They never wanted to get out of the pool when it was time to leave and they felt so fancy, being a part of the country club. They headed back to their rental home in the suburbs to find another one of their father’s cars repossessed. This happened often and their father would be fuming…as if he had been wronged (even though he had not paid the car payment for several months).

Back to the darkness and reality of their lives. Early life looked good on the outside…but there was so much darkness. Darkness that no one could unearth at that time. The girls carried it in their bodies as their brains physiologically began to change due to the abuse. Not only were they going to be predisposed to alcoholism and addiction, but they were going to struggle through mental illness and self-defeating behaviors to cope with their early lives.

Their father would go chasing after the repossessed cars, attempting to get his belongings out of the vehicles. He would be freaking out about his golf clubs or fishing pole, even though he would rarely ever golf or fish. There was something even more valuable to him hiding in those cars.

Their dad would eventually show up at their home, high out of his mind, acting like nothing ever happened, while the girls and their mother would question him, “Where were you? We thought you were going to meet us!” They shouldn’t be surprised by this behavior, as this was how it always was. He said he would be somewhere and then he’d never show up. There was always some excuse – “I got stuck at the job site” or “I was there, I just didn’t have time to come see you.” They knew he was lying every time and then he’d disappear again.

#basedonatruestory #summerfun #everywoman #everywomanhasastory #addiction #alcoholism #abuse #childhood