“What have we got here?” he said as he held me up. Janice just stood there watching. The other cop walked up and grabbed her also.
“Shouldn’t you two be in school?”
“Schools out.” I said. “ Let me go.”
The cop looked at his watch. “According to my calculations school is still in session for another three hours.” They dragged us over to the police car and went through our pockets.
“And what do we have here?” The cop pulled out a baggie from my pocket with some Blonde Lebanese Hash in it. Everyone had hash back then. They searched Janice and found two Quaaludes in her purse. Everyone had Quaaludes too.
“Don’t say a word.” I told her. This pissed the cop off greatly. He threw me in the back of the car. They put Janice in the other side of the car and took off to the police station. I was definitely more nervous about what my dad would do to me more than the cops. My parents were already divorced. It was just me and my mom at home. My dad had moved to Coconut Grove, but was still trying to control everything.
“My dad is a criminal attorney.” I told the cop thinking this might get me somewhere. I had already been in trouble in my life enough to know whatever I say they will use against me.
“Yeah I got that. I recognize your name. Your dad beat the last two cases I was involved in. Let’s see if he can get you out of this. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.”
We rode the rest of the way in silence.
We pulled into the police garage and they pulled Janice away and walked her to the women’s side.
“Don’t say anything.” I told her again as they took her away.
“Oh we got a tough guy.” The cop said as he shoved me into the holding cell. I sat there for a couple of hours wondering what is going to happen next. After a couple of hours my dad walked in the cell. He was more mad than I had ever seen him.
“Don’t you say one word.” He told me. He seemed to know all the cops and he walked me out of there. We got in his car in silence and drove that way for a while. We pulled into the garage under his condo in the grove. I hadn’t ever lived with him since he moved out about five years earlier and we didn’t have the best relationship.
“You are going to tell me where you got that hash.” He said.
“ No I’m not. For what reason? It wasn’t that guy’s fault I got caught.” We were walking into the elevator. I thought about running but he would have caught me. My dad was a beast, a savage. And I had already been to California on a surf trip, so I knew where I was heading. I just had to get back home and get the rest of my stash, sell it and get on the Greyhound bus heading west.
“Let me tell you how this is going to work.” My dad said. “You are going to stay here until you give up the name of the guy you got that from. Then I am going to figure out what to do next.”
“Aint gonna happen.” My dad slammed me into next week after that remark. I got up and looked at him with disdain, then went to the guest room. My dad went to work every day and locked me in the house. There was nothing I could do, nowhere to go, so I just sat there. After two days my dad walked in the room.
“Your mother just found your stash and flushed it down the toilet.” I was furious, that was my escaping money.
“This is bullshit. You get high and I know it. You are a hypocrite.” My dad slammed me and I was on my ass again. I got up quick.
“We’ll see how much you want to say in a day or two.” He said as he walked out of the room. I sat there completely lost, not knowing at all what I would do next.
The next day he woke me up early. “Get up and get your things together.”
We got in his car and he drove us to a big building in downtown Miami.
“What’s this place?” I asked.
“Your new home for a while. Operation Fresh Start. It’s a rehab for drug abusers.”
“Oh yeah? You going too?” I asked him. My dad looked at me like he wanted to slam me again but instead he just got out of the car. I looked over and my Mother was pulling up to the building. Poor woman, she looked distraught. I walked up to her and gave her a hug, she held me tight.
“This is for your own good.” She said almost crying. “What is?” I asked. “You going to this rehabilitation center.” She said through her tears.
I looked at the building and thought to myself, the only place I am going is to California.
We went inside and sat down with the Director of the place. My mom was at her wits end. The director explained that if I didn’t say I wanted to bet there, like signing up of my own free will then they wouldn’t take me.
“Well that’s not going to happen. There isn’t anything wrong with me. I smoke some weed that’s it. I don’t even drink. Which is more than I can say for some of the people in this room.” My dad glared at me.
“This isn’t about me, it’s about you. And I can promise you this, if you don’t say you want to be here the only place you will be going is to a juvenile detention center. I will see to it.” My dad said.
I looked at him in disbelief. What a hypocrite I thought to myself.
“But if you start the program honey I will come get you later and you can come home.” My mom said with tears in her eyes. I thought about the big picture. I had to get home so I could get my stuff and get out of dodge.
“OK, I will do the program.” I said reluctantly.
“Good.” The director said as he stood up. He handed me a clipboard and I signed where they said to. The director shook my dad’s hand, who immediately split.
My mom gave me a hug, “Now do good honey and I will be back tonight to get you.” I watched my parents walk out then go their separate ways. The director led me into the courtyard and introduced me to some kid with a clip board.
“This is Bill, he will show you around. Today is your first day so you don’t have to participate or do the classes, that will all start tomorrow. Today is your orientation”
So this kid Bill, who was about seventeen was like the model prisoner there showed me the layout. He walked me all around, showed me all the classes and activities I would have to do, he introduced me to some other kids. He explained to me I could no longer use the TV or radio when I got home nor could I ever talk to anyone that I knew before I got to Operation Fresh Start, that I would have to make all new friends. At the end of the day they all sat in a circle in the courtyard and had a discussion.
“I’m so glad I didn’t drink today.” One girl said.
“Me also. I thought about doing coke all day and now I am glad I didn’t.” said another.
I saw my mom pull up and park across the street with the other mom’s.
“So how was your first day David?” Bill asked me. “ What do you think?” I smiled and stood up.
“I think I like smoking weed. I don’t think I am out of control at all with it. I don’t have a drug problem I don’t do drugs. I think as soon as I get home I am going to break out my stash and have a good smoke then I am going to figure out what to do next. Tell you what I will not be here tomorrow. I will be on the way to a better place, but if I am here tomorrow, I will go through the whole program.” I turned around and bolted for the gate. I ran through it and jumped in my mom’s car.
“How was it?’ She asked me.
“Let’s just go home.” I had to be cool so she just left before the director or that model prisoner came running out. She took off and in my rear view I could see Bill running after the car. My mom didn’t see him.
We got to the house and I ripped the fridge open and started eating good food. My dad didn’t eat like I did so I hadn’t eaten in like three days. I picked up the phone and started dialing friends to get me out of there. Every time I picked up the phone my mom would run into her room and pick up the phone. I loved her and revered her. She never abandoned me. And I wasn’t a walk in park growing up. As soon as anyone of my friends picked up the phone I would say, “If I hang up, you hang up and I will call you back. Can you come get me?” No one was able to co
me get me. My mom figured out I was trying to run away and called my dad.
“So you think you are going to run away? Believe you me Sonny Jim, I will come get you right now and have you locked up. You have to promise me you won’t run away.”
“I promise.” All I was thinking was I promise myself I will. My mom seemed a little relieved. No matter how mad I was I couldn’t take it out on her. Since my dad me and my mom and we had a special bond. When you are a little kid and watch your mom cry every night, you end up not liking the person that made her cry. My dad made her cry.
I know I couldn’t reach any of my friends like this so I went to sleep and set my alarm for three in the morning.
I woke up just before the alarm went off and turned it off before it rang, didn’t want to wake my mom up. I was laying in my bed wondering who to call. I was thinking f I can’t reach anyone, I would just walk out of there and figure out the rest tomorrow, as long as I didn’t wake up there and have to go back to the rehab.
All of a sudden there was alight knock on my window. I jumped up and moved the blinds and saw my friend Big Al at my window.
“Let’s go up coast. The waves are hitting good. North swell.” He said. I ran to the front door and let him in. I explained the whole story to him.
“God sent you here to rescue me.” I told him.
“God sent me here to take you up coast and go surfing, I know you have gas money. I don’t know about that other shit.” Big Al said.
It took me and Al about an hour to quietly get my stereo and records, my three surfboards and my clothes out of the house without waking my mom. I remember looking at my house as we drove away as if it was for the last time. I left my mom a note on the table, ‘Don’t worry, I will be ok. I Love You.’ It said. I knew she would worry, It’s what mom’s do. I also knew it was time for me to go. Some things you just know.
The next day we went by the high school and I sold two of the surfboards and my stereo and all my records. This was now my escape money. I got some weed from a friend of mine and had Big Al drop me off at the greyhound bus station.
“You sure you know what you are doing?” Al asked me.
“ I think so.” Al gave me a hug and split. I sat in that station waiting for the bus to pull in. This was a big deal for me running away. I was two days from my sixteenth birthday, embarking on what I saw as the beginning of the adventure of my life. The bus pulled in and the driver walked into the station.
“All aboard for Tallahassee, Mobile, El Paso and Points West.” He yelled.
Points West. I like the sound of that I thought. The West is the Best. Jim Morrison says so.
I got on the bus with more excitement in my heart than I had ever felt before, the excitement of the unknown.
17
I turned sixteen on the bus to California. I had sold two of my surfboards and my stereo and records. I think I had about six or seven hundred dollars. I also had about two ounces of Blonde Lebanese hash. It was worth way more in California than in Florida. The bus ticket was forty five dollars so I was doing good. My friend gave me two ounces of weed for the trip so I was set weed wise.
Forty five dollars for a ride across the country, I thought this was the best deal happening. Three days and four nights and I will be there. I got on the bus around six at night and was tired as hell from all the shenanigans I had recently gone through, so I passed out.
I woke up somewhere in Louisiana. Forty five bucks to get across the country was a good deal, but I could see already I will be very happy to get off the bus. The people that were going all the way across the country were mostly sitting in the back of the bus. I was tired of sitting up straight. As soon as we pulled into the next stop and the back three seats were empty I moved all my stuff over there and sat down. I controlled those three seats for the rest of the ride. The bus was getting ready to pull out and new people were boarding. Some worker guy was walking to the back. He looked like he worked on a fishing boat or something. He walked right up to me thinking I would move.
“Excuse me.” He said as he tried to squeeze in the seat.
“Excuse you for what?”
“I want to sit there.”
“Can’t.”
“Why not?” He looked confused. He was from the sticks. I was from the big city. I learned early on you have to take what you want, aint no one giving it to you.
“Cause I’m already sitting here.”
“In all the seats?”
“That’s right. I’m going all the way across the country and I am sitting in all the seats for that ride. There’s plenty of other seats. Go sit in one of those.”
He looked at me for a second in disbelief, I looked him right in the eye, he could see I was ready to go, he didn’t want any, he then shrugged his shoulders and turned back around and found a seat closer to the front. I used to try people like that when I was younger, kind of challenge myself. I had already been training for years so I was full of confidence I just had a lot to learn. A couple of the men and women in the back snickered, we were all getting a little friendly in the back of the bus.
We boarded the bus after the dinner spot on the second night, somewhere in Texas. I was pretty stoned and tired, but way excited. It was my birthday, which I kept to myself. Turning sixteen and heading West, I was filled with excitement.
We went through small town to small town for a while. Local people would get on the bus and ride for twenty or forty miles then get off again. There was nothing around there by my standards, maybe anybody’s standards. Just a lot of open fields.
We pulled into a stop and a few people got on the bus. I was sitting next to the window looking out, so I didn’t see this really sexy kind of drunk lady sit down on the back seat. She must have been about twentyfive, no more than thirty.
“That seat’s taken.” I said.
“By me Darlin.” She said with a drunken smile. She was real cute and real drunk. A big cowboy made his way to the back of the bus and tried to sit in between us, there were three seats in the back. Before this Cowboy could sit down, this lady lays down across the seats and puts her head in my lap. She looks up at the guy.
“This seat’s taken Darlin’ gotta find one up front.” The cowboy looked at her then at me, shrugged his shoulders and went back to the front
The bus took off and the lights on the bus went out. It was as dark as night on the bus, couldn’t really see anything. I could feel my fly being undone. The drunken lady started giving me a blowjob. One of the men sitting in the seat in front of me and on the side of me looked back and smiled. After a few minutes of that she sits up.
“Come on.” She grabs my hand and we went into the bathroom on the bus. It was really small but we made it work. We made a pretty good racket for a while, but you could only hear it in the back few seats. We came back out and all the people in the back were smiling at us. We sat there for a while and drove in silence. We pulled into the next stop. It was real dark, not much around at all.
“This is my stop Darlin.” She said. She was very cute. It was surreal.
“It was REALLY good to meet you. What’s your name?” I asked her.
“Alice. What’s your’s?”
“David.”
“Good to meet you David. You made my night.”
“Believe me. You made mine.”
She got up and walked off the bus shaking her ass the whole way down the aisle. Everybody watched, even the ladies. As soon as she got off the bus everyone starting joking me about it.
“Well it is my birthday.” I said.
One of the men looked out the window.
“Here she comes again.” Everyone got quiet. She walked all the way to the back again, shaking her ass the whole way. She stepped up to me.
“I thought this was your stop.”
“It is.” She said. “I was hoping you might want to get off for the night. You can jump back on in the morning, or afternoon, whatever the case may be.”
She was really cute, I
thought about it for a second.
“I really can’t. There are people waiting for me. I have to show up on time.”
She handed me a folded piece of paper.
“If you are ever in West Texas again Sugar, You better give me a call.”
She turned around and shook her ass all the way off the bus again. Everyone watched he go, even the ladies. I slept like a little kid that night on that bus, not a care in the world.
18
The bus pulled into the bus station in downtown San Diego a day and a half later, and I was very ready to get off. I grabbed my surfboard and walked out of the bus, I was the last one out. My two pals Johnny and Louie were there waiting for me with big smiles on their faces.
“Wow homeboy, you really made it.” Johnny said.
“How was the ride?” Louie asked.
“Brutal.” I said. Louie took me by the arm. “Your dad’s been calling Bill’s house. Said if you are here he’s gonna beat the shit out of every one of us. How could he know you were here?”
“I don’t know. He’s just trying everywhere he thinks I might be. I came here last year so he figures I might try to make it across. He’s a million miles away. Don’t worry about it. I’m not.” We jumped in Louie’s truck and took off.
I rented a room in a house from an old surfer dude from Miami named Carlo who got me a job on a construction site he was working on picking up debris. We would wake up at the dawn and go surf or an hour, then go to work and work all day, then surf in the afternoon until dark. I lived in Encinitas California, which is like Surf city. There were a bunch of guys from Miami all living in a big house down the block. They had big parties there every weekend. The town was full of kids, a beach vibe. You could stand there with your surfboard on Pacific Coast Highway and stick your thumb out with a joint in your mouth and someone would do a three lane maneuver to pick you up.
I was surfing as much as I could, ten hours a day on the weekends. I was the youngest one there from Miami, so everyone kind of watched out for me.
Becoming A Son Page 7
