The Foster care system through my eye Pt. 5
My mother and father had a house built in Pennsylvania a couple years earlier in the Poconos. It was the total opposite of the city. My mother took us out there a couple times already and we enjoyed ourselves. But that was when I went with the rest of my brothers and sisters. My mother was sending me up there with my father alone. I knew this was about to be a very long hard summer. My father was not the talking type. He never raised his voice even when he was angry. Come to think of it I can't remember ever seeing him angry. It's hard to describe because most people I know have tons of things to say about their fathers. I guess I was about to learn a whole lot about him now.
My mother came into the room and said go downstairs and help your father. My pops was in the basement putting together some tools. Without saying anything he pass me a shovel and proceeded to climb up the stairs to the backyard. Our backyard was comparable to a prison cell in size. It was just a patch of dirt. There was some sort of daycare center that had a yard behind our house with a giant tree. We were going to take some of the little baby trees back to PA and plant them there. Digging up a little tree is not easy work. It took us about an hour but we had six of the best ones that were in our yard. We loaded them up in the back of the van and chopped down everything else that was overgrown in the yard. I went upstairs and took a shower and passed out sleeping in the living room. My mother woke me up at around five in the morning the next day and told me to get dressed. I guess this is how my vacation begins this year. A two and a half hour ride at 53 mph, pure torture! The one thing I enjoyed about the ride was the route we took to leave the city. I'm pretty sure it was the BQE, but I definitely remember always seeing Yankee Stadium (the old original one), and the entire Manhattan skyline up close.
BQE
It was a thing of pride to have the tallest downtown in the world. I loved my city and I still do. Come to think of it I was born in St. Luke's Hospital for women in Manhattan, Harlem to be exact.
So it was always sad to drive away from my beloved city. Once we got out of the city Hot 97 didn't work on my walkman anymore. It was open country side, grass tress cows all the stuff we didn't ever see in Brooklyn.
By the time we arrived in the Poconos I was ready to just got sleep. Me and my dad started down in my room and ran back upstairs to jump on my bike. I didn't have him back home in Brooklyn, because my mother thought it wasn't safe to ride a bike in the streets. I pulled the bike out of the shed and raced down our street to the cul De SAC. Our house was the only one on the street, and the only other house was way up the hill. There was a lot of trees around the property, to me it looked like a forest. There was a racetrack near the house and a ski resort called Camelback mountain.
Sometimes I could hear the announcer at the track in the distance followed by loud cheers. It was really quiet in this area and now that I was here without my brother and sisters I could hear the birds chirping louder. I heard every gust of wind ruffle the leaves of the trees. The air smelled fresh and felt light in my lungs. The city streets always smelled of stale urine and smoke. Sidewalks littered with cigarette butts and trash everywhere. There wasn't a white box truck in the entire city without graffiti on it. Let's just say it was not the cleanest place in the world. Out of no where there was a bright flash in the sky followed by a monstrous clap of thunder. Time to go inside.
By the time I got to the shed I was soaked from head to toe. I hurried up inside after putting my bike away and went to take a shower before bed. When I came upstairs my sister was getting ready to leave and dinner was already served. I ate my food like a crazed mad man. I didn't even realize that I hadn't eaten anything since I arrived. Once my sister left my pops put on a baseball game. Out of curiosity I asked him if he like to watch baseball. He told me that the Yankees was his favorite team. I couldn't believe my father liked sports. I wasn't in to baseball but I was willing to get into it just to connect with him more. He began to tell me about Derek Jeter, Tino Martinez, Mariano Rivera and all the other great players at the time. On the because now goals are some my favorite players of all time. The Yankees won the game and it was time for the night to end. I walked downstairs to my room, laid down and turn off the light. I lay there thinking and wondering about everything that happened back at home. The darkness in my room surrounded me like a thick blanket of smoke. Crickets chirping in the distance were the only company I had at the moment. The end of summer couldn't come quick enough.
The next morning I woke up and my dad was already outside working. He had the four holes for the trees that we have brought from Brooklyn. I poured myself a cup of coffee and headed outside. Soon as I got there he passed me a shovel and told me to dig two holes. That took us about an hour. By the time I was done my hands were screaming with blisters. I don't think I remember a time when I work so hard. Once we were done we headed to the front of the house and he told me to pick up any rocks that was on the front lawn. There wasn't too many rocks so I finished that in less than half an hour. But of course my work was not done yet. He told me to put all the rocks onto the wheelbarrow and dump them outback. By lunchtime I was hungry and tired and ready to hangout and relax. My dad looked me almost reading my mind and told me I could go ride my bike around after lunch. I guess he's not as strict as my mom. I rode around the entire area for hours never straying too far. I headed back home not wanting to push any limits with my dad. When I got back was sitting outside drinking iced tea. He got up and help me put my bike away. I thought he wanted to go more work but he grabbed a soccer ball instead. He gave me my first soccer lesson that day and told me how he played on the national soccer team in Costa Rica. We played until it got dark and of went to take a shower while he cooked dinner. After we ate we watched on another Yankee game before I went to bed. And that's how the next month went for me. My dad taught me many lessons that summer that I'll never forget. We finally had a closer bond which is what I always wanted. My sister came up from the city to pick me up and take me back home. My dad stayed behind until the end of summer.
My mother had three children of her own before she adopted me and my younger brother. She had three girls who were all older than me. One of my sisters opened up a travel agency in Perth Amboy New Jersey. It was mainly a place for people to send money to other countries cheaper than western union. So when I arrived back in Brooklyn she asked my mother if I could go to jersey with her every day for the rest of the summer. Just like that at 13 I started my first job. It wasn't the best paying job or the hardest job, but I was so pretty excited to actually make some money for myself. My job was easy, pass out flyers all over town. I was kind of confused because I was not allowed to walk around by myself in Brooklyn, but hear my mother was allowing for me to walk around the town I didn't know. I wasn't complaining but at that time I just didn't get it. My sister told me she would pick me up at 730 the next morning. My mother didn't want my brother to feel left out so she sent him with me. I knew that was a big mistake because we never really got along. The next day the first argument was who was sitting in the front seat. I won that argument just off the technicality that I was older. The next argument was eating at either McDonald's or Burger King. So we end up taking Chinese food. The entire day was just one big argument about who was doing what and how. As we were given out the fliers we notice this one stoplight would be red for longer than usual. So we stood at the corner holding our flyers and custom to the cars that were stopped at the red light. We got rid of a whole box of flyers in an hour. On the ride back to NY will my sister agreed to pay me $20.00 a week and she would match every dollar I earned. That made me happy because I knew I would have someone to buy school clothes. Not just any school clothes, but fly school clothes. This summer went on without a problem. My brother quit after the first day complaining that he didn't like to walk a lot. I made almost all hundreds dollars that summer and my sister gave me 200 extra dollars. The weekend before school she took me to the Crossings Outlet in Pennsylvania.
It had lots of name brand clothes for very cheap. I left out of there with all the clothes I dreamed of having. Even though I wasn't gonna be on the basketball team this year I didn't want to be a class to reject this time. Now all I needed were some cool sneakers. And my mother must've been in a good mood because when I asked her to buy me a pair she said yeah. We went to the store and I ended up picking out some black and white Nike Stoudemire kicks. Now I was officially ready to start school. I hadn't gotten a haircut all summer so my mother took me to the barbershop. The barbershop was packed with kids getting their haircuts for the first day of school. Most kids were upset that the summer vacation was over but I wasn't. I was glad to be able to finally get out of the house. When I got back home I took a shower and watched TV until it was time to go to sleep. Pop pop pop pop. Now I know I was officially home at hearing a gunshot in the distance. It was sort of a ritual to fall asleep to gun shots going of every night. The city I lived in was crazy but like I said I loved it.
The next day in class I didn't get to see Danny. For some reason I thought he had transferred schools, in reality we just weren't in the same homeroom anymore. I wonder if my mother home on them to go with that. At lunchtime I saw Danny messing around with some girls at the lunch table. As soon as he saw me he rushed over and we talked for the rest of lunch about our summer. We both thought my mother called to the principle to separate our classes. Basketball tryouts were a couple weeks away and my mother already reminded me that I was not going to play on the team this year. I figured I would just practice all year long, strengthen my game for varsity tryouts next year. The rest of the day went smoothly and when 3:00 came I was ready to hit the door.
By the time I got home I wanted to go straight to the park to play basketball, but my mother can't let me. She promised she would let me go on the weekend. She gave me a dollar 85 and told me to go to the corner store and buy some milk. On my way to the store I saw my friend Spanky. He had on his same old dirty clothes but today he was wearing a big gold chain. He laughed when he saw me starring at it. He told me that the chain was fake and that he found it and the park. I went in the store and bought the milk and went back home. About an hour later my mother came in the room and told me to come to the front window. She began yelling and screaming about how she knew she didn't want me to go to the park today because she had a bad feeling. The street was once again covered with police lights and people were all standing outside. I could see more police concentrated down the street. They seem to be huddled around something. I watched as all the police officers paced back and forth trying to keep the people away from the area. Once the police cleared away from the huddle I was able to see that someone was lying in the middle of the street with the tarp covering and the entire body. All I could think about was the fact that I was gonna be in the park. My mother probably saved my life. I assumed that the person lying the street was dead because he was all covered up just like in the movies. It seems strange to see a scene unfolding like this in front of my old school. I saw some of my friends coming up the street from the window so I screamed down to them. They looked up and walk in front of my building. I asked them if they knew what was going on and they told me somebody had just got robbed, and that the person who got robbed was stabbed to death. Another one of our friends came running up screaming Spanky. I told him that I saw him earlier in the store but that he wasn't around. " No I'm not looking for him." he said. "It's Sapnky. Spanky got robbed and killed for that fake gold chain."
to be continued.....
Just in case you missed the first four parts of the story and are reading this for the first time read all the rest here.
Part ONE
https://steemit.com/life/@mrviquez/the-foster-care-system-through-my-eyes
Part Two
https://steemit.com/life/@mrviquez/the-foster-care-system-through-my-eyes-pt-2
Part Three
https://steemit.com/life/@mrviquez/the-foster-care-system-through-my-eyes-pt-3
Part Four
https://steemit.com/life/@mrviquez/the-foster-care-system-through-my-eyes-pt-4
I hope you enjoy reading this post!!!!!!!
Until the next post