So, Arizona. As I said, I liked it. I went to school with my brothers and because I was a senior and had my license I actually got to drive us there. I felt good about myself. I was with family, getting along for the most part. I was making friends. Dad did still have his explosive moments-like on my seventeenth birthday when he threw a plate of food at Mom's head. Mom never let on though-I was working all day and only found out about it later when my sister told me. He was still a tyrant, but as long as he had his coffee with Hershey's cocoa and Southern Comfort...or food...and the internet, he was fine. You really only had to worry about Dad when the internet connection went down. That's pretty much the only time he came out of his room.
Shortly after my seventeenth birthday everything fell down around me. Minnie called with the news that DCS was snooping around. She had filed for full custody before she kicked me out, and the time had come around for the papers to be reviewed. All of a sudden everybody was freaking out. The restraining order against my dad was still in place, and I wasn't supposed to be around him. Next thing you know Mom's on me case, telling me that she, Dad, and Minnie were all going to go to jail and me, my siblings, and our uncle that lived with us were going to be wards of the state-and it was all my fault and I was the only one that could stop it.
That was a hell of a lot of pressure to be under. I was in the middle of my senior year of high school, was getting ready to graduate and try to find the right college. I had so many dreams of things I wanted to do. I wanted to be an elementary school teacher. I wanted to work with kids and try to help them, do something positive with my life.
Mom was relentless. She had me call Nathan and ask him if he still wanted to marry me. A week later my white knight showed up, took me to the court house and we became man and wife. I was seventeen, not even a high school graduate yet. I was happy though, so very very happy that I was with him. We took a few days driving back to Tennessee, on what we deemed our honeymoon. We went to the Oklahoma City Zoo...had interesting nights in hotel rooms on the way home...drove about 2000 miles with me, him, and his mother squeezed into the truck's bench seat. We finally got to where I could see where we'd be living-a trailer perched crookedly on some land in Decatur. That place was interesting, to say the least. There were holes in the floors and the walls, which Nathan patched up with plywood. He was very handy with woodworking, that one-to this day I have a name placard sitting on my desk with my name on it that he carved for me, and a big wooden trunk in my closet he built me.
We kept warm by the side of the kerosene heater and our own body heat. There was always lots and lots of snuggling, time spent just by each others' side. It was wonderful, being with him....but I felt trapped there. i couldn't start school in Meigs County because they didn't count him as my legal guardian...so I moved to Knoxville to stay with Delaney. I'll get to this later....signing off for tonight.
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