Alright, so about a month ago I started telling you a little about myself. It is time to share a little more of my crazy, ridiculous, amazing story.
I'll recap from where I left off. My Dad was paying taxes for reasons explained earlier, and so our house got raided... and we moved out temporarily (us kids) to a friends house for a month and a half. This is where our story continues...
The Waiting
I don't know if I have ever told y'all, but I am an extremely impatient person! When I say impatient... I mean IMPATIENT!!! We were finally allowed to move back into our house, which I am extremely thankful for, because it was so hard to explain to everyone at school (I was in grade 10 at the time) why I wasn't getting a ride from my parents to school, why I couldn't have friends over, why I always needed rides for volleyball practices and games, why I only had about 10 sets of clothes, why I didn't seem like myself, etc, etc, etc. I could go on, but I won't. We eventually (Nathan, Caleb and I) moved back in to our house and everything seemed to go back to normal.
You could almost say that we forgot what had happened, but we didn't. It was lurking in the back of our minds every day, wondering when the cops would come knocking with the verdict. Days went by, then weeks, and soon months were zipping by and I couldn't stop them. I didn't want to ask my mom if she knew what was happening, and asking my dad was just not a smart idea because he was bitter and angry all of the time. I slowly began to shut down my emotions, especially where my dad was concerned.
I know it sounds like a sad and horrible thing, to stop caring for your father, and at times I look back and wonder why I didn't notice what I was doing, but I guess I was too focused on forgetting the experiences and just wanted to move on.
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| Waiting is just like winter... it never seems to end |
A year went by and we were still left wondering if something bad was going to happen. I would find my mom sitting on her bed sometimes, just staring off into space, and I'd carefully crawl onto the bed, sit beside her, and just lean my head against her shoulder. We would just sit there, for 10 minutes, 30 minutes. However long it took for us to get back to reality.
Throughout this waiting period I guess we almost forgot. Well at least I almost did. Not in the emotional sense, but just in how much I consciously thought about it. Don't get me wrong, it was always on my mind, but I just seemed to accept this anxious waiting as normal, and didn't notice how tense our house was constantly.
This of course is when all the big problems with my older brother Caleb started. We argued constantly. I don't mean just arguing, but arguing to the point where one of us was choking the other, and punches and kicks were flying everywhere. I began to loose my focus on what family really looked like because our house was so tense that we couldn't get along worth beans.
The Hiding Place
By February 2011, we almost expected nothing would ever happen with the paperwork they took from us.
They had returned the boxes by then (all the stuff they took from my dad), and we all began to breath a little better thinking nothing would come of it. Suddenly everything took a turn for the worst!
I knew something was going on, because my mom was extremely upset, and my dad wasn't in the house at all. I was in my grade 11/12 year (I had enough credits, so I decided to graduate a year early from High School and just be done with the drama that came with it) and I was struggling with having extra courses on my plate. Eventually I went to my mom, after a couple days, and asked her what was going on. She gave me the scariest look... one I will never forget; one of absolute hopelessness.
She steered me to my room and shut the door. She then began to ask me if I remembered the "RAID". I told her yes, and she proceeded to tell me that her and Dad had received a summons to appear in court. Dad decided that they weren't going to, because he was listening to all these "WISE MEN" that told him he wasn't required to show up. A bench warrant was then issued, and the cops were on the lookout for both of them. At this my mom asked me to not tell Nathan (Caleb was in Bible School at the time), and to keep it a secret for a while.
After a period of time (I do not remember how long), the cops started to come by the house. The first time this happened was honestly so surreal that I felt like I was in a movie. We heard a vehicle pull up and we looked out the blinds. When we saw the two cop cars we got everyone together and hid so that we were not visible from any windows. I don't know how we did it, but the cops didn't see us and they proceed to knock for quite some time, demanding we open the door. After a while they left and we had to then discuss what we were going to do next.
The cops proceeded to come quite often, coming during the day, and at night. We discovered that the best place to hide was in my bedroom because you could just see out the window enough to see the cops at the front door, and hear them talking, but we could stay hidden behind the blinds. There were times when the cops walked around the house, checking windows and doors, peering behind curtains with the flashlights. So many times they would almost catch a glimpse of us, and we would hold still, and hope that we weren't casting a shadow or breathing too loudly.
Truffle, my dog (bichon-havanese) would bark like crazy because she knew something was wrong, and all I could do was hold her and calm her down. She would shake uncontrollably because she had no idea what was going on, but could sense our fear. There were many times I thought my heart would beat right out of my chest. This went on until the beginning of march... and this is where the next part comes into play. I'll tell you more about that later.
Ever Hopeful,
Not-So-Princess Lizzy
1 t. Greek seasoning
