SUMMERTIME FUN

The mountain that we rode our bikes down was just a simple street with a hill in the middle of it to the adults. But to us kids it was exactly like Stone Mountain in Georgia, humongous from our childlike view. Not many girls went with the boys to hang out on this stretch of road. Riding our bikes down that hill could be deadly, you could skin your knees maybe even get a couple stitches.
I simply had to go. I didn’t know how to ride a bike, but they needed my Tarzan skills. I could scale the tree in the flash of lightening. Though it was just a twig with a couple antlers, it was still an apple tree. Those trees had apples for days on them. The pungent aroma of the apples that fell to the ground, and corroded in the constant shade of the hanging limbs, couldn’t over power the sweet robust smell of the ripened succulent apples still waiting to be picked and eaten.
We would pick those apples and sit in the tranquil shade, just thinking of the next day’s activities. Those hot summer days we would eat those wild apples till our bellies were ready to burst. Cars zipped by us, threatening to tell our parents we were on the side of the expressway apple picking.
When the passenger in the car, lingering stare frightened us, we would throw a worm filled rotten apple at their car. We would then high tail it home so no one would accuse us of being along the expressway. We were too young to be all them ways from our house.
Once we caught our breath we would realize that it was time for lunch at our elementary school. Yes they sure did provide lunch for the neighborhood children during the summer. We would walk those few blocks, salivating from the mouth ready to eat. We would go in and oh boy those hot lunches were much better than that cold sandwich our mothers fixed for us before they went to work and left us at the babysitters’ house. I preferred those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches; they were so thick that your mouth would stick together. When they didn’t have those I followed everyone else, we would eat meatloaf and lumpy mashed potatoes with brown gravy. For dessert it was a fruit cup or the individual cup with vanilla and chocolate ice cream, and a box of milk, chocolate or white. I didn’t like chocolate ice cream but I loved some chocolate milk.
After lunch was done we would leave the over crowded cafeteria and go to one of the houses where there was a parent home and watch the afternoon cartoons. We never really saw too much of those afternoon programs, for we were so overcome with fatigue from our long day’s journey that we would fall fast to sleep. By time we started waking from our naps it was time to go home and take a bath and eat our dinner.
After we ate I would go to bed and get ready for the day to start all over again. I would fall asleep thinking of all the adventures I went on in that one day, and the ones that tomorrow would bring.

A Hot Moment
“Good evening, everyone, my name is Alexander Brown, and I am a sex addict.”
Everyone in the room said, “Hi, Alexander.”
“I have never done this before, so I really don’t know how this works,” confessed Alex.
The man that was heading up this meeting responded, “There really isn’t a right way or a wrong way. Just have at it, the floor is yours for as long as you want it and need it.”
“Let me see,” he said scratching his head “what do I want to share today.” All eyes were on Alex, he is a solid, dark-skinned tall man. He wore his head completely bald, and his eyes were a dark brown.
“I never really realized that I had a problem until recently, when my fiancé walked out and through the ring at me. She had seen pictures of me with my head between another woman’s legs. The pictures were recently taken, like two weeks after I had proposed to her.”
Alex paused and looked around, but no one said or did anything. They were not there to judge him, just listen and help him heal. As soon as Alex realized it, he felt more at eased, so he continued.
“I never really thought I was cheating, I mean I wasn’t married to her yet. Too late now, I never will be, at least not with her. I never meant to hurt anyone. But I was at a party with my friends and we were getting drunk and crazy. I shouldn’t use alcohol as an excuse, but that would be the only reason why I took the pictures.”
The same burly looking man, that spoke to Alex before stood and walked over to Alex. He placed his arm around Alex’s shoulder. Then he said to Alex, “First off I am Charlie. Second off you cannot get help if you are not willing to own up to the choices that you made, the things that you did.”
“Oh, but I do accept all that I did.”
“Do you really?”
“Yes, I do.” Alex was beginning to get offend, so with his voice slightly higher, “what are you getting at?”
“It sounds to me, and just about everyone else in here agrees with me,” Charlie looked out over the group and no one disagreed with him “that you are guilty only because you got caught.”
Alex stood there dumb-founded. He couldn’t say anything so he just walked from in front of the group and grabbed his jacket and headed for the door. As his hand touched the door knob, Charlie said, “When you are ready to face what your real issue is, we will be here waiting for you. But you can’t get help if you cannot face what you have done.”

We had been out most of the day. It was Sunday, and we went to church and went to Sams to pickup some much needed food for the house. So naturally when we got home all the kids went down for a nap, including the baby. And since they were down and it was quiet, he and I thought why not catch some zees too?

I must have been asleep for maybe two hours, when I felt someone tap me and I looked around, but to my surprise there was no one there. So I tried to go back to sleep, but however I keep hearing that soft whisper of a voice in my ear telling me to move now. I couldn’t take the nagging anymore so I reluctantly got up from the bed and went to eat a few crackers, while sitting at the kitchen table. It was already 4 pm and I didn’t want to ruin my dinner.

As I was sitting there, his phone was on the table in front of me. It was on vibrate and it would not stop ringing. Since everyone we know, knows we really don’t answer our house phone, I figured it was an emergency, so I needed to answer but, the person hung up before I got to pickup.

I was going to leave it, but there went that voice again. “The questions you ask, the answer you will find.” Of course my mind was still clouded from sleep, so I had no clue what was being said or what it meant. I continued to ignore it. Then the phone vibrated again signifying a voicemail and missed calls. The vibrating and the voice were getting on my last nerve. So I picked up the phone, plugged in his password only to hear

Automated voice (av): You have 7 new messages. First from Friday (I can’t remember the date, it was two weeks before mother’s day) 6(something in the evening).

Woman’s voice (wv): Hey hunny bunny! I just went to pick up Angel and pay my metro bill, so you can call me when you leave work. Love you much! Bye.

She must have the wrong number. The voice, “listen to the next one.”

AV: Next new message from Sunday (date) 1(something)

WV: Hey hunny bunny, I have been calling you all day, why are you not calling me back? I am waiting to hear from you ok. Call me when you get a chance. Love you much, Bye.

Love who much? Oh hell nah. So I start to forward these messages to my cell phone as evidence.

After listening to five messages I had had enough, so I check the number to who had been calling. Lo and be damn hold it was the same number over and over and over a damn gain. So I call from his phone, she does not pickup. I leave her a message to call me and tell me why she is leaving these messages on my husband’s phone. I gave her my cell number, Mama ain’t raise no fool and a man will play coy for as long as you let them.

While I was waiting for her to call back, the devil rose up into my spirit and I pounced on his sleeping body and started landing blows to his face and body, waking him out of his deep sleep. Not sure what was going on he jumped up ready to fight. Then once he realized it was me, he was like why you playing. Ain’t nobody playing I am pissed as hell. Who the hell is (I spoke her name out loud), I asked. He must have been so damn sleepy that he was giving me garbled answers that change each time I asked. I don’t know who that is. Oh a person I do ring tones for.

“Why the hell she calling you saying she loves you?”
“I have no clue. I didn’t do anything for her to be loving me.”
Ok we all know that this is a bunch of cow manure. I don’t have boo boo the fool written across my damn face. So I am lead to believe bodily harm is what I will be inflecting on someone.