Wings From Ashes Trilogy

by Linda Nelson

  She couldn’t do that. Could she?

  It was about four months ago, Rod could remember that day well. The day his mom insisted that he see a doctor because of his behavior. She said he looked sick and she was tired of his constant complaining about being tired all the time.

  So she took him to see the doctor.

  Rod didn’t mind at first. He had hopes of scoring a few pain pills from the doc, but for some reason that never happened. Instead, the doc made him pee in a cup with an orderly watching him. This cup was then checked by another orderly and witnessed. They came back into the room telling the doctor that the test was dirty.

  What the hell… Why didn’t they use a clean cup then?

  Then it dawned on him what the test had been all about. His mom had him drug tested – the f’cking b’tch… He should have known she was up to no good.

  The doc gave Rod two choices.

  One, he would agree to get help for his drug problem or two; Rod’s mom was going to report him to the police.

  Who the hell did she think she was to go and threaten to call the cops on him?

  “What will it be,” asked the doc. He then called Rod’s mom into the room to hear her son’s decision.

  “What do I have to do for the help part?” Rod saw the look on his mom’s face and knew she meant business.

  The doc pulled out a small pamphlet from his drawer and handed it over to Rod to look at. It was for a rehab facility not too far away from his home.

  “Take the next couple of minutes and look that over, and if you agree to enter the thirty day program at this facility then your mom will not report you to the police.”

  Rod eyed his mom. He wasn’t sure if she could actually do that or not, but he certainly didn’t want to find out either.

  “Thirty days, you say? Thirty days can’t be that bad… all right I’ll do it.”

  His mom rushed at him before the doc was able to stop her and she pulled him into her arms and began to cry. She brushed his hair from his forehead, saying, “It will work out. I know it will. You will get this out of your system.”

  Rod knew she didn’t understand, he was only doing this because he didn’t want to go to jail.

  But that was months ago.

  He did the thirty day program at his mom’s request, and as soon as he got out he found a dealer and fixed himself, thankful for that whole matter to be done and over with. His mother never had a clue.

  Then he discovered the Cloud Nine and the K-2 being sold in a store. He decided it had to be all right to use because it was being sold legally and his mom couldn’t call the cops on him. He wasn’t doing anything wrong.

  “Bitch,” He grumbled to himself as he pulled his shirt off over his head leaving the shirt inside out – his mom also nagged him about this, and kicked off his pants leaving the discarded clothes in a piled heap of dirty clothes on his bedroom floor.

  Maybe when all this shit calmed down tomorrow he would wash them – tomorrow was another day.

  Chapter 5–How Could You?

  “Carol – it’s about time you got home. Where have you been young lady,” Carol’s dad yelled at her as she slipped in the front door.

  She didn’t think it was actually that late, especially since he hadn’t left for work as of yet. It was only 9 o’clock and she had just stopped for a minute or two, maybe longer, to see Darcy before coming home. She had to tell her about the new guy in school since she hadn’t been in school today.

  Darcy asked her about the money she had borrowed from her. Carol lied to her telling her that she would pay up within the coming week.

  “I was playing basketball. Dad, it’s a Friday night,” Carol retorted.

  “I don’t care if it is Saturday night. You need to clean your room. It is a disaster area. Plus you have to remember you have a curfew.”

  Carol glared at her dad. The last time she was in her room it was presentable. That was early this morning before she had left for school. She didn’t know what her dad was talking about.

  She looked over at her mom who was seated on the coach and could tell she would be of no help to her. Her eyes were nothing but a sheet of glaze once again…. And she called Carol a junky…hypocrite.

  “I have to go to work now,” he stooped and brushed a quick kiss on his wife’s forehead and a quick kiss on Carol’s cheek. “I expect to see that room clean when I get home.”

  He quickly scooted out the door with his lunch bag on his shoulder leaving Carol alone with her junked up mother.

  Carol rolled her eyes at her and stormed off to inspect her room.

  It had been torn to pieces. She stood there aghast. Who? Why? She ran back to the living room and confronted her mother.

  “Who did that to my room?”

  “You didn’t leave it where I could find it.”

  “Leave what?”

  “I needed it Carol. Don’t you understand? I need it more than you do and you hid it from me. So I had to find it.”

  “Find what mother? I don’t have anything.”

  Carol saw a small bag clutched in her mom’s hands containing a white powdery substance. Carol tried to snatch it from her grip, but she would not let go of it.

  “You took my stuff? You’re my fucking mother…how could you?”

  Carol made another attempt to take the bag from her mother, but she jumped up off the coach and bolted to her bedroom with the bag still clutched in her hand.

  Her own mother, she couldn’t believe it. Carol had a feeling she had been the one rummaging around in her room when she was not home, but she had never said anything because she wasn’t sure it was actually her or not. Her own mother, taking her stuff, no one would ever believe her if she did tell them.

  She bolted after her only to have the bedroom door shut in her face. The door lock clicked.

  Carol pounded on the door.

  “Give me my stuff!”

  “Go away. It wasn’t yours to begin with. That was my money you took to buy it with.”

  “Na uh…that was my money, you bitch. I earned all of that money for doing all the chores around the house. You promised me that money, so I took it.”

  Carol pounded on the door several more times before giving up and storming off to her room only to be greeted by the disastrous scene.

  “Fucking bitch,” she continued to mumble for the next few hours as she went about putting her things back in place. She finished restoring her room about two hours before her dad got home from work.

  The clock said it was ten minutes to five. Carol wasn’t that tired she was still too wound up from finding her room in the condition it had been in when she had gotten home. But she lay down anyway and closed her eyes for a nap. Just a cat nap, that’s all she needed.

  She never heard her dad poke his head in her room and give it a quick inspection before heading off to bed only to be greeted by a locked bedroom door. He shook his head and could only picture what could have taken place between mother and daughter while he had been away.

  In reality, he had no real clue. He knew about his wife’s drug use, but he did not know it was supplied by his daughter unintentionally.

  There was only one place left for him to sleep. That was the coach. Two hours later he never heard his daughter leave with a small bag of her things.

  “Fuck this shit,” Carol said as she packed a small overnight bag. She would sleep in the streets if she had to. She was done with this shit. That was going to be the last time her mom was going to take her stuff.

  By nine o'clock in the morning, she was sitting on the bench outside the basketball court and was surprised to see Rod show up just as early, and with a car. Was he heaven sent or what?

  The wheels in Carol’s head began to turn…

  Chapter 6–Not Mine

  “Did you find a job yet?”

  “No,” Max answered his mom.

  “And why not,” she demanded.

  “Because there aren’t any to be had,” was his reply.
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  Normally he got along with his mother, but today it wasn’t happening.

  “That answer is not acceptable young man,” His mom said with her hands on each hip. The stance said it all, this was it or else.

  “What do you expect from me; don’t you know that the economy is bad right now?”

  “That does not matter. Starting today you will be paying two hundred dollars a week to live here.”

  “What the hell? I don’t have that kind of money,” Max replied with his hands shooting up in the air in frustration.

  “Actually you must if you can afford to buy this…,” His mom then produced a bag of weed.

  “That’s not mine – I was holding that for someone.”

  “What do you think – do you think I’m really that stupid?”

  Max didn’t know what to say. He knew his mom was not stupid, but he wished she was. She had been after him for the past two weeks to get a job and to start paying for room and board. But why should he, his folks made more than enough money with their six digit income?

  How could his dad, a big time lawyer insist that he move out. How was he going to be able to finish school? You have to have a place to live to be able to attend school.

  At least that is what his mother always told him. She worked part-time at the hospital as an RN. Between the two of them, Max knew his parents made an annual income somewhere around one hundred thousand dollars.

  “Where are you going with that,” Max asked his mom as she turned to leave with the bag in hand.

  “I’m going to go flush it.”

  “You can’t do that.”

  “Why not? You said it’s not yours.”

  Max’s dad came into the kitchen where his wife and son were arguing. He had just arrived after coming home from the store just moments ago.

  He startled both of them. “What’s going on here?”

  “I found this bag in our son’s room, and he said it isn’t his – oh, and he still doesn’t have a job.”

  “What is this,” He asked as he took the bag from his wife.

  “Loose Tea,” Max lied.

  His dad laughed. “Really now – I think this is it son. Get your stuff together and get out.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me right. Get your stuff and get out. This is the last time I am going to tell you.” He juggled the bag of weed before him for emphasis. “You are a disgrace to this family. I never want to see your face around here – ever again.”

  “But –“

  “No buts – get out. You have ten minutes before I call the police and have you removed from this property.”

  “Fine – I was going to move out anyway. I’ve had it with living here with your rules.”

  Deep down inside Max could not believe that his dad was throwing him out of the house. How could he do that to his only son? This was not fair –, but his sister Morgan could do anything she wanted to do without them nagging her this way.

  Max stormed off to his room and shook his pillow out of its case and began stuffing some of his things inside it, making sure that he took a wallet with all his credit cards, and one change of clothes. He figured he could buy more clothes later with the credit cards.

  The pillow case could come in handy at some time as use as a bag of some sort. He stuffed the bag full into his backpack and looked his room over one last time. It might be the last time he was going to see it in some time.

  Maybe he would look up his friends back in Roxbury. He was sure they would let him stay on one of their coaches for the night. That’s what being in a gang was all about. They were more like family than his blood relatives. They were the ones who had his back. It surely wasn’t his dad, nor his mother and his sister.

  As he left his room, he bumped into his sister. “Max, what are you doing?”

  “I’m out ta here.”

  She stood there mystified and shrugged her shoulders only to disappear back into her room.

  Max rolled his eyes at his stupid fourteen year old sister just before he stepped outside the house without any goodbye to his parents. His sister didn’t have a clue. If they wanted to throw him out, then he did not need to speak to them anymore, along with his sister. Morgan probably wouldn’t miss him anyway, since he was fond of harassing her when their folks weren’t around.

  That girl Karla lived a few houses up the street from his place. He just could go to her house. He wondered if she was up yet, but then he remembered how her mom had called the police on them yesterday. Maybe it wouldn’t be a smart idea for him to appear on her doorstep unannounced.

  He knew where he was going to go next, the basketball court to wait for Karla just as they had planned the day before. He would wait for her at the basketball court and figure things out from there.

  Chapter 7–Meet Me at the Basketball Court

  Karla only could think about Max all night long. Months ago, she had thought she had a crush on Gerry. But that feeling seemed to fade overnight when she had learned what had happened during that party she had attended, even though she couldn’t remember a thing about that night. All she knew was what the doctor had told her, and bits and pieces she had heard said at school. Surprisingly she wasn’t the laughing stock, but they did look at her and whisper to each other. For the most part, everyone at school left her alone.

  Except for that Maggie – What was up with that girl anyway? She had to have some sort of physiological problem. Every time she saw Karla in the hallways at school she would blurt out, “Slut,” and storm off.

  She was so glad that Gerry had not been able to appear in school after that night. That was one of her biggest fears – of coming face to face with him. There was no telling what he would say to her – whether it would be mean or otherwise.

  But Maggie had made sure that Karla knew she gave her full blame for Gerry’s arrest, even though Karla did not actually make Gerry take his first drink that night, and she never did go through with the charges of date rape for that night. There wasn’t enough evidence against Gerry to prosecute him. They put him behind bars anyway because of the involuntary manslaughter which was a result from his accident with the tractor trailer truck.

  Since then, Karla lived with constantly second guessing herself, did she lead Gerry on and make him do those things to her as Maggie claimed she did or was she truly the victim that Carol said she was?

  The whole ordeal happened back during her first week after moving here from Medham. It seemed like it all had happened so fast. One minute she was happily living in Medham, New Hampshire where she had grown up all her life, only to find that she was suddenly moving away from her grade school friends.

  She had complained to her mom and dad about the move, almost relentlessly. Karla had whined about the whole ordeal and had even made her dad mad at her. It took a lot to tick him off.

  But they had moved none the less.

  Her mom didn’t even give her a chance to unpack her things before expecting her to attend her new school. Karla had started that very next day.

  That was when she had met Carol, and so far she had more of a relationship with that girl than anyone else in the school, even if Carol seemed to bring trouble with her.

  On Karla’s first day at Brantwood High, she had been amazed by how popular Carol seemed to be. But for some reason after the party incident many of her so called friends seemed to be avoiding her. Why this was, Karla had no idea. All she knew was that Carol and Heath seemed like they were no longer together and the girls on the Volleyball team did not keep company with Carol anymore.

  Was she even still on the team, Karla had to wonder?

  Karla wished she could talk to her mother about the party incident, but that would never happen. Her mother immediately would go off on a tirade of saying how her daughter never listened to a word she said. If only she had listened to her that night, then none of this would have ever happened. Then Karla would fight back about being forced to move and make new friends.

  Sarah a
nd Jody had not been by to see her either. Both of her friends claimed to be too busy working, saving up for cars and college.

  A couple of times Karla did corner her dad before he would run off to work or where ever he would sneak off to. But he seemed to keep their conversation short and curt. The moment she would bring up the party incident he would look at his watch, claim that he was now running late, and hurry out the door without another word.

  Max couldn’t have moved to her neighborhood at a better time.

  She had met him on her way to school. In fact, he had stopped her along the way to find out how to get there. From that day on they would walk home from school together. A couple of times they met up in front of her house a half an hour earlier than they needed to leave for school just to chat, laugh and tell jokes to each other.

  He made her forget all about Gerry. And now that he said that he loved her, she was pretty sure he did say that to her over her cellphone last night, she knew things would be different.

  Max was a decent guy, she was sure about that. He was tall and slim with hazel eyes. His attire was that of someone with an expensive taste, he wore nothing but name brands, even though he wore his pants baggy and slouchy showing off his boxers. That was the style of the time. Some people, especially the teachers, just couldn’t understand that. She also loved his baseball hat that he wore backwards. It made him look shoddy, and made her giggle thinking about it.

  Last night when she had returned home she was happy and glad to see that her mom was already in bed. The pot had helped keep the tension headache away. That was a godsend for her. It wasn’t like her to smoke that stuff, but maybe it was not a terrible thing after all. It did make her feel better.

  She was quickly tiring of an ongoing headache that always plagued her whenever she thought she was going to have to face her mother’s wrath.

  Her dad never did question her about what had happened that day with the police and her mother. He had left things unsaid as usual.