Chapter VI – How I Met Anthony’s Step-Father, Timmy

The summer I turned sixteen years old my father opened a video arcade in Wynne, talk about a kid’s dream come true.  Video arcades were just beginning to become popular so my father owning one was just way to cool.  Even though the arcade was in Wynne, we still lived in Newport which was an hour drive away. My father would make that drive every day but it was too far for me to drive alone at the age of sixteen, so I spent the summer staying with relatives in Wynne. That was the best summer of my life. I had very little supervision, could drive a car, my father owned a video arcade, and I was the new kid on the block. What more could a sixteen year old girl ask for?

There were many days when Uncle Don (daddy’s baby brother who lived with Granny) would bring several of his friends to the arcade to play pool and one of those friends was Timmy.  Not only would I see Timmy at the arcade but since he was one of Uncle Don’s friends, I’d also see him on Saturday mornings when he’d come to Granny’s house to watch wrestling.

For some reason or another, that summer Uncle Don got it in his head Timmy and I would make a good couple. He tried repeatedly to get the two of us to go on a date but things just never seemed to work out. I was either not interested in Timmy, had a boyfriend, or lived to far away (Jackson, MS).

Daddy closed the arcade the end of that summer and it was several years later before I saw Timmy again.  As a matter of fact the next time I saw Timmy I was twenty-three years old and had a part-time job in Jackson, MS working as a Phlebotomist for United Blood Services.

One day after work I was walking to my car and when I got to my car this guy in the car beside me said, “Lori”. I looked over to see who it was and sitting in the car next to mine was Timmy, talk about a surprise. He explained to me he was working in Durant, MS (about an hour from Jackson) on a construction site and Uncle Don had told him he should come visit me so he did.

I got in Timmy’s car and we sat in the parking lot for about an hour visiting. While we were sitting there, a couple of my co-workers came outside to get in their cars and saw me with Timmy so I introduced him to them. The next day one of my co-workers, named Barbara, told me Timmy was a nice guy and I should marry him.  I just blew her off but little did I know a couple of years later we’d end up getting married.

We had a very good visit and guess what?  Uncle Don finally got his wish, Timmy asked me out on a date, we decided on dinner and a movie.  Since neither of us was dressed for the occasion, we both had to go home to get ready.  My drive was very short because it was to Mom & Dad’s house which was just up the street. Timmy however had to drive all the way to Durant, back to my house, and back to Durant again. This was a total of three hours of driving plus he had to get up at 5:00 a.m. the next morning. He definitely made a good impression on me.

Around 7:00 p.m. Timmy arrived at my parent’s house to pick me up. I was very nervous about him coming to the house because this was the first time he’d actually meet my parents.  My parents knew him from Granny’s house and at the arcade with Uncle Don but they never really had a reason to get to know each other until now. Timmy had seen Anthony at Granny’s house several times and they got along very well so I wasn’t worried about them, just my parents. Thank goodness everyone got along okay.

Not long after Timmy got to our house he got a phone call from his family, telling him his father had passed away. Needless to say our date was cancelled and he went back to Wynne to be with his family I didn’t see Timmy again for three years. 

The next time I saw Timmy, I had driven from Jackson to Wynne to spend the weekend and I decided to stop by Granny’s to visit for a little while.  Uncle Don had just gotten back from Timmy’s house and kept insisting I go out with Timmy while I was there.  He kept telling me how upset Timmy was he had to cancel our date when he came to Jackson and I should really give him a second chance. He finally talked me into agreeing to go on a date with Timmy that night and then he had to call Timmy to clear it with him, go figure. 

Because it was such short notice, Timmy already had plans to hang out with a couple of friends we grew up with, Curtis and Jimmy, so he invited me to join them. I thought it was rather strange he invited me to hang out with them. Curtis and I had liked each other ever since we were thirteen and Jimmy was going to ask me to his Senior Prom but was afraid I would tell him no so he decided not to. I didn’t understand why a guy that was taking me on a date would ask me to hang out with a couple of guys I had a past history with but okay.

It was a rather boring night for me because most of the night Timmy, Jimmy and his date, and Curtis were getting high and drunk.  Because we grew up together Timmy, Jimmy and Curtis knew I didn’t smoke pot or drink, so why was I there?

There were two beds in the room and because I didn’t party like the others, I chose to sit alone on the empty bed and watch T.V. Curtis noticed I was sitting alone so he came over and started talking to me, well that got Timmy’s attention (Curtis and I had this chemistry between us that everyone could see and every guy I dated would get very jealous of the two of us). It wasn’t two minutes after Curtis sat down that Timmy told me we needed to go, you think. He should’ve thought about that before he took me to a hotel room with two guys I had a past history with, especially if one of them was Curtis.

After leaving the hotel, Timmy and I drove around for about an hour then we went to Uncle Don’s house but we didn’t go inside, instead we sat in the car talking.  We had a very nice conversation in which he apologized for taking me to the hotel room then ignoring me while he got high and drunk with the others.  As our conversation continued, we got to know each other a little better and before we knew it the sun was rising and he had to go home.  

Later that day Anthony and I went to visit Nannaw for a little while but when we got ready to leave I noticed I had locked my keys in the car. I racked my brain about who I knew that could help me get my keys out of the car. Then I realized this would be a good excuse to see Timmy again so I walked to his house to see if he could help me.

As I approached Timmy’s house I noticed this young boy on the porch working on a bicycle. I asked the boy if Timmy was there, he told me he was, and then he led me around back where Timmy was building a bookcase for a friend of his named Judy.

Judy was a friend of Uncle Don, Curtis, and Timmy, I’d heard her name for many years but I’d never met her.  All I knew was she had Polio when she was in her teens and had been in a wheelchair ever since.  

I was very impressed with the work Timmy had done so far on the bookcase and jokingly told him one day he’d have to build something for me. Not long after that, he built me a bookcase that looked just like Judy’s and to this day I still have it.

Timmy told me seeing me there was a nice surprise and asked me what was going on. I explained to him I had locked my keys in my car and asked him if he’d mind walking back to Nannaw’s house with me to help me get them out.  He didn’t mind at all so the two of us took off walking. 

Along the way we started talking about the night before and all the things that happened. He apologized again for not spending time with me while we were in the hotel room. He also told me he enjoyed sitting with me in the car and watching the sun rise. I asked him who the boy was on the porch and he told me that was his eight year old son, Tyler. I was shocked to learn Timmy had a son because no one had ever told me that before.  I also thought it was neat because Tyler and Anthony were close in age and if Timmy and I ever got serious about one another, Anthony would have someone to play with.

It seemed like only minutes later we were at Nannaw’s house, however, on the way to Timmy’s house it seemed like I walked forever. Within a few minutes after arriving at Nannaw’s house, Timmy popped the lock and handed me my keys, I was so grateful, he was my knight in shining armor.

Soon after that, Timmy, Anthony and I got in the car and drove to Timmy’s house.  Anthony and Tyler spent the afternoon working on Tyler’s bike and playing together, they hit it off very well. I spent the afternoon in the house with Timmy and his mother who was a very nice lady that liked to talk a lot. What seemed like only a few minutes at Timmy’s house was actually several hours. Our weekend had come to an end and it was time for Anthony and me to go back to Jackson.

A couple of days after we got back to Jackson, Timmy called me to tell me he and Tyler were going to come to Jackson to spend the weekend with us, Anthony and I were so excited. Anthony would have a friend to play with and I’d have some adult company for a change, male company at that.

The day Timmy and Tyler were to arrive in Jackson, Anthony and I were in the car driving down the interstate when all of a sudden I heard a window in the back of the car shatter. I turned around to see what had happened. Anthony was sitting in the seat next to the window that shattered and there was a rock sitting in the seat beside him.  His little eyes were just as wide open as they could be and I asked him if he was okay, he nodded his head. Luckily he didn’t get cut by the glass or hurt by the rock. 

I realized the dump truck in front of me had thrown a rock while driving down the road so I sped up to catch up with him only to find out he had a sign on his truck saying he wasn’t responsible for damage being done to your vehicle from rocks being thrown.  I was very upset to say the least.

While we were waiting on Timmy and Tyler to get to Jackson, Anthony and I sat at a car shop waiting on them to replace my back passenger window, what fun. Believe it or not, they finished replacing my window at the same time Timmy and Tyler arrived, perfect timing.

Timmy and Tyler spent the weekend at our house and everyone got along just great, it was like playing house, Anthony had an older brother and I had a husband. I was not much into cooking so Timmy cooked our meals, another reason to have them around permanently.  The weekend ended much too soon and not long afterwards Timmy and Tyler decided to move in with Anthony and me.