Chapter XVII – Our Thanksgiving Trip to Florida

Thanksgiving 2005 Eddie, the boys, and I drove to Florida to spend the holiday with Mom, Dad, and Anthony.  Anthony was so excited we were coming he called us every hour to see how close we were.  It was a very long trip from Virginia to Florida and I assure you we were as anxious to get there as he was for us to get there.

Just as we got off the interstate, in a town close to their house, I reached for the phone to call Anthony but before I could dial any numbers, the phone rang again.  I told him we’d just gotten off of the interstate and would be there soon.  Well, we got stuck in 5:00 traffic so it took us a lot longer than we anticipated. 

About thirty minutes later Anthony called us again wanting to know where we were.  I told him we’d gotten stuck in traffic but would be there soon.  He stayed on the phone with me telling me each turn we should make until we got there. When we drove up he ran to the car as I was getting out and gave me a great big teddy bear hug that only he could give (I miss those hugs).

Later that day Anthony took Kevin and Brett fishing on the peer behind their house.  Anthony told the boys repeatedly not to get their fishing line tangled in the tree because he didn’t want to have to get it out.  Anthony came in the house for a drink and when he went back outside one of the boys had gotten his line tangled in the tree but neither boy would admit to doing it. 

Anthony was furious but decided if he walked off and watched the boys the one that got the line tangled would try to get the line down.  Sure enough Kevin started trying to get the line down.  Anthony headed towards Kevin and Kevin took off running towards the house with Anthony chasing him.  I was standing in the back doorway watching this when Kevin ran past me, ran to the bathroom, and shut and locked the door.  Anthony was right behind him but took the front door in order to catch up with him faster. The next thing I knew, Anthony was pounding on the door to get Kevin to open it.  I can’t say I blame Kevin for locking the door because he knew what was coming.  Anthony busted the door down and by the time I got to the bathroom, Anthony had Kevin pinned up against the wall by his neck.  I was screaming at Anthony to let Kevin down and Anthony said, “As soon as he apologizes to me for lying to me.”  Kevin’s feet were off the floor and he was crying and Anthony wouldn’t let him go.  I was yelling at Anthony to let him go and he kept telling me, “Not until Kevin apologizes to me.” 

I walked over to Anthony and started hitting him and told him to let Kevin go.  He let Kevin go but he was furious with me for hitting him.  He stormed out of the house and started walking down the street.  I opened the door and yelled at him, “Get your ass back in this house and fix the bathroom door!!!!! 

He flipped me off and told me to go to hell and kept walking.  About that time, Mother fussed at me and told me to quit yelling out the door at him like a redneck because she didn’t want her neighbors hearing that.  Really, Anthony has Kevin pinned up against the wall and breaks her bathroom door and she says nothing to him but I yell out the door at him and I’m the one that gets in trouble.

Later that evening Anthony and I were speaking again and he took me around town to meet his friends.  We went from house to house and bar to bar trying to find his friends but the only people we could find were Elaine, and her parents Julie and Mark. These were the people that allowed Anthony to live with them when he had to find somewhere else to live.  The reason for that was because where my parents lived you had to be eighteen to live there and Anthony was only seventeen.  One of their neighbors found this out and reported my parents to the owners so my parents had to kick Anthony out of their house. 

When we walked in the house, Mark was in the floor asleep and Julie was watching T.V.  Anthony asked her where Elaine was and she told him in her bedroom.  We walked down the hall to Elaine’s room and when Anthony tried to open the door he couldn’t.  Her dresser was up against the door holding it shut so he put all his force against the door and pushed it open.  Once we got in her room we found Elaine and her boyfriend lying in bed smoking a joint and watching T.V.  I was very uncomfortable walking in on them this way but they didn’t seem to mind.  What floored me more than anything else was her parents were in the living room and they allowed this type of thing to go on under their roof.  What kind of parent does that?

The next day Mother, Eddie, Anthony, the boys and I went to Universal Studios and had the time of our lives.  As we were approaching the entrance gates Anthony was leading us, I was behind him, and the rest of the gang was behind me. As we were entering the gates this guy was coming out and he walked right up to Anthony, made a puppet with his hand, put it in Anthony’s face, and said, “Woof.” We all stopped dead in our tracks because we knew Anthony had a temper and we were afraid of what he was going to either say or do to this boy.  Oddly enough Anthony kept right on walking and never skipped a beat.  Once we all realized he wasn’t going to do anything to the boy I fell out laughing and then the others joined me including Anthony.

Eddie, Mother and I walked around all day while the boys rode rides and played games. They played this one game in a dark room where monsters would jump out at you and you had to shoot them. While you were playing the game, they took your picture. Anthony paid for the picture then gave it to his brothers to remember that day by. I thought that was very sweet of him and to this day I still have that picture. 

Not long after we got back to Virginia, Anthony called me and told me he was afraid for my parent’s life.  He told me he was hanging out with some bad people and he was afraid one day they would drive by the trailer and start shooting. Since Mimi and Charlie slept on that end of the trailer he was afraid for their lives. He also told me he kept a gun under his dresser and he wasn’t afraid to use it if he had to. Needless to say, this concerned me a lot but there wasn’t a lot I could do about it.  He was the one that was going to have to make the decision to stop seeing these “friends” of his and start making friends that didn’t live that type of life but he continued being “friends” with these same people so I spent a lot of my time fearing for my family’s lives.