No tags.....except maybe Angel (because you like baking so much)
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Dad started dating FSM on a permanent basis. When my dad had his weekends with us, we would go through to Boksburg to visit at her house. FSM has three kids of her own; Oz, Porra and Fairy. We got to know them slowly and started getting along. (The innocence of children...*sigh*)
Oz is the eldest sister, and only a year older than me. FSM had a completely different set of rules and morals, and her kids could do pretty much what they wanted....hence why Oz hung out in the dodgiest of clubs at age 17. A month or two after Dad and FSM started dating, I was virtually commanded to go out with Oz, to bond and all.
Now my brothers and I were raised with a fairly conservative set of morals. We weren't to sleep around, take drugs, drink alcohol without the consent and supervision of our parents, etc. The usual stuff that old school Afrikaans parents teach their kids. Oz's world shocked me out of that naïve nutshell. My dad, blinded by lust, agreed that I could have the same curfew as Oz, and because her mom was okay with her staying out until 5am, so was he.
That evening I went with Oz to her best friend's house. He (E) lived just down the road from FSM, and was like a big brother to FSM's kids. He was also a drug addict, which FSM was obviously not aware of. We waited at E's house for another friend of theirs (L) to arrive. L was their good friend and dealer, and he was picking all of us up to go to Flyhouse in Boksburg.
He finally arrived at around 10pm, which I later heard was the time that most clubs really started pumping. There were 5 of us in total - myself, Oz, E, L and another friend of Oz's, A. We gathered into L's beat up VW Beetle, and set off for a night of fun, dancing and underage drinking. This was however, not how the evening turned out.
When we got to Flyhouse, the guys went in ahead of us, and myself, Oz and A had to lie our way in. Sadly (or luckily, in hindsight), A couldn't lie to save her life, and we weren't allowed inside. This was not a time where every kid had a cellphone yet, so we had to sit and wait for one of the guys to come outside and look for us. The first one to come outside, did so in a very unexpected fashion.
L had been caught dealing Ecstasy and Mandrax in the club by the resident dealers, and they were not happy about it. We sat in the shadows underneath a tree, and watched how they dragged him to a secluded spot. They shifted between searching and beating him, to find out where he was hiding the rest of his stash. After what seemed like an age, they moved to his car and searched every inch of it, taking the spoils for themselves. All the while, we hung back in the shadows, for fear that they might come after us as well. E joined us as we waited for the thugs to finish with L, and he had brought another friend (B) with him.
Eventually, the resident dealers finished with L's car.....and suddenly everything was happening very fast. L came running towards us shouting that we had to start running. As he turned towards his car, he continued that he would pick us up on the way, but if we didn't run now, the dealers would shoot us.
The 5 of us bolted across the parking lot and into the street. L came up behind us, and one for one we jumped through the window of his moving car to try and get away. I don't remember if we tried going to another club from there, but I do remember ending up at L's house....if you could call a single garage with a wooden side door in someone's yard a house.
L, E, A, B, Oz and myself bundled up into the tiny area that was not covered by the bed and the cupboard. I was the only one not tripping on something. (Ecstasy being the drug of choice among my compatriots) Somewhere along the way, B had taken a liking to me, and was sitting with his arms wrapped around me. I submitted, because I had no clue what would happen if I refused him.
Seeing as I was the only sober person among a bunch of charged-up junkies, I started getting pretty tired by 2am. I ended up falling asleep next to a sweaty B, who was doing everything in his power not to bite through his own tongue. No-one else slept.
At around 4:15, E and Oz had a moment of clarity, and remembered that we had a curfew. L, every the gentleman, dropped us off at FSM's house, moments before 5am. E and Oz where still tripping quite badly, and I ended up carrying milk and orange juice from the kitchen to help them get off their high quicker.
I vowed never to use drugs.
Mom moved out again. This time it was for good. She went to stay in Pretoria, close to the man who was the cause of the huge fight that we had the misfortune of witnessing. We'd known that my parents were getting divorced because my mom had fallen in love with another man. They told us that in the beginning. My late night talks with Dad revealed the sordid details....he had caught them together, quite by chance, in a garage parking lot. Hence his hissy fit.
Things went downhill between my mom and I at that point. My dad was quite happy to share every graphic detail of their fifteen year marriage, which I was surprised had lasted that long. Dad had somehow redeemed himself as my hero, and I wanted as little as legally possible to do with my mom.
I recall my father making us a promise. He promised that he wouldn't date until the divorce was final. He also promised that he would never get drunk in front of us again...I don't remember exactly when it happened, but the why of his second promised was (and still is) deeply etched into my memory.
Dad rarely stayed out late. He worked fairly close to our house, and we were always together for supper. This night he didn't come home. Eventually my brothers and I went to bed. It was getting late, and it was a school night. I was a light sleeper, and my bedroom door was directly across from the guest toilet on the kids' end of the house.
I remember waking up to the most disgusting noise. By that time of my life I had taken to closing my bedroom door at night, a fact that saved me from a much harsher experience. Dad was drunk, and was spilling his guts into the guest toilet. A close family friend was with him. Cleaning up the mess. The image of my father's feet and his vomit, as seen from underneath my door, is one that I will never completely be able to erase from my mind. He knew we'd heard him. He promised never to get that drunk again.
The divorce finally went through when I was 16 and a few months. It was as if Dad's closest friend (Uncle Mechanic - UM*) couldn't wait to set him up with a new lady. Enter Parrot, a sweet, yet naive woman, who seemed to be just what my dad needed. She was a divorcee as well, with one daughter whom she was raising on her own. She seemed to fit right in with the family, and pretty soon her belongings started travelling to our house. Dad was smiling again, and he kept his promises. Everyone was happy....but it was not to last.
Parrot couldn't match my father intellectually. It's not something that I hold against him or her. Things just weren't meant to be. They had one quick fight, and we never saw her again. Within months UM and his wife had Dad on a date with someone else. I knew things would never be the same when Dad told me about their first date.
Future Step-Mom (FSM) worked at a company close to Dad's office, and everyone from UM's company knew her as the blonde from the parts shop. She was going through a divorce of her own, and was dating again. UM talked her into going on a blind date with Dad. They met at a bar of her choosing, and ended up getting pretty pickled. She lived in Boksburg and didn't want to drive home in her state, so Dad, ever the gentleman, invited her to our house. We were at my mom's at the time and Dad had the whole place to himself.
They eventually got home, upon which FSM promptly made it known that she slept in the nude. You can imagine what happened then.....and FSM became a permanent fixture in our lives.
