Wife checked out (2)

[2ltl2lt]

Continuing:

When we got to LA we lived in a fleabag crack motel that was one block from the school we went to. Mind you, we were two kids of a Caucasian persuasion in the midst of a predominantly African American community. I was 8 and my brother was 7. This was also in the late 80's during the major gang wars and into the Rodney King riots. We were fish out of water, had never heard of a Crip or a Blood. Being that we were from The Queen City, we had Reds ballcaps and t-shirts well little did we know that the colors worn in the neighborhood had major significance. You see we were in Crip territory and we're regularly wearing the opposing gang colors. For several months the little brothers of the gang members would harass us and beat us up on our daily walk to school. We didn't understand why this was happening and got to where we figured out where when and how fast to run. Every night was constant gunfire and sirens.

Our "parents" were always gone until late and left us to take care of ourselves and clean the awful room we stayed in. I ended up being friends with a Vietnamese boy that had a stable family and I was regularly invited over for dinner. At the motel we were in we always saw prostitutes and drug dealers in the halls and always had the landlord asking me when my dad was going to pay up. It was about 6 months in that place before we were evicted and moved to an apartment in the desert that was near Edwards Airforce Base. This was a much nicer environment for us as the gangs hadn't made it out there yet. We actually got to see the Space shuttle land and the unveiling of the Stealth Bomber. There always SR-22 Blackbirds flying around and caused many sonic booms during the days. It was pretty cool while we were there. But we were only there for a few months and moved back to the same crappy sh!thole fleabag crack motel.

I was 10 years old and had enough. I couldn't take it anymore! Somehow I figured out how to make a long distance call from a pay phone and called the only number I had committed to memory, my grandma. I told her the situation and asked if there was anyway she could get me and my brother out of there. She said she would find a way to get the money and get us a plane ticket back to Cincinnati. Two weeks later we were on a plane. She basically saved our lives. We had no contact with ourmother the whole time we were with our dad which was over two years.

We moved in with gramma and grampa on a big soybean farm in the middle of Ohio. This was a huge change for us after spending the past three or four years fighting to survive. We went from inner city gang wars to Hootersville literally overnight. It took some time to adjust to the nice friendly people without worrying about them jumping you at recess.

Let me know if y'all want to hear the exciting next chapter.