Chapter Two--Chronicles of my Ghetto Street

I drifted for about a month and a half before knowing exactly what I needed to do. I knew that if I didn’t get out of Michigan, I was going to continue to be haunted by Trey. He was still coming around on a daily basis to get the pussy. He’d claim he was coming to check on the kids…but it was awfully odd that he always came through about an hour before the kids even got out of school.

It hit me one day that he wasn’t lacking in anything…nothing had changed for him. Life had just gotten easier. He still had his wife and his whore…both of us giving him the crucial whenever he wanted it. Things had actually gotten BETTER for him. He was living in her house…rent free. She wasn’t asking him to pay any of the bills. He had less responsibility…and he was spending time with the kids when it was convenient for him…not when he HAD to like when I had finals or had to get a paper done…or go to work.

I was washing dishes and he walked into the house. He came up behind me and put his arms around me like he REALLY belonged there. With my wet hands, dripping soap suds, I pushed his arms from around me and turned to face him. “Look Trey. It’s not happening anymore. I’m your WIFE…not your BITCH. You’re not gonna keep comin’ up in here layin’ down the dick like I’m your fuckin’
mistress and thinkin’ it’s all good.”

He had the nerve to look like I had crushed him. “Baby…look. I’m ready to come home. I don’t wanna be away anymore. You don’t know how it killed me to see you the way you were…how bad I hurt you. I never wanted to hurt you…let me come home baby…please?’ He leaned in to brush his lips on my neck. His arms were on either side of me, and rested on the counter. I ducked up under his left arm and walked around behind him.

“Stop it Trey. You lost your chance with me… the entity of a family… Mommy…Daddy…and babies… it no longer exists. You wanna know who you are to me now?”

He looked at me quizzically as I grabbed my cell phone off the sofa. “Call my phone from yours.”

“Why Ree?” He looked at me like I was crazy, one of his eyebrows cocked up.

“Just do it.” He dialed my number…I held my phone out to his face as my ringtone began to play… over and over… “It’s your baby’s daddy calling…It’s your baby’s daddy calling… It’s your
baby’s daddy calling”.

Trey’s jaw dropped. “Oh…ain’t this a BITCH? I been demoted to baby’s daddy status?”

“No baby…get it right…you got FIRED.” As Trey watched my every move, I went to the wall and took our framed marriage license down. I walked over to him, and held it out to him. I put my wedding ring on top of the glass, and held it out to him. “I won’t be needing these any longer.”

He turned and walked out the door…leaving the framed license and ring still in my hands. I sat down on the sofa and exhaled very deeply. There was a part of me that wanted so bad to let him
back in…but I knew I had to love myself and my kids enough to put a stop to the maddening mess he had made of our lives. I got myself together…and devised a plan.

I put three pieces of paper in a bowl. They read: 1)Illinois, 2)Indiana, and 3)Ohio. I picked Indiana. I then went to the library and got a map of Indiana. I closed my eyes, put my finger down, and it landed on a small town right outside of Indianapolis.

The next day I made the five hour trip and found out that the cost of living was very low in this little city. I found a little house for $245.00 per month, and 48 hours later my children and I were moving in. I guess the one part I had forgotten to check out was the job market. Now here I sit…an entire year later still unemployed.

My walk down memory lane took me to the day after we arrived in Muncie. It was a Wednesday. I went to take the kids up to the school to register them. The date was January 5th, 2005. The weather was a little gloomy…light rain and a smoky grey sky.

As we drove to the school the light rain turned slightly icy. When we arrived, we found the office employees of the school in a state of slight madness. They informed me that they were preparing to send all of the children home for the day in preparation for a major ice storm that was brewing.

The children and I looked at each other quizzically. Coming from Michigan, this weather didn’t seem like much to be getting so crazy about. We took the paperwork for their registration and
went back home. Approximately two hours later, our electricity went out. I looked outside and there was the thinnest line of ice on the electrical wires. I was amazed at how sensitive the lines were in this state.

I got things prepared for the possibility of having a night in the dark, but little did I know…it was going to be nine days in the dark.

When we woke up the next morning, the entire city looked like a natural disaster had hit. There was about 3 inches of ice lining the utility wires, trees, houses, and cars. Trees had snapped and come down all over the city. There were downed power wires every where you looked.

The city was declared a disaster. As I stood on my steps, I remember thinking how ironic it was that something so devastating could possibly look so beautiful.

Layers of crystal beauty lining every surface as far as the eye
could see…
So cold outside, but the beauty of it all warming the very core
of me…
Trees broken in pieces like the scene after a tornado…
but this was a far different natural disaster…I know.
Wires down everywhere I look…and to think…rain falling
from the sky and turning to ice is all it took.
The weight of such substantial beauty causing roofs to cave
in…
and cars driving down the street to spin.
Layers of crystal beauty lining every surface as far as the eye
could see…
taking in all of the damage yet its beauty still warms the very
core of me.

It took over a week before the entire town was back to normal. The kids got quite the extended vacation since they had been on Christmas break before we came from Michigan. By the time they opened the schools back up… man oh man was I ready for them to be out of the house for the day.

We had spent nine days playing charades and every other game imaginable by candlelight until it was time for bed in order to keep them entertained. Days were spent playing board games, coloring, writing, and reading…oh…and I can’t forget arguing, nit picking, and antagonizing. Whew!

When the town got back to normal we began to settle into our new little home. For once, it seemed as though we were HAPPY. I mean…truly happy. The kids were making friends quickly, and they
really seemed to be enjoying their school. Even though I really missed working, and our finances were so tight…I was enjoying simply enjoying my kids. They were my one and only responsibility…and somehow…I knew that was the way that God wanted it to be.

I knew that even though He was going to use me to minister to the unlovable and unwanted of our society one day… my primary ministry was right there in my home at that time.

Life in smalltown Indiana was a whole different culture to me compared to living in Detroit…but I was adjusting…if I could just get used to hearing people say “skreet” instead of STREET. The
people here talk slow, walk slow, drive slow, and they think slow.

I guess I just needed to slow down a little bit to see life for what it is…maybe that’s why God brought us to this little town…I needed to slow down to see what He really wanted me to be doing.