Chapter 11

New Start

We drove to the State line and the weight on my shoulders felt as if it disappeared. The kids laughed and joked and would take pictures like we were tourists at almost every stop. Matt was a thin tall kid that was like having a court jester at all times with you. He had a weird fear of bridges, and corn fields {because of children of the corn} bats, spiders, bugs in general, and a few random other things. He was also completely unaware of how many bridges we had to cross and how many mountain ranges we went over. It was an interesting trip to say the least.
When we finally pulled into the driveway of the house they were both in a much lighter mood.The house was a 3 story old Victorian house that was purple with deep green trim. It could have resembled the Addams family house if it was painted any darker. It used to be a brothel house back in the late 1800’s that I could easily picture horse drawn carriages pulling up outside and eventually the early motorized cars. There was a huge backyard with a small creek running through with a river to the back end of the property and the side of the property buds up to a smaller hotel with a bar.  We gawked at the huge expanse of a house. Once we got to the door and went inside it was a beautiful sight of wood floors and large rooms with extremely high ceilings. The front room to the left was primarily empty with only a piano and a clay sculpture of dolphins that was left by the previous tenant. The front room then opened up into a huge bar area towards the back of the house with a large oak bar carved into the wall. We ventured to the right side of the house into an abandoned paint and framing shop. There was still  some furniture in the front room area and a ton of framing supplies towards the back. Further into the back of the house was what looked like a kitchen. At one point, someone decided to carpet and make the shelving into a library with a desk and a computer there in the middle of it all.
The very back end of the house was my Aunt Kathy’s barber shop. In the barber shop there were tons of windows and a small little station for just her. Kathy was a small plump woman with white hair and classic irish features. Mary Kathrine Gallagher was her full name but we all just called her Kathy, she definitely was an energy to behold on her good days.
On her good days she was so amazingly nice, you felt like you would get a sweet tooth. On her fiery days you felt like you needed a crucifix to ward her off. She was the epitome of the Gallagher women of family tales. Fire and Ice or in my mind seriously venomous docile snakes.
She was expecting us and led us to the apartment on the 3rd floor to settle in. Kathy had the 2nd floor apartment next to the one bedroom efficiencies and had already made it her pink country den. You could feel the amazing history in that house just permeating the air.
The apartment on the 3rd floor was a 2 bedroom that seemed to have been redone sometime in the 70’s with its linoleum countertops and floors. But we were happy to settle in. After we unloaded everything from the car we decided to go to the store for food and to stock the fridge. We had to drive 20 minutes to another town to go to the store. The town the house was in wasn’t even really a town, it was a township. The house only had a gas station, a bar, a post office, a dinner and 3 other houses around it. The towns nearby had more substance but were still a blip on a map. It spoke volumes when I was just about to check out when a woman approached and questioned if I was The new girl that just moved into the old brothel, from Florida. The kids and I shared a look.  She went on talking like I had answered her saying that she had known about me and the town was waiting for my arrival, so it had to be me. This was going to be interesting already and I knew we were going to have to tread lightly here.
The first night I dreamt of Sara. She was dressed in the late 1800’s brothel ladies dresses. She had a feather in her hair and she was in the front room. The room was packed with card tables and men sipping cognac, smoking cigars and playing cards while women dripped off their arms. There was a piano player entertaining while they all looked as if it was another busy Saturday night at the brothel. Sara was laughing away and looked right at me and told me how much she loved this place. I awoke still smelling the liquor and cigars while hearing faint laugher and glasses clinking in the background.
I would take that dream a million times over than the nightmares from Florida that were at every turn.
The first few days I toured the house and explored the basement and grounds. Claire and Matt relaxed and we got to learn of our surroundings.  The first time we ventured to the back of the yard and found the creek was when I learned of the corn field that backed up to the other side of the creek . Matt went running so fast that Claire and I almost wet ourselves from laughing so hard. I spent my days trying to find a good job. After a short hunt I found that the best jobs were going to be inclined to open if I had a bartending license.  I found a school close by that wasn’t expensive and enrolled immediately.  The school was only a week long and it was a crash course. I started the next week and by the end of that week I had my license. 
During my time at school the kids tried to keep themselves busy and helped Kathy around the house. At the end of my schooling I was given a website to check on any new job openings, so I went straight to the computer on my first official day. I was downstairs on the computer when I heard a Horror movie scream echo down from the third floor followed by someone tromping down the stairs. I thought it was Claire and was about to get up when she popped her head into the library from the framing shop and looked at me in surprise. We both were now worried it was Kathy so we immediately ran to the stairs. There running down the stairs was Matt waving his arms in a panic. We asked if Kathy was ok and he screeched like a young schoolgirl that there was a bat in our living room. Claire and I got excited and ran up the stairs to see. We burst into the living room, only to be met with disappointment. There was no sign of a bat. Matt insisted that there was one, just minutes before and that it must have escaped. Claire and I didn’t believe him. We thought for sure he was making it all up since he already showed no love for the corn field and spooky decor of the house as a whole.
It was only a few days before I got my first job bartending at an event and it paid well so it was perfect even if I wasn’t going to work much since being in this small of a town you really didn’t need much to survive. I had bought all of us a bunch of food with my money and treated us to a nice home cooked dinner that was gourmet compared to anything else we would’ve  found anywhere close. We had just sat down at the table and started to dig in when the bat made his appearance.
It came out of a small hole in my ceiling tiles and started to circle the room that was the kitchen and living/dining room. Once It was seen Matt’s silverware went flying into the air as he screeched and dove under the table. Claire and I Froze for a split second and then started laughing so hard  that we couldn’t breathe. Matt yelled at us as we laughed across the table to each other joking about trying to catch the bat. Matt was mortified and we were laughing so hard we were crying. We were just about to get up when Matt crawled his way to the front door and unlocked the door and swung it open to run out. As he went out the door, so did the bat following right behind him into the hallway. That prompted a whole new round of laughter between Claire and I. We finally peeled ourselves out of the chairs and off the table to go investigate. Matt had run all the way down to the first floor and right out the front door and our friendly Bat was nowhere to be found.
After that Claire and I had to constantly let him know the coast was clear when going into the apartment.
I had landed a job at a local Steakhouse not far up the road that was hidden away on the Amityville lake. It was a martini bar mainly and they needed someone asap. I started immediately and absolutely enjoyed it.  I was working all the time and after work I would come back to the house to find the kids relaxing and usually having fun.  It was after 2 months of us being there that the kids told me that they wanted to go back to Florida. I knew they were having issues finding  work and that Matt was not built for the middle of the woods. Claire had decided she wanted to go back to be with her mom since her younger sister and brother were having issues since we had left. I hated to see them go but I knew I needed this more than she did. I took them to the airport and waved goodbye for now.
Once the kids were gone it was just me up in the apartment and I was working a ton.. I had met a young girl at the local gas station one night  on a quick run for a few things and she had seemed nice. Everyone else in town liked to talk so I avoided them. Even with Kathy it was a balancing act on who I would encounter. Some days she was drunk, other days she would hide away in her apartment. I longed for anyone to really spend time with . A few nights later I met a tall and good looking guy at the gas station while getting a drink. He was 6’7” and totally cute. He had dark hair and brown eyes with a tall and thin build. He was riding a motorcycle and he piqued my interest so I sparked conversation. He asked me if I wanted to go for a ride and all I could think was this was too good to be true.  I hopped on the back of the bike and off we rode, into the mountains. It was a beautiful night  with a warm breeze. I loved sitting on the back of that bike, the wind blowing and he chatted with me about how he heard there was a new girl in town. I was beginning to like the whole picture of what could happen, now playing out in my head. He had made a huge loop up into the mountains and now we were on the way back to the gas station when I spotted a bar. I suggested we go in for a drink when he told me he wasn’t old enough. I thought he was probably just under 21, I could deal with that. I was only 22, so not a big deal. I decided to clarify his age and when he answered 17, I swear I felt like I was gonna fall off the bike. This was the catch.. of course the universe would screw with me. Here was this totally hot guy with a bike and he was Jailbait. That was when I suggested we go back to the gas station. The rest of the ride I was stuck in my head. All I could think about was him being jailbait. Once we arrived back at the gas station the young girl I had met was there and quickly approached us as I got off the bike. She started to yell at her brother telling him how their mom was worried and now she realized where he was. That’s when she saw me and changed her tone. “Oh, it’s you,” she said. “I told my family about you the other day. ” Her brother chimed in “Yeah I figured this was the girl you were talking about and so I offered to show her around.” Great. Just my luck. They introduced themselves and offered to introduce me to their mom since they lived right next to the gas station, literally. Oh what the hell, why not, I figured the only people that had been nice were these two so what could it hurt. Thomas was the brother and Angel was the sister. Angel was all of 13 and while they walked me to their house I got the whole rundown on the family. Mom was a busdriver, Jer their younger brother was 11 and then there was Mari the 8 year old. Mom and the new boyfriend were in Narcotics Anonymous and excited to meet me, Angel confessed.
Ann, their mom was super nice. She welcomed me into her home immediately and the other two kids warmed up instantly. We traded numbers and I left thinking it was nice to meet a whole family at least that I could connect with.
Over The next few weeks I became closer with the family. Angel’s mom Ann and I totally got along since we were both smart asses with blunt tendencies. She had confided how her oldest Thomas had told her he had a crush on me. I started to see that but told her there was no way since he was underage. She said that for me she wouldn’t have an issue and thought I would be good for him and give him a run for his money. We joked about him being jailbait often, but Thomas continued to make small hints to me as if to test the waters.
I had gotten in touch with Mark, my other “Dad” in Maryland and he asked me to come down and visit him when I could. So while the weather was good I decided to go visit before winter kicked in because I knew the town he was in would shut down mostly like the rest of the Northeast. I Planned a weekend and went to visit. During my trip I had met a guy Dwight at the local bar Mark was playing at and switched numbers so that we could talk, figuring he was only a few hours away , it might be a good occasional fling or at the very least a normal conversation from time to time.
When I returned back home Angel and the kids were more invested in hanging out at my house more since Ann’s boyfriend started to go off the deep end with relapsing and the kids didn’t want to be around him.  All of the sudden my house was now the local hang for them and all their  close friends. I didn’t mind. Honestly it was nice. I would take the kids to school or help get them ready if someone else was giving them a ride. Thomas was showing more and more hints of wanting to get involved but I knew better. I was talking to Dwight in my freetime when I wasn’t working and he even came up to visit me one weekend and we really enjoyed ourselves. It was about this time my piercing from Florida had started having issues with its healing and I started looking into any remedies.
The snow was just starting to come in when the steakhouse closed for the winter season. They were right up on the lake and during the winter I guess the terrain was too dangerous for anyone to work or eat there. So my job search started again. I landed a job at another Bar close to the ski lodge and was now in full seasonal bartender mode. The kids were all at my house even if I wasn’t. I had now also taken in a few other kids whose parents were MIA most of the time so my house was usually filled with at least 7-10 kids after school everyday. One of the locals even tried calling the local police on me. They claimed I was corrupting minors. When the police came to investigate they realized I was just a safe place for the local kids and pretty much left us alone unless they needed to get information on any of the local kids’ misactions like the local stolen dirt bikes from time to time. Otherwise they left us alone. The allegations still arose but I chalked it up to the basic gossip of one of the older women who just liked to stir the pot. After a while the police just ignored the calls.
As the weeks progressed Dwight and I talked more and more. He eventually came to visit and we became more serious. He was wanting more time together and we would plan trips every other weekend.
Thomas would get very possessive in my attention. Dwight could see it but knew where I stood in my decision. Thomas was cute even though he was young but I also knew he would’ve only been short lived. Since his family was my only friends, I really didn’t want to lose my only connections to normalcy here. I wasn’t looking for a short term, I wanted something more. Something that could eventually travel through life with.
Once Sara died,I really started to think about what I wanted in this world, and the reality was, I wanted all of it. I wanted to experience whatever I could and see as much as possible and to share it with someone who would want to do the same thing. So far Dwight was up to travel and have fun so he was my top choice.
I made it through most of that winter working and it was shortly after Valentine’s Day that my ear started to have more issues from my piercing.  During the holiday I went to a local doctor that gave me meds to fix it and they hadn’t done anything so now it was worse.  I decided to go to another doctor a town over and he instructed me to go to the ER. The piercing had been fighting the infection for quite some time and now it was swollen with puss despite my efforts to drain it. Once I got to the ER they inspected it and assessed that the infection was actually in the cartilage and it had deteriorated it internally. The hospital gave me impactions with medication after they had little impact of draining it as well. I was sent home with meds and a mandatory rest.
The meds laid me out. I was so loopy and out of it, that work was not an option. The kids were basically at my house full time . I had a week straight that I was to be down and so I spent that time now doing homework, watching movies and cooking with the kids. I had adopted a dog ,Kayla and she was now with me constantly throughout my down time. The kids would help to walk her and helped cook meals for me in between their school times. After the first week of being down I still wasn’t fully recovered and the bar didn’t want me chancing it at work yet so they gave me another week off. I took a few days to visit Mark and took Kayla with me. Mark and Kayla completely bonded. He had just lost his dog to old age and she clung to his side no matter what I bribed her with. That was all the cue that I needed to see that she was meant to be there with Mark. I was happy to see her connect with him and he was happy to have a new companion. I left her there when I returned to Pennsylvania knowing she had found her forever home.
After I returned home my job had moved on from the idea of me coming back.The season was going to slow down since it was springtime and they didn’t need as many on staff. This was when Dwight pitched the idea that I come move in with him, his brother and his mother. I knew he had moved back in after his ex and him had separated so I figured this would be more a temporary arrangement. I told the kids and they hated that I was moving but they liked that I would still keep in touch so that I could visit.
I packed up everything and Moved in with Dwight. His fraternal twin brother Dave was newly returned from the military and also living at home since his return. Both brothers were polar opposites in many ways. Dwight was more reserved, 6’1” with red hair, green eyes, freckles and a medium build. Dave was 6’2” with blonde hair, blue eyes, a little more built with a very outgoing personality. Their mom was an amazing sweet woman that loved her boys and couldn’t have been more proud of either of them. Their father had died years earlier so it was just her and her boys. I loved that they were so caring of their mother and her happiness. Dwight was working as a ditch digger during the day and he was going through a tattoo apprenticeship in the evenings. His brother Dave was a bartender at one of the local bars. 
I had missed my window of getting a bartending or server job for the summer since the window had opened almost a month before. Ocean City was only a 35 minute drive from the house so I hunted for a job down on the boardwalk.I figured anything was better than nothing and found a great little dead head shop that was hiring cashiers. They hired me on the spot. The store sold t-shirts, flip flops, necklaces, and anything you could imagine your local skater or surfer or stoner would like. It was a great shop on the boardwalk with a piercing booth In the back. The other girls that worked at the shop were all transient students as well coming from all over. I made friends with a girl named Diana who was a film student just looking to enjoy her summer.  She and I had the same love for scarcsium and would try to work most shifts together. The Piercing booth in the back was ran by a piercer named Diva from a local shop down the street so we would have to call them once we had a customer for them. Diva was this punk rock, tattooed mom that spoke very little but would hang out from time to time while waiting in between clients and occasionally bring her 6 yr old daughter to the shop. 

Working on the boardwalk  during the first week was a blast. I would take my lunch break to skate down to the local pizza place or grab a chicken philly, grab a lemonade and carmel corn or an ice cream. I didn’t have to take many breaks because we would stand at the front and smoke while waiting for customers to come in off the beach. Diva and I would talk while we waited and smoked cigarettes.  It was still not completely season so we had more time before summer officially hit. Diva noticed that I had some knowledge about piercings and jewelry  so she asked me to man the piercing booth sign ups until her other piercers arrived from out of state. In the meantime Diana and I hung out and worked together as much as possible and in my days off and time off I spent it with Dwight. Dwight and I mainly spent most of our time at home, mainly watching movies and drawing. He was in full swing of drawing as much as possible for the tattoo shop and I loved watching him create. I would sit On the couch and write or draw my doodles while he drew all night at his drafting table.  We didn’t need to do much and I looked at it as a perfect way to save for the summer.  

Diva and I would hang out and smoke so I could pick her brain from time to time about information on the Piercing industry. We were almost 3 weeks into working together when she noticed that everytime we would be talking people would completely bypass her and ask me their piercing questions.  I hadn’t realized it until she pointed it out and we both had a giggle at the experience. Diva looked the part, she was 5’6” with huge franken boots that were buckled all the way up to her knees and she wore plaid skirts with a wife beater tank top and suspenders. Her fire engine red hair that was in a short pixie cut screamed punk and she was covered in large tattoos. I on the other hand was the picture perfect blonde surfer girl with only the one larger arm tattoo that I got for Sara. I had plaid skirts but they were more for my nightwear for going to clubs. I kept a relaxed look during the day and didn’t see the point of dressing in my club wear at the beach. A few days later a person came to the booth and pointed at my now deformed ear and asked her to do that to them. That’s when I spilled my experience to them of how my ear became the marvel it was now. Once Diva learned of the story she made the decision that I was destined to be in the industry and planned out my training. She was waiting on the other 2 piercers to arrive in the next week for the summer and told me the minute they arrived I was going to shadow them and learn everything I could. Diana and I were both excited to see where this summer was going to go with all the new fiends we were making. 

It was a few days later when the guys strolled into the shop. Chris was from Pennsylvania and was every bit of punk rock meets redneck. Mike was more your medical geek meets artist hippie. I loved the eclectic personalities that I was being surrounded with. They each were an experience to be had in one on one conversations but putting them together was an instant show. I loved the raw energies of constant sarcasm, drinking, and chaos. 

Dwight was working more and more but we both agreed that we were secure enough in what this summer was turning into. We saw each other on our days off and when we went to bed. We would leave each other notes and call during our lunch breaks for more talk time and it was still a step up from my time living in Pennsylvania so we were content. Plus party of me always knew I was more his rebound girl since he was still getting over the ex.

Chris and Mike (the new piercers that arrived in town) took me under their wings. I was glued to them most of the day and once off work we would continue my education with their shenanigans. We would frequent the local bar and play pool while they told me their war stories in the industry. On occasion we would pierce one of the other workers on the boardwalk after hours and they would use it as a hands on experience for me to learn.  Diana and I definitely learned about the fun side of the industry and I was glad to share it with another female.  Diva basically bowed out of being at the booth more and manned the shop so I barely saw her much that summer except in an emergency. The guys and I all loved to skateboard and would basically get drunk after work while riding up and down the boardwalk. Many nights I would end up carrying one of them back to their place to crash for the night. Chris slept in his van and Mike was renting a small studio near by. It was never a dull moment. I would then drive back to the house just in time to snuggle up with Dwight and crash just to wake up and do it all over again.  On occasion I would Visit Mark and Kayla for dinner on my night off. Mark’s wife Trudy was usually going out with friends or already asleep and her 2 daughters usually were scarcely around since they were always doing sports and social things.

About mid summer I started seeing that Dwight never planned on leaving this town. We had a heart to heart and he told me he wanted to stay until his mother passed before traveling. I knew that was the straw that would break come the end of the summer so I started to look at the next town that was to be my exit. His brother Dave caught wind of the energy shift and started to make passes at me. Don’t get me wrong, If I had met Dave first we probably would have hooked up. But this was a brother feud that from what I had learned was a constant. Dwight would constantly feel insecure about his girlfriends because his brother would eventually end up bedding them. Dwight had told me this much one night in one of our confession sessions. Because of that fact alone, I would not let Dave’s advances go further. He would constantly try to “accidentally” walk in the room or bathroom after I showered, always trying to get a glimpse. By the end of July I was trying more and more to be gone at work or hang with Chris and Mike more just to really save myself from all the awkward conversations.  I was coming along with my apprenticeship and with the summer ending soon I knew that Dwight wouldn’t be the one to end things so I was going to need an exit plan. 

As luck would have it , I got hurt at the end of August. We had accidentally locked the keys to the piercing booth, inside the booth. I had volunteered to drop in from the ceiling and in doing so I broke the small bone on the very top of both of my feet. Only I didn’t know that they were broken. I had figured that I had strained the muscles and possibly tore them. For the last 3 weeks of the summer I was in constant pain. I put myself in air casts while working to give the feet support but it was still painful and by the end of the day I was always ready to collapse. I used that time to go to Marks more since Dwight and I were now in an awkward stalemate on spending time together. He was in full swing at the tattoo shop and I was genuinely happy for him when it came to that, but I knew we had no space left to get closer. Since I was trying to avoid Dave otherwise when I was at the house it was just easier for me to go to Marks. I had decided to pull the plug with Dwight on my last day in town before I left to go back to Florida. I had secured a job and a place to stay with only a 2 week transition time. Patti had offered for me to come and stay with her and Rob while I settled into finding a new place. 

When Chris and Mike were done for the summer, we had one last hoorah and exchanged numbers and addresses to keep in touch. Diana and I tried to do the same but she was heading to Germany for her next level in school and we both knew it was going to be harder to nail down each other. We took pictures and promised to keep the summer memories forever. Last I heard she was still doing amazing in Germany and kept on with her filming career. 

I went home to Dwights that night knowing this would be the last night. He was asleep when I got home. We cuddled and he was gone by morning. I took my shower and like clockwork Dave came into the room right as I returned from the shower, still freshly wet and wrapped in a towel. He saw the envelope with Dwight’s name on the bed and my bags packed and dove into full swing. He divulged that he wished we could’ve met first and that he knew that our relationship was coming to an end. He didn’t want to see me go but he wanted a chance to be with me before I left. I wouldn’t do that to Dwight, but I figured I’d give Dwight the satisfaction that he could know, no matter what, that he was the only one that had me. I’d give Dave the justice he deserved and make him envy his brother at least once. Dave begged me to sleep with him before I left. Instead I offered him a visual memory. He almost came out of his skin as I dropped my towel there in the middle of the room and told him to take in every drop and commit it to memory. He begged me to touch me. Access was denied. I stood there as he started to rubb himself asking if I would at least give him a hand job. Access was denied again.  I watched as Dave licked his lips in total as he wanted to be touching me and he whipped out his cock and started to rub it just feet away from me. I told him to drink it all in and even did a nice slow turn for him so that he could see every inch and know exactly what his brother had enjoyed. He was about to come and ripped his shirt off and that’s when I grabbed the towel and covered back up. “Times Up” I smiled as he flustered trying to cum and begged for me to give him more time. I shoved him out of the room with his dick still in hand and locked the door. 

In another world Dave would have been fun, but in this one, I was Dwight’s revenge.  I finished dressing, grabbed my bags and left the room. Dave caught me in the hallway and stood in my way. He had this look of pure lust on his face. He wanted to stop me and enjoy more. I had completely overpowered his seduction and he now looked at me like the challenge he wanted so badly to conquer. 

I smiled and told him that this was one girlfriend he wasn’t getting. He smiled in truce. Touche. He bowed his head and moved out of the way, offering up his body the next time I came into town.  I wonder sometimes how that conversation went with his brother, because let’s face it, I’m sure it ate him alive to know I got away.

I drove out of the driveway and went straight to the highway for my drive to Florida. It was a full day later when Dwight called my mother’s. He had read the dear john letter I had left that night when he came home to find me gone.  He had asked Dave if he knew anything. Dave had told him I was going to Florida and that was it. Dwight asked me if I had slept with Dave. I didn’t tell him about the viewing but I assured him I never broke that trust.  I did tell him that his brother had tried but that I wouldn’t do that to him knowing their past  competition. He begged me to return back. In the long end of the conversation I had to point out that I knew I was the rebound to his girlfriend prior, no matter his objections. I pointed out that as much as he was an amazing guy, no matter what it was doomed to fail because of my thirst for travel and his need to stay put. The only thing he would be missing was the warm body in the bed in the long run and I knew it wouldn’t take him long to fill that position. He was great but in the end we were on different roads.

We hung up the phone with the closure we both needed to say with our civility intact.

(He did find someone, and they eventually married, I hope they are doing well and I still wonder if Dave ever admitted to his actions.)