Sunday, April 08, 2007

A Liar & a Thief

I am such a liar...and a thief. Actually, I am a very honest person...often times, to the point of being considered 'abrupt,' 'blunt,' 'aloof,' and/or 'callous.'

But have I ever lied? Stolen? Oh yeah! I have and then stood valiantly behind my lies, even when I knew that I was wrong...

Suzanne lived with her professional mother & alcoholic father in a traditional ranch-style home and had a swimming pool out back. The summer between 9th & 10th grade often found Suzanne & I lounging in her swimming pool. Frequently other friends, both guys & gals, would join us. Her father didn't work, as alcoholism had killed all of his short-lived careers. He would 'watch' us for Suzanne's mother. Sometimes his 'watching' danced on the lines of perversion, which embarrassed & angered Suzanne & stunned the rest of us.

Her mother seemed to live her life flitting between denial & determination. If Suzanne ever confronted her mother on some of her father's unwelcomed comments and implications, she often fanned her away... teen-agers are so melo-dramatic. When Suzanne bold-faced told her that he was drunk, she agreed. She told us he was 'sick.' She told us not to pay any attention to him & should he pester us that we should tell him to leave us alone...that he meant no harm.

At one of Suzanne's slumber parties, he tried to join in on the fun out by the pool. He did something inappropriate. We all pulled out of the water & cooped ourselves up in Suzannes' room. When a pillow fight ensued, he came barging in... not to tell us to be quiet, but to join us. We literally had to push this drunk, hicupping, giggling, stinky old man out of the room.

So there's my backdrop & my validation to the LIE that eventually flew out of my mouth so quick that it just had to be true.

Suzanne & I had been hanging out around her pool one summer day. Her mother was at work & her father was out & about.

We were talking about the area she lived in. Rumor had it that the little dirt road up the street led to an old distillery for white-lightening. Supposedly, it was up and working. Generations after prohibition had ended, some of the best moon-shine in those parts were right down that single lane dirt road tucked in between the trees.

We wondered if her father went there for his fixes. Maybe he was there now. We wished he'd come home. Suzanne & I were bored & fidgety with the long, summer days. We wanted to walk to a friends, but knew if her Mother came home & we weren't there, Suzanne would be in trouble.

He came home, her father ...nearly crashing through the garage door. He staggered in and became one with the sofa. Within 2-3 minutes of his arrival home, he was out. Suzanne tried to awaken him to ask him if we could walk down to some friends house. No cigar! This man was out.

She begged him to wake up, to give us his approval to walk down the road to our friends, to just wake up! There was not enough time left in the day to walk all the way over to our friends & back before her mother returned...we needed him to wake up & say ok!

She plucked the keys out of his pocket & yelled at him...'Dad, if you don't wake up & let us go down the street...we're gonna take your truck!'

I laughed...'WTF Suzanne? We can't take his truck to Mark's! Mark's mom will tell on us!'
I think Suzanne was seeing sideways when she cocked her head up at me from her crouched down position beside the couch that had absorbed her father.

She didn't say another word, but stormed out the side door. I quickly followed. 'Suzanne! Marks mom is home...she will tell!'

"Get In! We are not going to Marks'!'

Her Dad had an old pick-up truck. Other than having the ashtray polluted with cigarette butts, the truck was immaculate... not what I was expecting. We jumped in...Suzanne in the drivers position & me, by her side.

The gear shifter was on the steering column. We chugged & lurched two or three times in reverse before we made it safely out of the drive way. And we headed in the direction of Marks.

Eeeeeeeuuuuuurrrrtttt!!!!

Suddenly we're bouncing down a narrow path in the woods with two deep ravines for our tires. Aha! We're on our way to the mysterious rumored distillery. We bounce along & before you know it her anger and my shock turned into the giddy laughter of two 14 year old girls.

It was so wooded and the trail narrowed in around us. Tree limbs were scraping the sides & the top of the truck. We slowed down. Eventually I could see something like a light at the end of the tunnel.

The woods opened up ahead of us, apparently only on the right side. I said 'Oh Gawd Suzanne...watch it turn out to be a damn pot field.' If only we were that lucky...Suzanne laughed & sped up, heading towards the light.

The feild was indeed to our right and so was an old slightly delapitated house with a rusty tin roof and a broad front porch. KA-BOOM! So loud ... it rattled me.
'Suzanne! There's an old lady on that porch!'
KA-BOOM!

Suzanne spun the truck in a one-eighty, dried grass from the summers heat threw dust into the air, disorienting our vision momentarily. Suzanne's face was like that of a ghost as she screamed 'ShotGuuuuunnnn!'

We flew back down that dirt-road, bouncing further up into the tree limbs & surely skipping some of the dips in the road completely. We couldn't get to end of that dirt road quick enough and when we did, ... it was suddenly too quick.

We narrowly missed hitting a passing mail truck, jumped the curb & careened into the yard across the roadway from the entrance to the dirt road. There, we took out several shrubs and a small tree & then Suzanne regained control of the truck.

With a deep sigh, we went back to Suzanne's house & jumped out. We walked around the truck to inspect damage done. Yep. Damage done.

Paint with long lines of to-be rust carved into it. Front bumper wretched downwards. Various pieces of vegetation wrapped up in the wheel wells and one huge (as big as me) piece of vegetation weaved into the front passengers side, somewhere between the crumpled bumper and the crammed wheel well.

Suzanne started pulling at the greenery & I quickly joined her. With one leg propped up on the slanted bumper for leverage, I began tugging and pulling on that huge branch & left Suzanne to dig remnants out of the wheel wells. We worked quickly & silently.

'What the hell are you doing?'
Our silence was broken.
We were so wrapped up in what we were doing that we never heard Suzanne's mother pull up. We never even heard her walk up.
Suzanne met her question with silence.
I looked at Suzanne. She was almost as white as she had been when she had yelled 'ShotGun!'
Her Mom turned her head to me...

'Pulling branches out of the truck.' I said, stating the obvious

'What happened?!'

'We don't know.'
We don't know?
We don't know. It flew out of my lips quicker than a child could spit liver.

Turning towards Suzanne, her Mothers incredulated expression had conviction like I had never seen in the woman before. She said

"Suzanne, where's your father?"

Suzanne wimpered until she was interupted ...'Inside Mom, he's passed out. We couldn't wake him up. I tried to wake him up. I tried real hard. He...'

'Suzanne! Paige! Leave
that truck alone & stay right here until I say it's OK!'

OK. We stayed right there.

Eventually, she came back out. 'Paige, can Suzanne spend the night with you tonight?'
'Yes Ma'am'

Suzanne & I, still in our swimsuits and Sunbritches got into her car.
She spent two nights with me.
Her Dad spent the next month and a half in a full time detox facility.

Unless my co-hort has confessed, he still beleives he wrecked that truck...
It was the last in a years long series of utterly drunken black-outs.
So, do you beleive my story or am I just big fat liar? ;)

36 comments:

none said...

Great story, I guess the ends justify the means.

M@ said...

I believe you, Skinny, though I've been known to tell a tall tale myself.

singleton said...

And this was one of many confessions in the last 24 hours! I'm still getting drilled......

skinnylittleblonde said...

Hammer & Matt~ Sorry for the bump!

Hammer~ I don't think we were even thinking...I had no idea what the outcome of those words 'I don't know' would be, but once realized there was no going back for us.

Matt~ TY. Yes, if I was going to stretch a tall-tale, I'd like it to be much better than this!

Singleton~ Lol, the tales told last night were admissions more so than confessions...oh, all except the Buick Beach trip...that one was a confession, but only because it was forgotten secret uncovered ;)GILY!

Mel said...

Can we at least hope that the dad went on to live a sober and decent life? (I sure hope so anyway!)

singleton said...

xoxo
p.s. I haven't told Mom the Andy Williams story yet!

skinnylittleblonde said...

Mel~ He claimed he couldn't remember a thing from like three days earlier once he was awoken,which I beleive was the next day. He came home sobered up...but I don't know about him acheiving decency.

Singleton~ and we never, ever will! Some things are best left unsaid ;) I miss you already!

Me said...

Aw, don't make me choose!

Anonymous said...

Terrific tale
Excellent ending to it all
Laughing now
Little Blonde Liar
A
N
O
T
H
E
R

skinnylittleblonde said...

Orhan~ Hahaha...you know it's all true! If I was gonna fetch a tall-tale, I'd go further than that;)

wreckless~ thanks for bopping in. :)I take it you have more than one little blonde liar in your life!

vicci said...

I believe every single word !!!!! I love ya!

Anne said...

Well, I guess good came out of it anyway. You may have saved him from really crashing his truck, maybe hurting someone.

Anonymous said...

Well, that little lie certainly hurt no one! From what I read, all it was more of a good deed than a lie.

me and the other me said...

girlfriend,
that wasn't a lie- it was saving ass. yours, your friend's and her family's. unfortunately, getting sober doesn't guarantee that people change on the inside. it's tough work and creepy old men usually stay that way.
p&l
lisa

Incrediblyirrational said...

i was 12 when i first blurted out a lie when alll i had to do was to say nothing.i think i'm going to write a post on it. :)

Incrediblyirrational said...

and oh you had all those old memories rushing back to my mind. even if you were lying, the story is worth it.

skinnylittleblonde said...

vicci~ lol, we were wildchilds...xoxox

Anne~ Maybe for a while anyway. I wonder if he stayed sober longterm. It's a hard addiction to deal with, especially if they're tee-totallers, as he was.

Slick~ We really shouldn't have taken his truck but after all was said and done, Suzanne did seem relieved a bit & she and her mom were able to bond some.

psycho-therapists ~ Lol, I think at the moment I was just thinking about not getting our own asses busted. The rest of it, just kind of happened. Knowing now what I didn't know then, but suspected, I doubt that his insides changed too terribly much... buut I could be wrong.

nithya n~ lol...I can't wait to read! The story here is true ... the lie was when I said 'I don't know' ;) Part of that whole 'a smart woman knows when to play dumb' thing that my momma taught me.

skinnylittleblonde said...

WRECKLESS~
really I should change my moniker to DitzyLittleBlonde because I just now saw your second message....lol, I thought you were or knew another little blonde liar! Hahahhaha

No said...

It was like your own little intervention...food for thought.

Scott from Oregon said...

AHA! I knew you were trouble!

JustRun said...

How resourceful you were at that age!

mindy said...

that's crazy girl.. i was having slumber parties, listening to the go-go's when i was 14!! but, by 15... :)

skinnylittleblonde said...

No ~ Not our intentions, but kinda in a way worked out that way.

Scott Lol, if you only knew...

JustRun~ Well, luckily we outgrew some of our 'resourcefulness'

Mindy~ Lol, after my 13th birthday party...which was a slumber party, my mother allowed no more. We were very wild & crazy at that age... again, luckily we out grew most of it.

kj said...

slb, i haven't been around in a while and it is so nice to find this piece of your writing. you tell a fine tale. and the fact that you are a street-wise-of-sorts-sage only adds to the intrigue. really, you are a very good writer.

i don't lie either but i've decided it's ok in kind circumstances...

:)

skinnylittleblonde said...

kj-
thanks for coming by. I too have been hit & miss lately, as usual, in blogland.

;)I think everyone lies and those who say they don't, are liars. This was an unintended lie with an unpredictable end, but there are so many different types of lies... that inevitably we all do it on some levels.

Judy said...

Well if you're a big fat liar, you're a hell of a writer...

Great story.

Bardouble29 said...

Just wanted to let you know that Spongybones wrote a final blog on Baron's blog page, I thought you might be interested in reading it.

slaghammer said...

I would like to know what that old lady was protecting. Maybe she recognized the truck and had a reason to plug your friend’s old man.
In a similar episode back my much younger years, I leveled a chain link fence and mowed down some hedges with an old Plymouth Belvedere. I noticed the next day that one of my rear lights was gone so I drove back by the scene of the crime and spotted it lying in the front yard next to the fence. I jumped out, grabbed it, took it home and taped it back on with duct tape.

Behind Blue Eyes said...

Damn! I left a really long comment yesterday and for some reason I was lost. I'm too lazy to write it again. But great story. Kudos to your friends mother for at least having enough guts to do something finally, even if it was indirect and even if her husband wasn't apparently worth it.

vicci said...

Paiger Girl...Go to my blog and take my photo challenge....:-)
(you do this anyway...but DO IT AGAIN!) LOL!

Anonymous said...

Ah, yes- a great post.
We are all liars and theives, aren't we?
And murderers and adulterers and greedy and phony-
If not in the flesh, then in our minds!

Is there any hope for the human race?

skinnylittleblonde said...

wizened wizard ~ TY, but really I am neither :)...well, honestly, sometimes I do lie ;)

bardouble~ TY...I am on my way!

Slag~ After I wrote this, ironically enough, I thought of you! Suzanne & I both wondered if her father hadn't been stealin' from her.

BBE~ That happens to me alot! In fact just recently over at Slag's site :( I am sorry! btw, I can't access your blog anymore?

Vicci~ I'm on it! I'll have to rummage through my pics tonight.

Lizard princes ~ Lol, in one way or another, yes. Although I have never had an affair, nor have I killed anyone... I have perhaps taken a write off or two that are questionable and I kill ants anytime I want.

JR's Thumbprints said...

Some times a large truth once denied can trump a lie of lesser value.

skinnylittleblonde said...

Wow JR...profoundly & simply put! :)

Proud mom of 3 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
skinnylittleblonde said...

Proud Mom of 3~
Thank you. You are welcome here anytime, as are your words ;) Feel free to drop them as you see fit & know that you can always pick them back up & take them with you! P&L girl!