Childhood , a time of wonder , happiness , self discovery and imagination for most people , not me though. My childhood had all these things as well as violence , dysfunctional families , neglect , the most depressing years of my life and the person who helped me out of it , my mother. Before i continue this is the most personal story I have ever wrote.

My father was a man by the name of samuel, or his more commonly used nickname , mike. My father worked as an electrician for speilman electric company for as long as I could remember. He was a few inches shorter than my older brother. He had black hair , just like me. He wore glasses , always smelled like oil , grease etc. He had a deep voice , a booming laugh and a lot of friends. It was as if he had a super powers or something because he had the ability to convince anyone of anything. He was a cheapskate , an avid collector  , an ex-cop , and a trickster. In fact back in the 70s  ,for his senior prank he stuck a cherry bomb down a toilet , before bart simpson made it cool. He kinda reminds me of a certain gold toupe wearing   presidential candidate. He had a collection of old war memorabilia from ww1 to nam . He was a liar , a fraud , and a jerk. Now that you know a basic description of him now it’s time to tell my story.

My story starts around 2010. My dad was in iraq  , he worked as a government funded contractor for the military to help keep the power on at military bases throughout the middle east during the war on terror.  My mom was fed up with my father over a multitude of things such as neglect , insults ,  endless lies , broken promises , and a multitude of other events. So after thinking it over , my mom decided to divorce him around his birthday. In fact I remember hearing him cursing over my mom sending divorce papers instead of a cake. To this day his reaction still cracks me up. So the divorce started , his exact words to my mom was that he was going to make her court case fall flat on her face. My dad’s first move was to try to end the divorce before it started by not sending alimony , child support and other monetary needs back to the U.S.

His second move was to gain custody of me and my brothers , which was a nightmare scenario come true. My mom fought tooth and nail during this time to gain custody of us from our dad.

Luckily around 2011 , she won. Still the divorce went on.

The next part of my story starts around 2011 , we were living at our old house. It was a large home built by my dad back in the 1980s. It had four floors, a basement , a ground floor  , an upstairs and an attic. It had a huge field in front of it , a pool in the back , a gazebo , three sheds , a garden and a hill on the right side near the garden. The house was made of brick , It had a small crystal  chandelier hanging above it. It also had an area I called , the ramp. The ramp was a slanted concrete road-like object that led to the underground garage where my dad kept his old truck from 1911. The inside had three bathrooms , one upstairs , another on the ground floor. It had a grand foyer where a huge crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling. To the left was the dining room ,to the right was the living room. If you went left through the dining room , you would end up in the kitchen/t.v room. To get to the basement , you went to the t.v room and you went to the door near the living room. The ground floor was built in a loop by the way. In the living room , if you went right you would end up back in the foyer. But if you went left , you would end up in the room where we kept our windows xp computer. We called that the computer room , yes I know what an original name. We also had a balcony coming off the master bedroom . It was a huge house ., but it wasn’t finished , The house was built on an angle , heck one of the contractors said the house was probably going to cave in on itself in 30 years. The house was a piece of junk to say the least , it was beautiful on the outside but trash on the inside. As the year wore on , the divorce had no end in sight. My dad moved into his grandfather’s house… ....which is right next door to where we live. He would have 3 different cars on the lot , he would use each one to spy on us , he would do this by slowly driving on the road by our house. My dad is a jerk , but i kind of feel bad for him. One time , when I was about 2 my mom heard my dad mutter in his sleep. He said : does my mom love me? This leads me to believe that his mother never loved him as a kid , It’s really depressing to say the least. 2012 , was the worst year of the divorce. My father never sent any money. We were poor and on food stamps. It was a dreadful year for us. Luckily the divorce would end one year later near the end of 2013.