"But, generally, we tried to keep the townhouse as the place to be again this year. My roommate Jarrod moved out in June to get a place with his girlfriend and I spent the summer by myself -- but I found a new roommate, DJ Whitman, who moved in in November, which was a financial blessing, if nothing else. And -- true to my tradition -- I found more than a roommate. I've been adopted by the whole family -- including the dogs -- and I'm now the honorary fifth Whitman brother. We have an agreement that I'll do whatever I can to keep them out of trouble -- and they can make one or two suggestions about how I run my life. It's one of the odd things to describe, but I seem to belong to them ... and they to me. One of the most rewarding things about my experiences since I've run away is that -- for coming from a "family" that didn't seem to want me -- I've been blessed with families tenfold. And this connection keep[s] me busy. In just three weeks time, we dealt with attempted used-car salesman fraud, stolen/misplaced Porsches and clearing people of [...] accusations. Of course, I should have known that life would always be exciting by the circumstances surrounding the time I met my new roommate.
We were at a gathering in Cornwall and I went with my girlfriend. DJ was my girlfriend's friend's boyfriend's best friend (got that?) and so he was at the party too -- as were a bunch of other people who were connected to the clan in one way or another. Everyone was having a great time, and we were playing cards until the early, early morning. At four in the morning, I recommended going to the rockpile, and so we piled into my car and four of us went up. Once we got to the top, we found another group already there, which was very unusual. They were drunk, one girl from their group was passed out on the rocks and someone casually mentioned, "If you see the fire, it wasn't us." This comment didn't make any sense, so we ignored it. It turned out that DJ knew the girl who was passed out and started talking to her boyfriend. I didn't know anyone so I wandered off by myself to the other side of the rockpile. And when I came over the hill, I saw the blaze. There was a *huge* fire, in a perfect circle, engulfing a small stand of pine trees. My first thought was that there was a third group at the top with us and that I might become what they were to sacrifice next! I stumbled back across the rocks and pulled DJ to the side, muttering about the fire and getting his opinion on what to do next.
The original group started packing up their things as DJ, the boyfriend of the girl on the rocks and myself raced back over to the fire. I climbed down and started to try to stomp the fire out, which I later found out looked exceptionally comical, since the circle of fire was on dry dead pine needles and it just followed behind me as I stomped along. The other guy convinced us that we should all leave before the cops came and so we all scrambled back down the pile, got into my car and headed back to the place we were ... and my car ran out of gas just a little distance from the house. DJ and company got out, pushed the car to the house and we went in to update everybody. After DJ and I spilled the dog food in a handshake battle, I drove to Mrs. Woodwards to get the gas that we kept for the lawnmower, came back and filled up my tank, drove home and went to the Turkey Hill to call in an anonymous 911. It was only halfway through the phone call that I realized I was calling in an arson -- and I had an empty gas container in my car and smelled like gasoline! Luckily, they didn't trace the call and they did contain the fire. And -- that adventure somehow marked the beginning of the 'new season' at the townhouse.
[...]
As I come to a close, finally, I'm reminded of the Winston Churchill quote said after the Battle of El Alamein. 'Now is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. It is, *perhaps*, the end of the beginning.' Who knows what lies ahead -- what trials, what blessings. My wish for you this Christmas is that you discover the strength, courage, confidence, character, humor and freedom that lies within each of us to face whatever each moment brings. And may you find the wisdom to appreciate the battles you've won, the battles you've lost, and the peace that lies in between ..."
Note: This is but the beginning of that story. Up on the rockpile that night, we had no way of knowing that DJ would leave us just under six years later ... but there's a lot of story to tell in such a tight time frame ... on another flashback Friday ...
No comments:
Post a Comment