July 2006
july 11
It's late at night, and I go into the living room to watch a movie on TV. I'm looking around for a snack, and see the makings for a quesadilla on the counter. I see that two of the burners on the stove were left on, as well as a small, white portable burner sitting on the counter. I turn all of them off and start watching TV. My mom comes down looking for something to eat, and I ask her if she'd been making a quesadilla and left the room. She says "Oh, that's right!" and I tell her about how she left the stove on, and that she's lucky the house didn't burn down. I'm eating Stouffer's macaroni and cheese, and I don't want to eat the last few bits (I dropped them?) but my mom doesn't want to waste them, so she eats them. Our whole family decides to go see a movie at Brenden in Pittsburg. We have to leave the house at 8:00 PM. Right before we leave, I use the bathroom and go outside. I think they left without me because I can't see the car, but I realize I'm standing in front of the neighbors house. I go to our driveway, and everyone but my mom is getting into this gray pickup truck. There's a quad cab, but my sister wants to sit in the bed of the truck, and I don't want to leave her alone so I sit there too. I have my Dr. Pepper pillow with me so I can rest my head, and wonder if I can fall asleep on the drive over. Right before my dad starts driving, my sister stands up and I tell her to never do that. She sits down and is playing with a deck of cards. We're home from the movie, and I can't remember it from a certain point and wonder if I fell asleep. We're sitting in the living room talking, and I think I hear my sister yelling from up there even though she's with us. I say, "That's so weird, it's like she's throwing her voice." My mom comes to the top of the stairs and says she thinks someone is in the house. I have to repeat this to my dad twice because I'm trying to whisper. I can hear stuff being moved and thrown around upstairs. We all get up and I take my sister into the garage, thinking we can lock ourselves in. The garage door is open a third of the way, and I wonder if that's how the intruder got in. I close the door completely, but think I should have had my dad check out the garage first to make sure no one is hiding. He comes in to look at the security camera screen. The side door in the garage is also open, and I see a man walk by. I don't say anything, hoping that he's just going to leave and not bother us, but he turns around and comes into the garage. He's in his late 20's or early 30's, with black hair and a kind of long nose. I ask him not to hurt my sister, and he says that he won't as long as I do what he tells me. He wants cash only, no stuff, so I go into the backyard (it's our old backyard in Pittsburg) and tell my parents. My mom says it will take fifteen minutes to get the money together. The guy goes into the house and my mom starts talking about how he's probably getting the money for drugs, and that he also "sells gossip" to do this. She and my dad are talking about how he looks like some relatives of ours. I'm listening to them and thinking that the first thing I'm going to do when this is over, is have a drink and tell myself, "Well, you live to see another day." My sister is on the lawn crying, and I tell her that he's going to go away as soon as we give him the money. I go into the house and tell him that we're not going to get him in trouble or go against him, and he says, "I know, that's what I love about this family." It makes me wonder if he actually is related to us, or if he did research on us before breaking in.
july 21
Rose and I are in my room at night. I turn on the light and I see a huge black caterpillar or centipede crawl under my closet door, and I freak out. Several of them start appearing and try to hide, and I go tell my dad. I'm talking to my mom about it, and say that someone else has to bring out stuff I need - clothes and makeup, etc - because I'm not even going to step back into my room until all those things are gone. I tell her I'm going to sleep somewhere in the house and will use their bathroom, and ask if that's okay. She admits that it will be slightly annoying, but she understands. I'm in the kitchen standing at the breakfast bar when my dad brings out one of the creatures. It's two feet long and a few inches wide. It's walking in front of my dad and he keeps shocking it with this taser, but it doesn't seem to be affected. I duck behind the counter anyway, because I'm afraid it will explode. I pass by my bedroom for something and one of the things jumps on my hand, and I have to pull it off of my skin. We're at the old house and it's the evening. We're in the backyard celebrating my sister's birthday, and we have two "balloons" that we let go into the sky. One is a plain black garbage bag, and the other is a clear garbage bag filled with pink and yellow flowers. The bag with the flowers comes back down and lands in our neighbors front yard, so we run into our own front yard. There's a big gray pickup truck parked in the driveway. I'm being held hostage by this guy, along with three other women. The man is tall, in his 30's, with dark brown hair. The other women and I are sitting outside while he's inside, making lunch. It's very hot out. I do something that makes him mad, and he throws a glass at me through the window, making me drop my own glass of ice water. He tells me I can't have anything to drink until he says it's okay. It's 4:00 and the other women get to go inside and eat, but I have to stay alone outside. One of the women had said she'd stay with me, but changes her mind. I say, "Thanks a lot, Keisha, you fucking bitch." She comes back out once she has her food, but I tell her to go ahead and be inside. The guy is getting ready for this big Christmas dinner he's putting on, and a lot of the guests are supposed to be famous. At the same time he has more hostages arriving - some kids from a local elementary school. The other women and I are using computers to work on stuff, and an old boss of mine comes. I'm using "his" computer, so I clear all of my stuff away. As we're talking, I mention that the children are going to be hostages, and then beg him not to tell anyone that I told him. Some people I know are coming to the Christmas party, including Amanda. I go to the garage and ask the guy if I can please have something to drink, because it's 6:00 and I haven't had water in hours. He says it's okay. I start crying to try to make him feel bad, but he doesn't care. Back in the kitchen, Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston have just arrived. They tell me they'll give me my present (a painting?) when they leave. Zach comes, and brings a dessert. He puts them on the counters with the others. He has a gift for me - a pink shirt and some pants. At first the shirt is plain pink with short sleeves, but as I look at it, it changes to where the sleeves grow long, and it has purple horizontal stripes. When I go to try it on over the shirt I'm wearing, I realize the new one is now inside-out.
july 22
I'm back in high school, and there's an assembly. After it's over, only a few of us in my class go back to our room. There's me, Dana, a cute guy named Christian, and another guy and girl whose names I don't know. As we're walking back, Dana and the girl are talking about the overdone pink floral decorations they used in the last assembly. I say I didn't mind them so much, since pink is my favorite color. In our classroom there's a display of painted fabrics that are going to be used as hand puppets by the younger students. A sign says they're cooling off. Dana puts her hand in one just as the teacher comes back, and he tells her not to. He gives me and the other guy this kind of psychological quiz, where we each draw an eye. His eye is big and has lots of white space around the iris. He also spends lots of time drawing the eyebrow. The first eye I draw is way too small, so I try again. My eye has a very big pupil, and I draw lots of eyelashes on the top, but none on the bottom. The teacher analyzes both eyes, and tells us we could be good friends or something more. We say that's cool. Everyone starts to clean out their backpacks, and all the trash is supposed to go into a white trash bag. Dana has a lot of books she's going to throw away, but says she won't do it now if someone else has stuff they really need to put in the white bag. Christian and I start playing basketball with a crumpled up piece of paper. We're having fun, laughing and kind of flirting. I'm wearing this low-cut pink tank top, and I see him looking at me a couple times. The classroom turns into a big store. Christian's mother shows up. She's very rich. I start talking to her and walk around the store, looking for this jasmine sachet she wants to buy. I say I that even though I like jasmine, I prefer the rose sachets. She agrees that the jasmine scent by itself is weird, but she likes the scent it leaves on other things. A girl in a long evening gown shows up, and I ask her if she's Christian's sister. She says she's his girlfriend. She's very pretty, with big blond hair. I hug her and say "Oh yeah, he's always talking about you." I decide to leave without saying goodbye to Christian and run out to my car. It's 3:45. I go this dry, barren field where my car is. I can't see it and I'm shouting, "Where's my car?" I see another dark SUV with a different colored drivers door, and think that's it at first. The guy who does own it follows me to my car, and asks me why the dogs chewed off the white vinyl. I say, "Oh, hell if I know." He and another guy linger as I unlock my car, and I warn them that they better move. I point at them with this needle-sharp pencil I have. This guy sitting on the steps of a run-down house at the edge of the field comes up, and asks me how long I think it would take for him and me to kill one of hte other guys. I get into the car just as he and one of the others start to fight, and roll my eyes. I hear the bad guy start screaming in pain as he gets stabbed in the eye with a needle. The windshield cover is on, and I remove it and start to drive through the field. As I get near the street, I see one truck where a lot of people are sitting. At the very top is a young (12, 13 year old) boy who is supposed to be famous. He's crying, and I think it's because I have a CD of his in my car. I pull over so I can give it back to him, but he wants to get in. He shrinks and I have to lean over to open the passenger door, and pull him inside. He wants to go to this juice bar, and I say that we can but I have to hurry and get home. He says his family will pick him up afterwards, as long as we go to one of the juice bars in Miami. I start driving again, and out on the road, I'm not sure which direction I should go in. I start to turn left, but think it's wrong, and go straight, which leads me into a neighborhood. I pull over to the side so I can think about which way I should be driving. I can see the sign at the first cross street in that neighborhood, and the street name is Adam.
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