Monday, August 2, 2010

The extraction of head


It was the beginning of my 2nd week of residential treatment, substance abuse treatment that is, "treatment" for me was a resort like institution in south Louisiana, sure we had chores wore burgundy hospital scrubs and spent 6hrs a day sitting in a circle talking about feelings, we were told when to go to bed and when to get up, but we also had a swimming pool, personal trainer and catered meals, It was HEAVEN, and that's on the real! I LOVED IT! Hell it was like a fancy vacation to me! SHEEEIIIIITTTT, this was high class, Id never even vacationed this good, Id have loved it even if Id come directly from my home (In the projects) but I was coming from 30 miserable, hopeless days at East Baton Rouge Parrish Prison, After a less then perfect childhood, the natural decent into an abusive teen marriage, the natural progression to drugs, selling my body, the suicide of my beloved brother and the darkness that followed, I gave in to the insanity, and I had long wished I could go to rehab, (even a dirty state funded one)but I didn't have any insurance and my family was po' folks so I just kept goin and ended up in jail instead, I was looking at 5-7 years too! Id given up on ever goin' to rehab, or even seeing my husband, kids or parents for years, Id given up hope of the fairy tale ending…...then WHAM! I am now a believer that even the sun shines on a dogs ass once in a while! God had smiled on me, after Id finally stopped hoping, I got sent here, to Club Med…..(Ill get to the details later) So while my peers (who I guess musta' been snatched from the Beverly Hills Hilton) shuffled around complaining, bout the food, accommodations, the dirty fucks who sentenced them to this "hell hole", I wandered around with a goofy smile on my face and a song in my heart, not only was I finally going to learn how to be sober, I was doin' it high class, life was good!
    Anyway, I was REALLY excited tonight, cuz I was afforded phone privileges, the first wk you have to settle in and you cant have any outside influence….anyway tonight was it! I got three calls! No matter that they were monitored by staff and only 10 mins, they were not "collect from an inmate" and I had something positive to say, all the jail calls were desperate please to get me the fuck out! I was going to call my momma and oldest son first, the second call was to my in laws, not people I longed to talk to as they not only thought I was white trash they knew it. Anyway they had paid for this resort like sanatorium and my bond etc, oh and they were raising my infant son, so I owed them a call….my 3rd call, hell I don't remember who it was supposed to go to, maybe we only got 2…I hadn't planned to call my daddy, I had called often in lock up, to cry and demand he find a way to save me, I called so often that his phone got disconnected due to the immense cost of the collect calls, I didn't need to call him now tho, I didn't need anything, I only called my daddy when I wanted something. Somebody would tell him where I was, and Id talk to him later, when I needed something. Id talked to him recently anyway, (he never denied my many times daily collect calls, ever) Id maybe put him on my call list in a few wks, I had to check on my kids! I guess it was just the 2 calls we were allowed, Adam (my husband) would've been my first choice but . he was also in treatment, an hour away in Baton Rouge, he like me, couldn't get incoming calls, so our calls were to be set up and monitored by our respective counselors', we hadn't spoken in over a month except by mail, but I was content knowing we would speak on the phone day after tomorrow and each Wednesday after until our release. I sat in the common room studying my new AA book and patiently awaiting my turn on the hall phone. Smile on my face, gratitude in my heart. Happy, happy happy. Looking forward to my new sober life, what could possibly happen to me? It had all happened already……
    My turn! Yay! First call, perfunctory, Cookie, (mother in law, pillar of the community, society wife, owner of a 5ct diamond and a Mercedes SUV) I feared, admired and wanted to be her, all at once it was confusing! I spoke to the cold beautiful woman who had begrudgingly been the benefactor of my good fortune, thanked her, profusely and assured her I wouldn't disappoint, getting little more then dead air, I asked after my son and my husband getting one word answers and icy gusts thru the phone. It was quick and relatively painless. On to my next call! I spoke to my mom all about my good luck and my bright future, then to my beautiful son, then 2 mins left of the 10 I was allotted per call, mom picks up again to tell me of some odd messages shed gotten on her machine, my ½ brother,(also a junkie and no friend to MY mom) asking my whereabouts, 2 times he called, sounding desperate to locate me, this didn't worry me, he probably needed a phone number so he could score, like me he didn't call unless he needed something, my dad had also called a cpl times, leaving long, strange messages……He was in the hospital (not unusual) having a triple bypass the next day (unusual), he wanted to tell "Colby" of his love……..ask forgiveness and so forth, it was clear that my mom, his ex-wife of over 15 years, whom he never quite got over, was who the melancholy message was intended……..she didn't seem to know this until I pointed it out….and in the silence of her realization, I examined what this must mean. Many panic inducing flags were raised, the signs were shocking! The many "close calls" he'd had on prior hospital trips, never included a summons of us kids to his bedside, we were told after he unhooked himself and left AMA, usually he laughed and told us of his brush with death as he held a cigarette in his left hand and held his at home oxygen mask onto his face with his right. He hadn't called my MOM in over a decade, asked about her with a feigned nonchalance each time I visited, yes, gazed at my mother favoring profile with raw hurt on his face when he didn't think I saw, all the time. (In the company of my siblings and step monster) He blasphemed, ranted on my mother and her wickedness, damning her to hell, etc, etc. it was so pitiful, the transparency of his heart, all aflame for that he had walked away from… he never admitted his mistake. He was now. What the fuck? What the fuck?    My heart stuttered and my blood turned cold. I was terrified, as the world spun crazily on its axis I asked for the phone number he'd left, wrapped up my call, and said I'd call same time next week. I hung up and watched the pink cloud of happiness turn quickly to a gunmetal grey.
    I thought quickly, and turned to the tech (who liked me cuz I smiled all the time and never talked back) I told her that I had one more call to make, I hadn't reached my mom, only the machine, could I pretty please try to call my daddy? Id just remembered the number, that's why I hadn't put him on my call list. Please please? She said yes, believing Id only made the one call, and don't be telling the others! I smiled and turned my back as I dialed the number to the hospital. My fear deepened when the hospital operator announced not the small country hospital my dad routinely visited, but the big city one an hour further, the one that had all the high end equipment that might be needed in a real emergency. I grew even colder when my dad picked up and I heard a gaggle of my siblings nearby. Serious stuff! He sounded in good spirits, ( he loved being the center of attention) He confirmed the bypass and grew grave as he told me. "You need to extract your head from your ass, Jo Ellen, I'm tired and Id like to go see my mother." I said "NO" in a childish way, believing he couldn't go with out my say so. He continued to tell me, how he needed me to be okay now, allow him to go, rest." I cried, refused. Then in a moment of clarity, I recalled I had only 10 minutes, I gave the name of the rehab, told him to call and leave word when he was thru surgery. I still refused to give him permission to dessert me again. I needed him! In the end, I agreed to reform, remove my head from my ass, I accepted that I was now the responsibility of my husband and promised to be good for him. I was terrified of being cut off from the call in mid-argument , so for once I agreed to all he said, figuring Id argue next week, when the threat had passed. Miss J, had given me my 1 minute warning, I apologized for what I was, expressed my love and prepared to disconnect, it was then that he extracted a promise I didn't expect to keep. He asked that I not come home, even for a funeral, HIS. He repeated that he was weary, he wanted to rest and implied that it would be breaking a promise if I left my "work" of getting well to come look at his dead body, Demanded we say goodbye here and now, and at the eleventh hour what could I do? I agreed, reluctantly and with an argument at the ready, having extracted the promise he quickly and abruptly ended the call, leaving me to my prayers and childish hopes.                                 
  

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