So I visited my cousin Michael today for a few hours at his parent's house.
Overall, he's doing good. He says he has his good days and his bad days.
Michael, my cousin. Ellen, his mother. Donny his father
Gerry his grandmother, Lenny his grandfather but divorced from Gerry, Melissa-Melanie, his twin step sisters. Hayden Melissa's 3 year, Marcus Melanie’s 15 year old.
Sam, Ellen's brother. Felicia Ellen's sister
His grandmother, my godmother, offered to drive me up so we did. We stopped to pick up Chinese food along the way for lunch. We went in, Melissa answers the door-let us in. Michael came down Hayden was playing in the tv room. We were talking about random things, I don’t remember when what was said, I’ll write about all that in a few seconds… so we ate, everyone enjoyed the food. They were looking for Hayden’s helmet, so he could ride his bike. Gerry and Melissa along with Hayden went down into the garage, so Michael and I followed. Gerry, Melisa and Hayden were around for a little while but then Gerry said to Melissa, I’m going in, why don’t you come with me…
So there we sat, Michael and I, on two beach chairs, sitting in his garage, with the garage door opened while he smokes and we talk about anything-everything.
(again, some of this may be from the house with others around, some not but I’m just going to write what I remember that we talked about)
Family…
We talked about our families, updating each other on what everyone’s doing, where everyone is.
He said that he doesn’t know where he would be without his parents or grandfather. His grandfather was the one who put up the bail money. His parents, agreed that he could come back home.
He has some pretty good friends, who are over to see him almost nightly.
Most of the time Michael is working on his ATV that’s in the garage or playing videogames. He usually sleeps during the day and stays up all night.
He told me about his parole officer, how he dresses like a slob but he is a smart guy, he knows what he is doing. His lawyer is half Hispanic, the guy he works for doesn’t speak any English. Michael showed me his ankle GPS monitor-bracelet. He told me how he has to make sure it’s charged. If the battery does, he goes back to jail.
I asked him how jail was. He said that he wishes jail on no one. You are in this room with 11 other guys. He said that whenever the guard would come in with food, he would ask the guard what time it is, you know, (he says) you have no windows, no clocks, you have no idea of time. He would lie to me. I asked him what he ate, he said he eat peanut butter for 2 days. He said the guard would come in with the food and called out that it was breakfast time, come and get it, first come first serve and I don’t care if you don’t eat.
The first day he got home, all the doors were locked up, all the blinds were pulled down on the windows, and all the lights were on. He wanted the windows opened, let some fresh air in, he said it reminded him of where he just came from. No windows or fresh air and the light was on all the time. I didn’t want that, he said.
The day he was fitted for his ankle monitor, everyone was crying and he was thrilled, he was smiling, he was just happy to be out of there.
He told me about how when he got shot, the bullet went through his elbow and up his arm to pretty close to his shoulder. He can’t straighten out his arm any more than about 90 degrees, so he can’t do much with it but over time it will get better.
He told me that people took a bunch of his stuff when he was in the hospital and in jail. His x gave things away too. He was telling me all the stuff that people took and were given away…everything from a TV to a power saw to his 4-wheeler.
We talked about what the papers wrote and how wrong it was and how it is what everyone reads and takes as the truth. He said that they interviewed his gf, and they printed the negative part, and taking it out of context as well. I told him about my case and how I would send my boss emails from various news outlets, saying “I found 5 incorrect statements in this one.”
He said the other kid, the kid he shot is ok.
He doesn’t like how everyone always brings up the negative what could be, but right now, all he can do is just sit in his house. He can’t even go to his front walkway to get the mail. He told me how his mailman is stupid but is a good guy.
He told me how the day he got home, the owner of the company he works for came over and said if you can answer questions the way I want, you can still have your job. “I guess I gave him the right answers” He said to Michael that before all this happened, he was going to fire the head of his shop and give Michael he position. So he thinks that he’s holding that job for him which is more responsibility = more money. He is very lucky that he will still have a job.
When we were in the kitchen, and Gerry and Melisa were putting stuff away, I said softly, if he read the letter I wrote for him. He said yes, it took a while for me to read. He said, he couldn’t believe everything I remembered. He said, you know, there are memories you have that you don’t think anyone else remembers, so they are your memories alone and then you read it on this letter, … and he just stopped talking. I said to him, that his mom asked Amanda (my sister) if she would write a letter for Michael. Amanda told Ellen to ask me, cause I have a better memory. At the time, I didn’t understand what having a great memory has to do with writing a letter but as I was writing it, I understood.
He talked about random simple things he wishes he could do … he told me that the drive way is lined with stones and he said there is a bag of new stones that if he could just go to his driveway, he could help his father out but he can’t, he can’t leave the perimeter of his house.
He told me that in the garage, there is an elliptical machine with a tv that has cable so if anyone wants to come out here and workout or just watch tv or both, they could do that. He says he goes to the garage in the night when he’s bored to work on his ATV. He also told me that he plays a lot of videogames but that videogames are much harder now. He plays NHL 2013, and he has not won a game yet. He had mentioned he saw the pic of me driving the ATV in Texas. I told him about the other things she let me drive before, apparently I told him those things before.
He told me about his gf, who has a 3 year old. She drives school buses for a job. He says she’s normal…well, whatever normal is.
He asked me how John is doing. I told him that he got divorced. Is a surprised tone he said “he did?” I said yup, you are not the only one to get a divorced this year. He chuckled.
I told him about Karen. He said that when I told him about visiting her last November, he thought I would end up saying that she ended up being a guy. He told me about some new tv show where people who meet through fb and when they show up, the other person is not who they said they were.
When we talked about our families, I brought up Amanda and mentioned the wedding, he said that he didn’t want to talk about that. He was sad that he won’t be able to go. He went on to say that doesn’t it figure, my probable cause hearing is the 18th, Amanda’s wedding is the 13th. He said only if the hearing was the week before.
Gerry got a call from her boyfriend, saying her dog is barking like crazy, asked if she could come home. So we left…
I said bye to Michael. He thanked me for coming over and gave me a hug. He said hopefully in a few weeks I can come down and see you. I said, ok, but Chinese food on you. He laughed and said definitely. I told him that I’ll be back before then.
There was so much we, mostly he, talked about in the more than 2 hours I spent with him but I can’t remember everything. I know we talked a lot more about family and what people are doing and making fun of our family members. It was awesome to be able to talk crap-the truth about our family, sorry, it just is lol. Except for on here, I can’t say stuff anywhere else.
So…let’s see what tomorrow will bring.
Hopefully the sun shines brightly for everyone.
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