It's History

I firmly believe that we are shaped by our past experiences, both good and bad. I’ve been writing about Mr. Excitement for over a year now, both the wonderful things he has done and also his less than shining moments, but up until this point I haven’t really written much about his family or the events that lead to his separation from them. Today I’d like to share a little history lesson.

About 20 years ago, Mr. Excitement fell in love with a girl, Miss Beautiful. She was gorgeous, she was kind, she was sweet, she was totally controlled by her parents. She got pregnant, they got engaged and bought a house, but just before the wedding took place her parents put the brakes on it. At her father’s urging, she broke up with Mr. Excitement and married the man of her father’s choice. Excitement was at the hospital when his first son was born. Miss Beautiful begged him to leave her and their son alone in her new life. She promised to tell their son who his real father was when he turned 16. He’s now 17 and he hasn’t contacted Excitement.

Whether it’s because he still doesn’t know or because he doesn’t care to meet him, we don’t know. Excitement contemplated hunting Miss Beautiful and his first son down, but he has chosen not to. He hopes that the son he never knew has a good life and he doesn’t want to upset it.

When he lost Miss Beautiful it broke his heart. He truly loved her. He swore off women and began to drink. A year or so later he met Miss Vicious through a mutual friend. She was a young woman with a 6 month old daughter, Independent, living with her mother and her mother’s abusive boyfriend in a filthy house. Child Protective Services was threatening to take Independent from her. When Excitement saw Independent he fell in love. He picked up Vicious and Independent and drove them to his house with only the clothes on their backs. He bought them both new wardrobes and everything a 6 month old baby could need. He promised to let them stay as long as they wanted on two conditions: 1) Vicious cooked and cleaned for him. 2) Vicious left him alone.

Time passed and the relationship between Excitement and Vicious became complicated. He would work and he would drink and he would pass out and Vicious would seduce him. Before long they had a son, Athletic. Excitement loved his son at first sight. He had saved up enough money to take 6 months off work and for those 6 months Athletic’s feet never touched the ground. Excitement fed him, bathed him, played with him and carried him everywhere. He doted on that boy.

Eventually the savings ran out and Excitement went back to work. When he worked he drank. When he drank he passed out. When he passed out Vicious seduced him. The cycle continued. Before long there was another son, Adeventure. Then a few years later another son, Intellegent. Then a daughter, Innocent.

Throughout this time Vicious was in love with Excitement and Excitement was drowning his love for Miss Beautiful in alcohol. Eventually Vicious’ love turned to resentment. First she began taking the money Excitement was saving and spending it frivolously just for revenge. Then she began spending money they needed for bills. Meanwhile Excitement was working more and more hours to try to support his ever growing family and drinking harder and harder when he wasn’t working. Both grew more and more resentful and angry towards each other. The final straw was when Vicious began poisoning Excitement’s food with bleach. He put her and the kids on a train and sent them to Iowa to stay with her father. She filed for divorce.

As soon as they were gone he regretted it. He had no love for Vicious but he loved his kids more than life. He moved to Iowa to fight for custody of them. Unfortunately Vicious’ father had friends in high places. Excitement was pulled over one night and a police officer planted drugs on him. He was held in jail for two weeks before he saw a judge. The judge promised him he’d be spending years in jail. Vicious’ father recommended he go back to Texas and he took the advice.

From Texas he continued to fight for his children, requesting that they be forced to return to Texas to continue the divorce proceedings. It was then that Independent called him. She told him they had just started a new school and made new friends. She said they were happy in Iowa. She begged him not to make them move again. She begged him just to go away.

So he did. He gave up custody and fell even deeper into the bottle. For a while he called them religiously, but eventually he stopped. They grew apart and his kids began to resent him.

About a year ago he sobered up and began to reach out to his kids again. Only time can tell if it’s too late.