The Story of My Life – Part Five

In continuing this story, I pick up where I left off… half way through 5th grade, we decided to buy a house in a better neighborhood. Jared moved in with us. My mom and him were getting married. I don’t exactly remember when they married, but it was either the end of 5th grade or the end of 6th grade. Regardless, the wedding took place in our home and the next day my brother and I were off to Las Vegas for our summer visitation with our dad. Now that sounds all fine and dandy doesn’t it? Sounds like things are picking up and we’re off to a happy family life… wrong.

I don’t have specific dates, locations, situations for the following memories, however what I’m about to reveal all were situations that were most likely recurring and not a one time incident. Things were probably always as bad as they were near the end of Jared’s time with us, but I never fully recognized the extent of the situation early on.

In our house, food was individual people’s property. For instance, if someone went shopping and brought home a bag of chips, or a box of cereal, or a pack of cookies… it was theirs, because god forbid they share with anyone. Why all this madness you ask? It all started randomly when one day Jared came down to get cookies and he got so mad because ‘cookies were missing’ from his package of cookies. From then on, if you touched anything that he bought himself you were dead. So, we didn’t touch anything because the repercussions were not worth the indulgence of the food. This habit(?), I guess you would call it that, spread to my brother and I and we’ve just now started to get past that feeling of betrayal and hurt when someone eats the food that we’ve bought ourselves. Something else that this habit of Jared’s left in me, particularly, is asking to eat food. I’ve been conscious about this habit of my own, but I still catch myself in the act on occasion. For example, I’d be over in a friend’s room or on a trip with a bunch of people and even when I’ve already been offered the food, I still find myself asking if I may eat it… it makes for an awkward few moments.

Other things include my brother getting grounded during Christmas vacation for the entire time for talking back to Jared, I think. We’d get in trouble for things like going to my mom for permission on things versus him, calling my mom up to ask if we could go to a friend’s house when he was home would really piss him off. As the years went on, he stopped eating dinner with us. Whether he made the meal or my mom did, he’d take his plate either upstairs to his room, or into the den to eat. Making noise was another no-no in our house. Mornings were the quietest time ever, someone visiting wouldn’t know that people were awake in the house. Breakfast was eaten in silence and getting breakfast was a delicate task. You banged your spoon on your cereal bowl and somehow Jared would hear it and come out from his room and yell at you for waking him up. Just walking around in the house was apparently an issue. Who cares if I walk heavy for a less than 100 pound girl? Oh well he did, apparently, I walk too hard on my heels and make too much noise, even on the carpet. Lets see, what else did he have issues with? Oh yes, when he did decide to eat dinner with us, or if he just wanted to actually eat at the table, his seat better be open. No one should be in his seat. His seat was always the one by the back door, head of the table. Since when is a seat yours? It’s the same concept as the food. Ah, yes, punishments. My brother always got grounded. I was rarely grounded, mainly because I avoided any and all contact with Jared as possible. But punishments for my brother included room confinement and essays. Yes, I said essays. One time my brother and I both had to write an apology letter to Jared. I forget why, but we weren’t allowed to leave the house unless we wrote it, oh and it had to be typed. Who knows why.

That is everything that I can really remember… I’m sure there were more things, but I think you get the idea. Well, I believe that is enough for this part of the story. Pretty much covers his personality, or at least what’s important and notable, of his personality for the understanding of this story. I’ll leave with a heads up of the next few parts – so you know where this is heading and so I can remember what I want to write about!

- religion and Jared
- summers in Vegas
- the move to NY
- Jared and NY
- three summers of hell
- relationship with dad
- Tom

I have a lot of writing to do! I better get moving! Until next time…

~ JenJen ~

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