Chapter 1
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They say that every life has its good days and bad days. In that sense, my life was no different than yours. In other ways, I suspect my life was much different than yours. I also suspect that birth was not particularly planned, and my mother dying of cancer when I was five was definitely not planned. My father wanted for me what most parents want for their children. He wanted to keep me safe. He wanted me to teach me good values. And he wanted me to have some fun. After my mother died he took me on a cross country road stop, and it never seemed to end. He called it a father-daughter bonding trip, wanted me to see everything that America had to offer, and we had our share of adventures. His version of homeschooling involved showing me historical sights, the Alamo, Gettysburg, the White House. Made sure I knew a lot about history, as well as math and science. It did seem I learn more about science by actually exploring nature than I ever would have learned in a classroom. My father was a freelance journalist, sometimes he was able to sell his articles to various magazines, other times he took odd jobs in construction or transportation. It could be a fun life, but it also had it's downsides. One time, I must have been seven or eight, we were eating at a diner. Someone came up to my father, seemed to think I was a sex worker. Did I mention I was seven or eight? My father reacted the was most parents would, he assaulted this jerk. Even though he was justified, he was still arrested, sentanced to 30 days in jail. Jail he could handle, but the state put me in a temporary foster home and tried to take away custody permenantly. He took me, helped me sneak away in the middle of the night. I regretted bringing pain to my foster family, they were good people. But I trusted that my father knew best, and I didn't want to lose him. By the time I was sixteen I was old enough to help our nomadic lifestyle. I worked various parttime jobs temporarily, waitress, movie usher, and helped my father write his articles. When I was sixteen I was also arrested for fighting, but that person had it coming. I was sentanced to three months in juvenile hall. I think my sentance was longer because they wanted to take me away from my father. I served my full sentance and was court ordered to be placed in another foster home. Once again we escaped together. By the time I was 19 I had learned to ride a motorcycle, and spent two weeks in the hospital relating to an injury on my bike. I had very brief relationships with boys and girls. I had played one season of professional baseball with a minor league team and worked on the presidential campaign for a candidate you have probably never heard of. I was considering enlisting in the military, but my father talked me out of it. He said we were nomads, too restless to stay in one place. It was one thing to work odd jobs and leave after awhile, but you couldn't just walk away from the military when you felt like it. I had lived a fairly adventorous life for a 19 year old girl, but I was getting to the point where I wanted to be independant from my father, but he always talked me out of it. One day, we came across a motel known as the "Snowglobe Motel." We had no idea how true that name was.