Virginia, 1993:
Jon was shocked at how many cousins Adriana had.
'So many,' he thought to himself. 'And some of them stink too.'
No matter where they went, Adriana and Jon were always together. But one day Adriana's girl cousins wanted Adriana to play with them for the day. Adriana had to convince Jon to let her go and play with the other girls.
"Tonight, you can read me a bedtime story okay? My cousin Gus wants to play with you," she said. She gave Jon a kiss on the lips. "I love you! Have fun!"
Jon watched as Adriana went down the hallway and went into the room with the other girls. Jon reluctantly joined the boys.
Jon played with his wrestling figures in the corner all by himself. Jon wasn't used to an enviroment like this. It must've been the fact that there was so many family members in the house. Or maybe Jon was simply content with being with Adriana most of the time. Jon wasn't asocial, but he did want to be alone with Adriana.
Gus found Jon in the corner and came over to him.
"Hey Jon Jon! Whatcha doin'?"
"Playing by myself. Adriana left me."
Gus could see that Jon was pretty upset that he wasn't with Adriana. Gus decided that he wasn't going to let his cousin be sad. No sir.
"Come on Jon Jon, let's go check out the spooky house down the street!" Gus said.
"Spooky house?" Jon said. This caught his interest immediately.
"Yes. I have a bike you can ride so you can go with me. Let's go!"
Jon put his toys down and got up.
"Where you going?" cousin Marty asked.
"None of your business!" Gus said.
"You're going to the spooky house aren't you?" Marty said.
"Come on Jon Jon, let's go," Gus said.
Jon followed Gus out of the room.
"You're not leaving me!" Marty said.
"Shut up!" Gus said.
Gus and Jon went to the garage to get the bikes. Marty and another cousin named Jack burst into the garage too. They grabbed their scooters.
"Stay here! I want to show Jon Jon the spooky house!" Gus said.
"I want to show Jon Jon the spooky house!" Marty said.
"Hi Jon Jon," Jack said.
"Hi," Jon said.
"Are you our cousin too?" Jack asked.
"Yes Jon Jon is our cousin. He's our family. He's invited to the spooky house adventure but you two aren't!" Gus said.
"Let them come. What if something happens?" Jon said.
"Jon Jon, nothing is going to happen to you! I promise!"
"Okay then," Jon said.
The four boys managed to sneak away from everyone in the entire house and outside and made their way down the street. The house was straight ahead. The street was a dead end street as well. The house indeed looked spooky. It looked like a few mass murders occured in it. It was falling apart and needed to be knocked down.
The boys sat their bikes and scooters down and walked onto the front lawn of the house.
"Did someone die here?" Jon asked.
"Dunno! Do you think so!?" Gus said.
"I dunno either! I just got here today!" Jon said.
"I think something happened," Marty said.
"Shut up Marty!"
"No you shut up, Gus!"
Jon creeped closer and closer to the house. Curtains prevented him from looking inside.
He was curious now about this place. He slowly stepped onto the porch. The porch was bare and extremely dirty. He saw a dead rat near the doorway.
"Jon Jon!" Jack said.
Jack, Marty, and Gus ran up the porch and stood next to Jon.
"Knock on the door," Gus told Marty.
"No you do it!" Marty said.
Jon stepped forward and did the honor.
No one answered.
Jon knocked again.
Still no one answered.
"No one's here," Jon said.
"Knock one more time," Gus said.
Jon knocked for the third time.
"No one's here. Let's go," Jon said.
As soon as the boys turned around, they heard the door open.
Jon felt someone grab his right arm and yank him backwards.
"HELP! YOU GUYS!"
Marty, Gus, and Jack all turned around wide eyed. They all went grabbed onto Jon and yanked him back towards them.
Jon turned his head and saw an old woman who looked exactly like a witch holding onto him. Her expression was grave. Extremely grave.
"Let go of me!" Jon yelled out.
With the help of the other three, Jon broke away from the woman and jumped over all of the steps off the porch. He ran to his bike, hopped on it, and peddled away as quickly as he could. He didn't stop until he got to the front yard of Adriana's family's home. He jumped off of the bike and ran straight inside the house.
He found Mrs. Germanotta in the kitchen. Jon simply ran up to her and hugged her tight.
"Oh!" she said. "What's wrong?"
"Mrs. Germanp...I mean, Mama...I'm scared!"
"What's wrong?"
"Some old lady! She looked liked a witch! She grabbed me and...and..."
"What lady!?"
"Well, Gus wanted to show me the spooky house down the street then Marty wanted to go but Gus said no but Marty went with us anyway and I also met Jack and he came along to and then and then a-a-a-a-nnn-d then we all went down the street to the spooky house and Gus and Marty started telling each other to shut up and stuff and I was curious about the house so I went up onto the porch and the others followed me and Marty didn't want to knock on the door so I knocked on the door three times and then when I was about to leave the witch lady grabbed me and then she started tugging on me and stuff and I yelled at her and told her to let me go a-a-a-annnd I jumped off the porch and came back here and found you! Oh, Mama!"
Gus, Marty and Jack found Jon hugging their aunt.
"What did I tell you three about going to that house!?" Mrs. Germanotta said.
"Sorry Auntie Gwen," all three of them said.
"In your room, right now. Dinner will be ready in an hour," Mrs. Germanotta said. She continued to comfort Jon. "It's okay, baby. Don't cry. Let's get you cleaned up. You want to help me make the lemonade?"
Jon simply nodded his head.
Adriana then came into the kitchen and found Jon stirring lemonade at the table. She walked over to him.
"Whatcha doin'?"
"Making lemonade. The first cup of lemonade goes to you."
Adriana smiled.
"It better!"
Jon stopped stirring the lemonade and pinched Adriana's nose.
"You are not going to do anything!" Jon said.
"Watch me!" Adriana said.
She started tickling Jon. He was on the chair and fell off, hitting his head on the floor.
"Jonathan!" Mrs. Germanotta said.
Adriana rushed to Jon's side.
"Jon!? Oh Jon, I'm so sorry!" she said.
Jon sat up with no problem.
"That tickled," he said.
Adriana laughed and hugged Jon, giving him a kiss on the cheek.
Present:
"I see Adriana's been talking to you," Jon said.
He was visiting Linda. Steve was in the toolshed making something.
"Is that a problem?" Linda asked.
"No it isn't. Why do you assume I have a problem with Adriana talking to you?" Jon said.
"By the tone of your voice, you don't sound too pleased," Linda said.
"I'm just asking a question. What has she told you?"
"She's told me that she wants to move to Virginia."
"That I do know. Everyone else was told about it before me."
Jon shook his head and downed his coffee.
"Adriana told me that she didn't tell you because you two could barely say five words to each other without flying off the handle."
"We've been fine. She told me the deal. And she's right. I really need to stop yelling and screaming at her."
"She told me that she reads your journal. Says the reason why you've been acting out is because of therapy. It's still hard for you to revisit those painful memories. You lash out at her in frustration. And your job doesn't make it any better."
"You're preaching to the choir here, Mom," Jon said.
"Hey, I'm just telling you what was told to me," Linda said.
"I can't keep putting the kids through hell either," Jon said. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. He was exhausted from barely getting any sleep.
"Exactly. I honestly think moving to Virginia would be best for you guys. But if you don't want to go, you don't have to," Linda said.
"I'm not sure about moving to Virginia," Jon said.
"And what not?"
"Because, Mom, I can't just up and move to Virginia right off the bat! I need time to save up money! Jeez, I just got done paying bills for goodness sake! I don't need this to be added onto my plate!"
"Jonathan, please calm down. I didn't say move right away."
"I don't want to talk about it anymore!" Jon said.
"Don't raise your voice at me! I'm only trying to help!" Linda said.
Steve heard the commotion going on in the house and went back in to check it out.
"Look, don't talk to Adriana anymore alright!? That's the damn problem! I hate when she does shit like this!"
"Look at the way you're acting now. That is why she isn't coming to you first about anything. She needs someone to talk to and she can't even speak to her own husband, the man of her life, the father of her children, because he starts to lash out! Jonathan, you're the problem!"
"I'm not the fucking problem!"
"Hey! Cool it down! Don't talk to your mother that way!" Steve said.
"Shut up and mind your business. This is between me and my mother, not you," Jon said.
"Adriana has changed a lot for you. A lot. Instead of arguing with you, now she backs off. She chooses not to go through the heartache of fighting with you. You two have four beautiful kids together who don't need to see their parents fighting. You need to calm down," Steve said.
"Don't tell me how to live my life. And you need to stop talking to my wife," Jon said.
He grabbed his jacket off of the chair and left.
Jon came home to J.J., Aiden, and Madaline all watching t.v. in the living room.
"Hello little monsters," he said.
"Daddy!" Madaline said.
She jumped up and gave her father a hug and a kiss.
"I've missed you!" she said.
"I've missed you too."
"We're about to eat in a few minutes!" J.J. said.
"What did Mommy make?"
"She bought Chinese food," Aiden said. "My favorite!"
"Where is your mother?"
"In the garage," J.J. said.
"Alrighty. You guys go back to watching t.v. now. I'll be back."
The children resumed watching t.v. as Jon went to see about Adriana.
She was in the garage putting the dirty clothes in the washing machine. Adriana saw Jon come in through the door.
"Hey Adriana," Jon said.
"Hi Jon," she said.
Jon honestly didn't know where to start. He walked over and leaned against the dryer, folding his arms.
"How are you feeling?" he asked Adriana.
"I'm okay. Just putting these clothes in the washer then I'm going to feed the kids," she said.
"I talked to my mother today," Jon said.
By the tone of his voice, Adriana knew it didn't end well.
"And you ended up arguing with her right?"
"And Steve."
"Dammit Jonathan Good!"
"Wait a minute!" Jon said, holding a hand up. "But they told me something that I needed to hear. I am the problem. I still do not know how to control myself. It's like if I don't draw or write I just explode."
"You know what else you never do?"
"What's that?"
"I've always noticed you hold back tears. Instead of just crying and letting it out, you just bottle everything inside. I know things are tough for you but hell, if I can bounce back from losing half of my memory, then you can bounce back from this too! Okay, Jack?"
"Yes Sally," Jon said.
"Gimme kiss?" Adriana said.
Jon puckered his lips. Adriana puckered hers and kissed him.
"Goddamn, I love your kisses," Jon said. "I'm going to set the table now."
Adriana smiled.
"Thanks."
"I've been taking you for granted. And I'm not going to do that anymore," Jon said.
"Good. Because I was going to have to shoot you!" Adriana said.
"I'm sure you would've!" Jon said. "Come on. Let's go eat."
Jon waited until Adriana was finished with the laundry then left the garage with her. They set the table and called the kids in for dinner.
Aiden was struggling to eat his food with chopsticks. Soon he gave up and started banging the chopsticks against the table as if he was a drummer.
"Whoa there! Save the rock band stuff for later on! Pick up your fork and eat this delicious food, Aiden," Jon said. "Don't you just love shrimp?"
"Oh, I do," Aiden said.
"Do you really now?" Jon asked.
"Yes father," Aiden said. Aiden picked up his fork, stabbed the shrimp on his plate, and shoved it in his mouth. "Mmmmm! He's dead in my mouth!"
"You're weird," Maddy said.
"No, you're weird," Aiden said.
"Shut up!" Maddy said.
"No you!" Aiden said.
Jon and Adriana looked at each other.
All they could do was smile.
Author's Note: Seems like things are getting better. We will see what happens.