Pepperony: reflections

Pepper's point of view

I was 4 when they took me in. My mother was an unfit parent and my father was incarcerated.

The woman took an instant dislike to me but at first, she pretended otherwise.

When Shane and I were 7, his best friend came to live with us because his father murdered his mother in cold blood. Richie, Shane and I were like The Three Musketeers. We were rarely not together.

That was the year Aunt Linda had her second child… Throughout her whole pregnancy she was tired and grouchy.

That's when I began to notice a disparity between the way she treated Shane and the way she treated me. She doted on Shane, she doted on Richie, she treated me like I was less than they were.

I would do my best to obey her wishes to the letter, but it was never enough.

Uncle Vince came home to find me sitting outside on the stoop, tears streaming down my cheeks. He sat on the stoop beside me.

"Virginia, what's wrong?" he asked. I wiped my face and looked up at him.

"I don't know if it's just in my head or if I'm going mad or something but… Aunt Linda is hateful to me when you're not here."

"OK"

"I know she's pregnant… I know she's tired but… she's being unreasonable and cruel"
"I'll talk to her".

"OK"

Stephanie Marie McMahon chose that night to make her loud and painful entrance into the world. For the next year, things got worse, Aunt Linda had postpartum depression but none of us realised it until it was too late.

While all of this was going on, Richie, Shane and I were having severe issues in school. A teacher by the name of Mr Barnes was making all three of us miserable. Finally, Shane snapped.

"Detention McMahon, my office, after school"
"Not a chance!"

"Principal's office now, McMahon"
"That's not fair sir"

"Was I talking to you, bitch?"
"OK that's it!" Shane got up and walked up to Mr Barnes.

"I have had it with the way you treat my cousin, my best friend and me… You are finished."
"What are you going to do?"
"THIS!"

Shane kicked Mr Barnes in the nuts as hard as he could.

"This is only the beginning! 2nd grade, follow me!" he said furiously

All of us left our classroom… Shane led us to the door of the other second grade classroom. Miss Honey was horrified to find us there, she approached Shane and said, "Did it happen again?"

"No but he disrespected my cousin and my best friend in front of me… so I gave him a nut shot and led the others in here."

"OK… you did the right thing by coming to me and leading your classmates to safety. Thank you for trusting me… go and find the principal, OK?"

"Yes ma'am"

Shane took both Richie and me by the hand, and we went down to the principal's office. He wasn't there.

"I've had enough of this school… I think it's time we blow this dump and take matters into our hands."

"OK?"
"How?"
"We're going to go home… and we're not coming back."

When we got home, Stephanie was lying on the bottom stair screaming… her diaper was very pungent.

"All right, let's split up. Richie, go look for Aunt Linda, Shane call your father immediately, and I'll get Stephanie changed."

I picked my little cousin up gently and put her on my shoulder, I took her upstairs, ran her a bath in the sink, put the tip of my elbow into the water to check the temperature,

I carefully lifted Steph into the water and soaped her down from head to toe. I drained out the water and got a towel from the rail and carefully wrapped Steph in it so that she wasn't slippery when I lifted her out. Shane came upstairs.

"Dad's on his way home from the office, Richie hasn't found mom yet, but he's still looking."

I took Steph into her room and put a clean diaper on her and got her dressed. I put her into her bouncy seat in the living room for a while. I got teething gel from the drawer and rubbed it on her gums (she was teething)

Shane warmed up a bottle for her and I fed her and burped her. When Uncle Vince got home we were trying to figure out what to make for dinner.

"Where is your mom?"
"I don't know dad, Richie looked all over the house, including the attic and the basement, we checked the garden, the pool, everywhere"
"Did you look in the garage to see if her car is there?"
"No"

We hurried into the garage. Stephanie was asleep in her bouncy chair, so I put a blanket over her and left her to nap.

"Aunt Linda's car was not in the garage when I looked" said Richie

"OK wait a minute" said Shane "She left a 16-week-old baby alone on a step, Stephanie just learned to roll over! She could have got hurt! The house is a mess. Sorry, we could have been better about trying to clean up"

"It's not your responsibility Richie, it's Linda's. I don't need this right now! We're in the lead up to our biggest pay per view of the year… She knows this! Each of you pack a bag and Ginny I want you to pack for Stephanie".

"Yes sir"

"You have 10 minutes"

Uncle Vince loaded us into the car, and we drove, and we drove and we drove. We drove to New Bern North Carolina.

We landed on Linda's mother's doorstep at 7am. Tired, hungry, and in Stephanie's case requiring a diaper change.

"Vince what's wrong?"
"Linda's disappeared, the house is a mess, the kids left school early and… we're going into our biggest pay per view of the year and…"

That was the first time I ever saw my godfather crack.

"All right, bring the children inside… let me take care of Stephanie, the rest of you sit on the couch OK?"
"Yes ma'am"

Aunt Linda's mom brought us cookies and soda, and we watched some wrestling on TV.

"All right you two, listen I have an idea. Shane are you close with your grandmother?"
"Yes, Mee-Maw and I get on very well. Why?"

"I think you should tell her what Mr Barnes did."

"Good idea"

"Vince I don't know where Linda is. I'm sorry"
"Will you please come back to Connecticut with me and help me with the children until we find Linda?"
"Of course I will, I'm going to pack some clothes, and we can leave in the morning, you must be exhausted from the drive"

"OK"

We drove back to Connecticut the next morning, it was a very long drive. Uncle Vince and Mee-Maw took it in turns to drive.

When we got back to the house, Aunt Linda's car was still gone. Uncle Vince was despondent. I heard him ask.

"What do I do?"
"You go and look for her. I'll hold the fort here."

"OK… I think I will take Stephanie with me though,"

"That's probably wise"

Uncle Vince and his friend (who was also Stephanie's Godfather) Pat Patterson, drove up and down the entire east coast looking for Aunt Linda. They came back to Greenwich once a week. They eventually found her in Florida. Uncle Vince spent the next several days trying to persuade her to come home with him.

"Mee-Maw, Ginny, Richie and I need to talk to you. It's about why we quit school…"
"OK, I'm listening"
"We quit school the other day"
"Why?"
"Mr Barnes is an unreasonable jerk of a man. He's out of control. He hurt a girl in Miss Honey's class for no reason and didn't apologise. He's been notably crueller to us than to any other students. We don't do anything wrong, but we are constantly in trouble."

"OK"

Uncle Vince, Aunt Linda, Mee-Maw and the three of us had a meeting with the school counsellor. Nothing was done.

Aunt Linda decided to home-educate us… That was not the worst thing that happened…

Whatever way the mess of a situation above is broken down, it's still abuse.