I was 12. Mom had recently shacked up with a new guy, not that their were many... but this one was new. He seemed like a cool guy, hadn't shown his dark side yet.

We had taken a trip for the weekend to his family's beach house. I invited a new friend of mine from school to join us... I'm pretty sure he had no idea what he was in for.

We were there for a day or so before it all started to fall apart. We went out into some marshlands somewhere near the guys beach house. I think he was showing us how he could catch fish with a net. Well, not long after we started trodding aorund in the mud, my flip-flop got caught. I tried to pull it out but it was stuck, so I removed my foot and dug it out from the mud. Instead of putting it back on only to get it stuck again I take a few steps without it, and I slice my foot on some broken glass. Wasn't that big of a deal, I had cut my feet so many times from broken glass, stepping on nails, etc... the kind of things that happen to boys when they are young. Mom freaks, she inspects the cut, sees it's pretty bad, and starts whispering to me in a very low growl that I will not "ruin this weekend for her". lol.

Personally, I really didn't give a flying f*** about the cut, it was no big deal. I knew it would heal. I figured she should just let me go chill at the beach house and I'll be fine. Instead she made me walk on it for hours on end.

I forget how most of the weekend went, but it was miserable. The real adventure came on the way home.

We were all sunburned, tired, wore out from non-stop drama. My friend and I were in the back of the truck, talking and joking as best as we could about such a horrible weekend. I had my arm on the side of the truck, riding comfortably, and then I had a feeling I should pull it back inside where it was safe...

BAM! The truck hit the concrete divider and sparks started flying from the side of the truck where my arm was just dangling. I turn to look inside the cab and my mother is striking this man in the face and yelling something inaudible at him. BAM! The truck hits again and sparks fly once more. The man regains control of the vehicle and turns to my mother and punches her square in the face. He's accelerating now, and I am screaming at him to stop. He swerves to the side of the road and opens her door. He pushes her out of the truck and nails it. The passenger door closes from the speed of his acceleration.

I freak. I start hobbling on my cut foot towards the back of the truck as he continues to accelerate. I scream at him to stop the truck as I start to climb over the back and on to the bumper, contemplating how I better roll as I watch the ground fly by in a blur.

I'm screaming, my new soon-to-be ex-friend is like "What the hell is going on!?" The guy slams on the breaks and I'm out of the truck hobbling down the road as rocks start pelting me in the back from the truck screaming back down the road. I remember thinking "I hope my buddy doesn't have to jump..." since he was still in the truck.

I hobble for about 100 yards before a van pulls to the side of the road and people I don't know say "Get in." The back door flies open and there is mom crying amidst a van full of confused looking people.

We pick up my buddy about a quarter mile later. The people in the van drop us off at a store about 2 hours drive from our home. We wait for what seemed an eternity before my father came to pick us all up. Then pop dropped us off the house...

Mom and I stayed with that guy for about a year after that. I think that was actually the first weekend I spent with the guy. The worst part was the fight that continued at home. My buddy for some strange reason still stayed at my house that night. When the guy came home he and mom got into it. I was used to mom getting in fights at this point in my life, but then the guy starts calling on satan in the middle of the hallway. Talking about how he will sit on the right hand of satan and will pull her from the flames... really wild crazy psycho sh**.

The next day the guy drops me and my friend off at the movies. To this day I wonder wtf my mother was thinking to leave us alone with the psyco. He explains to us that he's not satanic. he was just trying to scare my mom. Whatever, that dude was a freak. And mom lived with him for a year before she finally got so creeped out we finally moved. I remember her telling me she stayed with him cause the sex was good.
Great mom, I'm gonna go wash my ears with bleach now.