MIKES STORY "My dad locks me in the closet"

    I lived on 59 Pavilion Avenue in Long Branch New Jersey. Two blocks East was one of the best surf spots on the coast. The local surfers named The Spot “Pav Ave”  short for Pavilion Avenue. One block west was the Monmouth Medical Center. It wasn't uncommon to hear the sounds of the ambulance sirens heading to and emergency or arriving back at the ER with patients. For some, it would be their last ride. During the Summer, life was all about fishing, surfing, snorkeling, and hanging out with the older lifeguards.

  I counted the days down during the school year, Jersey winters were cold and full of homework I didn't understand. I wasn't very studious, to say the least. My parents thought it was a good idea to start my academic career early, and I quickly fell behind. They lied about my birthday in order to get me into school one year earlier. I recall it being very confusing not understanding what everybody else was doing. They even lied to me about my birthday so I wouldn't slip up and expose them. It wasn’t until the age of 10 that I found out when my real birthday was.

    My father and I moved into the house on Pavilion Avenue during my fifth-grade year.  My parents had been divorced and had been living separately since I was in first grade, But the house on Pavilion was big enough for all of us and then some. although my parents didn't have a successful marriage they were still friends. My dad let my mother have the upstairs portion of the house and they shared the kitchen. They said they worked out this arrangement for me so that I would have both of my parents in the same house even though they were divorced. I'm sure it had its financial benefits also. My dad's girlfriend at the time was not so fond of the situation and I really couldn't blame her.

  Eventually, my mother moved out when she met my stepfather. Bob made tons of money, he worked for Donald Trump of all people. Back when Donald Trump owned the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City Bob was the property manager at that Casino.  My Mom married for money this time around.

   They bought a condo together down in Toms River New Jersey. That was probably best for everyone. That left the three-story Victorian house all to my father and I. His girlfriend Tammy would come down and visit on the weekends. I enjoyed her skimpy outfits and walking around the house half-naked. She was 13 years younger than my dad and 13 years older than me, which meant in a few years I could date her if it didn't work out with my father. She always had her tits out, well not literally out, but they may as well have been. She'd walk around the house braless and bend over in front of me every chance she got.  Needless to say, I enjoyed the weekends, but I wasn't home very much in the summer. I was only home for the occasional meal and at night to sleep off the sunburn.

   The Pavilion house became surf headquarters for my friends and I. You could hear the swells building at night on the days there were waves. Summer swells are few and far between on the East Coast, but when they hit, it was all time! We’d grab our boards in the morning and run down to the beach paying no mind to the periodic ambulance passing by on its way to Monmouth Medical Center. We were in the prime of our lives, just a block away from people at the end of theirs.

   Eddie was a kid I had been running into all around town. We never really spoke, but we knew of one another. Eddie was a year older than me and we went to different schools. I went to a Catholic program and Eddie was in the public school system. In my case, we were beaten by nuns, In Eddie’s school, you had to worry about an encounter with your peers. I use to see Eddie playing on the streets across from my class window. He was always skipping school.  I was intrigued by his rebellious Behavior. I didn't have the balls to skip class, but I was dating a girl 3 years older than me. Patricia Strickland was in 8th grade and her sister Amy was in my class. I thought Amy was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. I would give Amy all my best snacks at lunch, in an effort to get her to circle yes, on the “would you be my girlfriend.” (yes or no) note I’d passed to her every day.

    Due to my efforts, I ended up landing Amy’s older sister. I guess Patricia thought it was cute that I offered up my lunch to her sister every day. I’m sure Amy told her, and by the time Amy introduced me to her sister, I was already deemed a “good guy.” They soon would start to walk with me on my way home from school. Eventually, Eddie became part of our walk home. We would pass him daily on our way home and one day he just started walking with us. I guess the two blondes with me were more exciting than the street punks he was hanging around. 

    We would all hang back at the Pavilion house for a few hours every day after school.
Amy and Eddie would run off, leaving me and Patricia alone. I brought her up to my secret spot on the roof of my garage. The garage was at the end of a long driveway behind the Pavilion house. It never got much use, it was just where my dad parked his classic Thunderbird.  There was a tree on the side of the garage that no kid could resist climbing. Its branches were perfectly spaced out, which made climbing to the roof a breeze. once on top of the roof you were sheltered from the leaves and branches that hung over the top of the roof, out of sight from anyone’s view down below. 

    Patricia scared me a little bit. I could tell that she was more experienced than me and that made me nervous. She had an ever-present Charisma that I could feel radiating off of her. She was rebellious on many different levels. She was dating a younger guy despite what her friends thought. She smoked Cigarettes that she carried in her push-up bra and wore makeup. Patricia was the closest thing to a real woman I had ever seen. One particular day after school [while in our treetop roof hangout] Patricia grabbed me and shoved her tongue down my throat. It was the first time I had ever kissed a girl like that. To this day, I can still taste the makeup and cigarettes on her mouth. The Summer after fifth grade I lost touch with Patricia. Once our relationship ended, Eddie and Amy stopped talking as well. Eddie and I continued to surf and hang out on the beach that summer. We built a strong bond and connected through our love of the ocean. We both took notice of this Puerto Rican kid that used to hang out on the beach all day. Eddie and I both noticed him because he was always there before we got there in the morning and stayed long after we left.  He lived in the ocean, he would literally bodyboard in the surf for 6 to 8 hours a day. He never wore a proper bathing suit, just a pair of cut off jeans and a wifebeater shirt. 

    One day while Eddie and I were jumping off the (jetty) rocks into the water, the Puerto Rican kid decided to approach us. “Hey! I’m Mike.” We had been jumping off the rock where Mike and his father fished. It was the only flat rock among a jetty full of Jagged boulders. It was in the perfect spot for fishing and rock jumping. It was placed (Seemingly on purpose buy whoever constructed the jetty) right on the edge nearest to the water. Mike and his father would always be the first ones there to ensure they would get their spot. Mike could have aggressively claimed his rock when confronting Eddie and me, but instead, he was very humble and presented a calm demeanor. 

   Throughout the summer Mike and I would talk...getting to know one another. Mike and I bonded more so than he did with Eddie. Eddie was my best friend, but I was Mike’s go-to friend for advice. One day Mike revealed something very disturbing to me:

Mike: “You ever get punished?... My dad says I can’t come down to the beach tomorrow. I came home a minute late last night and my dad is really strict on that.” 
[Mike looked at his watch]

Me: “I guess sometimes I do, but not for that.”

Mike: “My dad gave me this watch, he said for me to always be home before 7 pm. I was only a minute late man.” 
[Mike picked up his Wife-beater shirt revealing slash marks and bruising]

Me: “Your dad did that!?... For being late?!”

Mike: “A minute late man, one fucking minute late! I dropped my tacklebox on the way home. I left the beach at the same time as I always do, but this time I dropped my fishing lures all over the road. I knew I would have gotten beat more if I had come home without them. I thought I had enough time...One minute, that was all. Sometimes I wish he would just fucking die! [Mike spits on the ground] Sometimes, SOMETIMES!!!!”

Me: [Interupting mike] “Hey! hey...It’s ok man, I get it. That’s crazy, no my dad doesn’t do that if that’s what you’re asking?!”

Mike: “Anthony, he locks me in the closet too, sometimes for days…”

    Just then a car horn beeped, breaking our focus from the disturbing conversation. We didn’t notice, but we had been drifting off into the road. I finished walking mike to his apartment as I did most days. It was on the way to my house anyway, so we sometimes walked together. It was an assisted living building. Mike's father had epileptic seizures so he qualified for the Assistant Living Program there. Mike and I never spoke of it again. I didn’t see mike for a few days after that. I couldn’t help but think he was locked away in his father’s closet somewhere. I could see mikes apartment from the beach, I’d keep 
staring over at it from the surf...hoping my friend was still alive. A few days later Mike showed up, back to normal, happy and thrilled to be back in the ocean again!

    A few weeks later Eddie and I were finishing up a surf when Mike’s dad walked past us on the beach. Mike was off somewhere in the water as he often was.
Mike’s dad: “See any fish today?”
Eddie: Not today…
Mike’s dad: “Come, come, fishy fishy.”
    
    I wasn’t going to talk to the guy, but I did find it strange that he was coming so late to fish. I headed home and didn’t think much more about my encounter with Mike’s father.

   I fell asleep on the couch when I got home and woke up to the normal sound of sirens. I tried to fall back asleep when a knock on the door made me jump up! It was Mike, He was a ball of tears and I knew what happened before he could speak. Mike's father suffered from epileptic seizures, he must have had one while fishing and drowned. Mike confirmed my suspicions. "MY FUCKING DAD'S DEAD MAN, MY DAD!, my dad... [Mike's screams faded as he fell into my arms]. We were just kids, I didn't know what to say, so I just held him. Eddie and I saw him on his way down the beach and we wished him luck. Two hours later they drove his father's lifeless body right past our house. Mike's father died on the same jetty where I met Mike, just 3 weeks after he wished him dead.

Rough draft by Anthony Mendez