Day 247 - July 5th

Thomasville, Alabama

As Brandi, the kids and I were heading out the door to go to Carol’s and Perry’s, two Jehovah’s Witnesses greeted us on the threshold. From the way the two women greeted Brandi, it sounded as if this wasn’t the first time they’ve showed up. Brandi held her cigarette behind the door as she talked to them. I am not a particularly pugnacious person but their presence there and the words they chose to advertise for their religion annoyed me. “…and as you can see the world is going downhill and there’s really nothing to do but find salvation in the Lord.” At this point I popped my head around the side of the door, a big grin on my face. “But only for 140,000 people, right?” I felt they were preying on Brandi and the kids and that I was intercepting this horrible message that the world is not improvable. I don’t pretend I have much awareness of the Jehovah’s Witness point of view but my opinion, as it stands now, is they leverage fear and despair to drive people into their overpromising arms.

They eventually left but their fingerprint was still stamped on my mood as we drove out to the mobile home. Moods there were not much happier. Jamie’s arrival yesterday had already turned up the pressure and tempers were high. It was difficult seeing Perry’s obvious frustration. He had to step outside several times to be alone. Perry is a good, kind man. He works hard to provide for his family but the circumstances bogging him down are unwieldy and the path to resolution is unclear. His daughter steals and has three children but no means of supporting them. His in-laws live in his home. Carol’s pill addiction draws from their savings. I wish there was something I could do to momentarily give everyone space from their problems to breathe.

I played outside with the kids again. Kaylee and Kaitlyn have a YouTube channel called Crazy Girls and I was their cameraman. They performed acrobatics and I commentated and announced their cartwheels, tumbles, flips and splits. We also did a news spoof where Chelsea had the headline news, Bam-bam the sports section and Kaitlyn the weather. Earlier in the day, I pushed Bam-Bam and Alden around on a wheelbarrow. We played more freeze tag. There isn’t a day that can’t be salvaged.

I went home with Brandi and the kids again. We all piled into the living room and watched Redbox movies. Bam-bam picked a horribly funny B-horror flick named Dinosaur experiment. All of us fell asleep in the living room, Brandi in the recliner, Bam-Bam and Chelsea on the floor, and myself on the couch, TV flickering and the fan on full blast. Extremely tired, I crashed before anyone else and sought the oblivion of sleep.