Part Thirty

  Mike turned thirteen and felt his health slowly improving from the allotted penicillin prescribed to him. It seemed he turned a corner ever since having to almost knock Ricky out when Ricky had been strangling their mother. Still somewhat frail and weak, Mike felt his health renewing for the first time in his life. He went for his semi-annual heart checkups and the doctor noted his improvement. Virginia and the children lived not too far from the Ouachita River and Arlis would come by once or twice a week hoping to save his marriage to no avail. Virginia was drinking heavily again and met and fell in love with Eugene, a local truckdriver. It was an on and off again relationship since he was a playboy. Then she met Bobby Joe who was from a nearby country town named Dubach. Bobby Joe was also an alcoholic so it was as if Virginia was playing with fire. Arlis happened by one weekend and discovered Bobby Joe had stayed the night with Virginia. She scooted him out the back door when she realized Arlis had come over for she knew there would be trouble. It was most difficult for Arlis to accept his and Virginia's marriage was over. As he was about to leave, Ricky told his dad about Bobby Joe and that he was hiding on the back doorsteps. Arlis walked around the house to confront him and Bobby Joe drunk, pulled a gun on him. Arlis took the pistol away from him and beat him over the head with it and then left crying. Ricky was so upset, he began arguing with Bobby Joe and the argument escalated. Ricky took his belt off and beat Bobby Joe with his belt buckle until Mike was able to pull Ricky off of him. Ricky had the same blank glaze in his eyes as he had when he had strangled their mother a few months back. It was all Mike could to talk Ricky down enough to get Ricky to hand Mike his belt. Mike knew if he hadn't have walked up and discovered Ricky beating on Bobby Joe when he did and somehow talked him down out of his insane rage that Ricky would have beaten Bobby Joe to death on the spot. Virginia, hungover from the previous night's drinking heard all the commotion and opened the back door to find Bobby Joe lying knocked out on the ground in a pool of blood. Mike ran inside to help her find her car keys and walk her to the passenger side of the car. She refused to get in and came and helped Mike carry Bobby Joe to the car. Mike pulled Ricky to the side and related to him that he better disappear for a while until things cooled down, all the while Virginia was cursing and swinging at Ricky with her fists. After finally separating their mother and Ricky,  Mike helped his mother into the car and drove Bobby Joe to emergency at the hospital. After several days in ICU, Bobby Joe was released and Virginia drove him to his home to keep him away from Ricky and to help Bobby Joe recover from the unexpected, violent attack.

  Arlis refused to pay child support after the altercation with Bobby Joe and stated if Bobby Joe wanted to take over his family then he could take on the responsibility of supporting them. Bobby Joe helped some but he was paying child support for his children from his failed marriage. Virginia moved in with Bobby Joe at his home in Dubach and would come home once in a while to check on her children. Mike was left once again having to take care of himself and all his siblings and it wasn't easy, just as it wasn't easy the other times the children had been abandoned and he was forced to take care of them. Virginia went to work in Bobby Joe's bar in Dubach and rarely did she get the chance to come home. When she did get a chance to come home, Mike related to her the hardships. Arlis wasn't bringing any child support over and the only income to feed everyone was coming from Jimmy Don and Mike purchasing a used lawn mower for five dollars and mowing lawns where they could. Jimmy Don took most of what little cash was made to purchase drugs and he stayed gone. Ricky and Ronny would cut lawns to purchase marijuana. Mike took what he could make to purchase food for everyone and many a night he'd go to bed with nothing to eat to make sure Tommy and Kathy had enough to eat. Times were hard and Mike knew his childhood had long been gone since a few years back. Arlis was stubborn and continued refusing to support his children so Mike pawned all of his silver certificates and silver coins to him that he'd saved, dollar for dollar just to purchase food to feed everyone. After several months Virginia finally returned home and was admitted to ICU at the hospital for about a week because Bobby Joe had almost beaten her to death. He'd fractured her previously broken jaw, blacked both her eyes and fractured the bones around her eye sockets. When she was released from the hospital she came home to heal and a month later she met and fell in love with a fellow named Carl. Carl owned three local bars and she went to work managing all three bars. Bobby Joe had been stalking her since she left him and she had lodged complaints with the police department. One weekend Mike took all of his siblings to the drive-in theater and when they returned home they discovered it was on fire. Seeing their mother's car parked in the driveway, Mike tried to rush in their house thinking their mother was perhaps drunk and passed out. The police stopped him, not allowing him to go inside and reassured him no one was in the house. Mike borrowed a neighbor's telephone to call Carl and was relieved to know she was safe with Carl though they had no idea the house was on fire. Carl brought her home and she and the children slept in her car after the fire department put the fire out. The house was a total loss for it had caught back on fire during the night after the fire department had left. Mike called the fire department and they returned to put the fire out again though there was nothing left but a charred shell. The next day it was discovered someone had seen Bobby Joe behind the house before the fire had started and he had what looked like a molotive cocktail. An eyewitness had seen him light some kind of fabric sticking out of the end of a whiskey bottle and toss it through a window at the back of the house. Later that day the police came by to tell Mike that Bobby Joe had been arrested for attempted murder and arson. Virginia was drunk, passed out in the car and Mike told her what had happened when she finally woke. Carl had left earlier but not before trying to persuade Virginia to bring herself and her children to his house yet she refused, stating she wasn't about to burden him with her six children.