My Family: Chapter 58

Every time I would go home for a visit something had happen. This one time I went home, my best friend since school had had a nervous break-down. Apparently, she tried to kill herself with a knife. I went to see her and she was in a bedroom just sitting in a rocking chair. She hadn’t said a word to anyone since she tried to kill herself. She even refused to talk to me, but stayed anyway and talked enough for us both.  When I still didn’t get a response, I read out loud to her. I did this every day at about the same time. I stayed home a little longer than was normal for me. Then one day she began to talk to me and I asked her to tell me why she tried to kill herself.

She said she was in love with a boy who lived in Orville and he was going to marry someone else.  The girl who lives next door to him was pregnant with another guy’s baby but he didn’t want to marry her. So my friend’s love interest decided he would marry the girl and give her baby a name. Well, that told me right there this boy was in love with the girl but my girlfriend didn’t want to hear it. She begs me to call the boy on the phone and ask him to come talk to her. I didn’t think it would make any difference and told her so she begged me so hard I did what she wanted. At the time there were only two phones in the coal camp and I figured our neighbor would be more likely to let me use their phone.

I told the love interest who I was and what I wanted but he told me to tell my friend “no” he didn’t want to see her. I called him everyday for a week and begged him. He finally said he would be down later that day. When he came and they had a long talked. He explained to my friend he was sorry but he didn’t love her that he was in love with the other girl. And as quickly as that started, it was over. I went back to Aunt Hannah’s to stay since my friend was going to be okay. My girlfriend had a sister who was thirteen and she met this man who was already married, had a family, and lived on Buffalo Creek. She became pregnant but neither she nor her family knew it. Everyone just thought she put on a little weight and was looking good since she was real skinny to start with.

My girlfriend told me that one day her sister ran around the house like a crazy person crying with a stomach-ache and her mom had to get someone to take her to the hospital. When they got there the doctor took her sister away then came back and told her mom that the sister had a baby son. Boy, were they shocked! My girlfriend also had a little boy out of wedlock. The father was the same male friend who was kidding when he said he was going to rape our other friend in the ball field. She said they started to see one another right after I left. Later she had a little girl by the same guy but they never got married.