I met a young lady in 1995. A friend of a friend. She wasn't bad on the eyes but not my type. I got to know certain things about her though I really wasn't trying to get to know her.
Apparently she started life as the child of a failed middle class marriage. Mother (an insurance agent who has been a member of the million high club) was reminded of wayward husband by countenance of daughter. Daughter caught hell for it. Her uncle (father's brother) used to assist financially since father had left. The catch was young daughter had to put up with an adult penis in her immature vagina on occassion.
Pre-pubescence greeted her with leukemia (not sure which type). Chemo took her hair, it never returned. She has to wear a wig. It's not obvious. I noticed it, said nothing. I didn't need to know. She didn't need to be self-conscious. She discovered alcohol by age 14, cigarettes by age 15, weed soon after, and hasn't looked back since.
She started sleeping with whomever showed her attention. God was good to her in that she didn't get many dogs, but she was always trying to hide the fact that she smoked hard and drank harder, not to mention the fact that she had no hair. Many times I had allowed her to blame me for the smell of cigarettes at her house when the flavour of the month came to see her. Perhaps I was blamed for the weed as well. She would try to have a romantic life but when you give away the prize from day 1, not many ppl are willing to play the game much longer.
Her family was dysfunctional and felt that she was the reason and so she got the brunt of their insults. Not to say that she didn't do crap that gave them reason to be pissed. She was brilliant academically, inclined to the arts. Wrote wonderful poetry, a B+ student because she didn't put out any effort. Then with 1 semester to go she dropped out of UWI. She couldn't bother. Eventually after 3 abortions the doctor refused to perform another so she had a child.
I passed her house for a couple of years without ever feeling the urge to stop by because I didn't want to see her. I didn't want to know what else had gone wrong with her life. Very selfish of me I know. I didn't want to see her also because I would then see her child and know that I had wasted a blight against my soul. I helped her pay for her first abortion. I helped her buy the meds for her second. Yet she still got pregnant twice after that. I put myself in a morally bankrupt position for her because I knew it would be terrible to bring a child into that environment. What arrogance.
I eventually went to see her one day. I hoped she wouldn't be at home; she was. She cussed me for being scarce. I smiled. She lit up the spliff she had just bought across the road. Her son looked quite contented. Not malnourished, physically well. He was 2 1/2 yrs old. She had been made redundant when the fast food franchise at which she was manager closed its doors. She moved on to cigarettes when the spliff was done. I joined her in one for old times sake (it was some time ago). I left, she tried to make me promise to keep in touch. I smiled and drove off.
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