Goodbye Uncle Jake

On Thursday I received news that my great uncle Jake had passed away. He had not been well for some time but loss is never easy. When I was little, my mom's family always went to my great oma's for dinner. She was an incredible woman and always made the best food. Darren and I always promptly got a candy the second we walked in the door. Great Oma would open the china cabinet, pull out a tub and hand us a candy. Everyone would go in the kitchen and Darren and I would play. The best part of being there was when uncle Jake and uncle George would sneak us candies. I don't know or remember if they did it as a combined effort or if both did solo candy stealing but I will never forget how much fun my great uncles were. I saw my uncle Jake for the first time in many years at my wedding. He gave me his memorably wide smile and said, "Hello Javaneh! Do you remember me?" I couldn't help but giggle like a little girl and say "Of course uncle Jake!" and gave him a great big hug. He was a very sweet man to me and he will be greatly missed from this world. R.I.P. uncle Jake!

26 June 2014

Adventures Into Manholes

As children we were always into exploring. We had wild imaginations and could play and play until the sun went down. Darren and I, one day as pre-teens, got the brilliant idea to grab skateboards and hope into a manhole with our two cousins, Andrew and Dominic. With helmets on our heads and lights strapped on top, we got in the manhole. Laying on our bellies on our boards we followed the pipes down holding each others feet. Darren was in front, Andrew was behind him, I was behind Andrew and Dominic was in the back. We made Dom be in the back, despite him being the youngest, because he was the biggest of us all and Darren was in front because he was second biggest. We went down the tunnels for one reason and one reason only. We dared each other. We wanted to be scared. We wanted to find a creature or a bum below the manholes. The whole way down we giggled and occasionally screamed as we worked our way down to the next manhole. We finally made it to a big open area with a couple of directions we could go. We chose to go out of the tunnel and see where we were on the hill that the initial manhole started at. We were at the very bottom of the hill. We found no vagrants, no creatures, nothing scary just a good time and maybe a few mice.

27 June 2014

And The Survivor Is...

She sat in silence, hands bound and gag in her mouth, just listening to the car ride. She was in the trunk and could not see what was going on. She had been walking home by herself when something hit her in the back of her head and she woke up in the trunk. She had managed to get her hands untied just as the car rolled to a stop. She could hear the door open and shut and footsteps crunching on dirt and rocks. She positioned herself so she could jump out when the trunk opened. She knew she only had a second and she hoped whoever took her didn't have a weapon in hand. She listened as the key turned in the trunk and popped open. As soon as the trunk was fully open she jumped with a force that she never knew she had. She kicked the man who opened it square in the chest, knocking him down.

“You bitch!” he screamed as she took off running, “get back here!”

She ran as fast as her feet could carry her. When she thought she was far enough ahead she stopped and looked around, catching her breath. She found a thick branch and waited.

“Come here girl! Come out and I won't hurt you... badly,” the man angrily chuckled as he walked the woods looking for her.

When she thought she could hear him on the other side of the tree she swung around and hit him in the side of the head with the branch. He fell to the ground but grabbed her as he fell. The two wrestled on the ground grunting and screaming. He had a gun in his hand and both were trying to gain control of it. One of them got control and shot. POP! POP! POP!