83

1996

Spring

I felt you growing inside and I would smile. For the most part, I felt peace. I still hadn't found a job yet and so I went about my daily routine of cooking and talking to you while rubbing my tummy.
Venum would place his ear upon my belly and listen as Damian grew inside. We had picked the name from the movie Omen. Venum had gotten me to watch the movie so that I would know who the character "Damian" was. I thought the name was cool and so I agreed to the decision.
But without having a job myself, the living got very hard. Venum never stopped drinking and I was eating more...eating for two of course as the saying goes. I was still having to wake Venum up to get him to bed; sometimes even picking him up and dragging him into the bedroom because he was completely passed out from the drink. I was no longer drinking or smoking pot and so I was quite strict on others coming into the apartment as well. So, I dealt with his drunkenness for the most part. Besides, I was so enamored and in love with my new pregnancy. I was just filled with so much light and love that it was hard to bring me down.

It became very hard to pay the rent and so Venum and I started to wonder if we should move again.

1996

Spring

I was sleeping peacefully one morning when I heard the strangest sound coming from the living room. If you have ever heard an egg timer then you know exactly what the noise sounded like that I was hearing. I hear it buzzing and buzzing and so I went into the kitchen to see what Venum was cooking...cuz obviously he was cooking something by using the timer.
When I got to the kitchen it was louder and so I looked into the living room. I saw Venum carrying a large box and the sound was very loud. He smiled and looked up at me.

"Lookie what I got!"

He turned the box around and I looked inside. It was a very large rattlesnake. I gasped.
"This is our new pet, Sherrie. His name is Firecracker. He is a rattlesnake." Venum beamed as if he had just done the best thing in the world. He was so proud of what he had in his hands.
I was in so much shock that I grasped my pregnant belly as if to somehow protect the baby.
"No...NO....NO... you aren't keeping that thing!" I spoke sternly.

I spoke sternly all day though and guess what...he kept it. We would keep the snake for many many years to come. I learned that day that when it all was said and done. I had no authority. In reality I was just being there witnessing what Venum thought was best for us. I fought for a bit but he always won. Since I sent the thing inside me away, I was timid and bent easily to Venum's will.
Firecracker became a member of our growing snake family.

1996

June 27

Venum had gone through several jobs by this time. He worked for a plant that was experiencing extreme overtime. The money was good but it did not last. Venum got drunk on lunch break with a friend of his named Chris and then he ran the fork lift into a pole in the warehouse. He was instantly fired. Then he found a job in the neighboring town of New Albany. He began as a temporary worker at Masterbuilt. Things seemed to be looking up for us.

One night after Venum came home from work, we watched some porn and he then said he needed to tell me something. I had previously been bugging him about wanting to get married because I thought Damian should have his last name. I loved Venum and this was not the only reason that I wanted to get married. So, after watching the porn and repeatedly having wild sex, Venum proposed to me. I know all this seems so unconventional, but we were kids. We thought it was very appropriate to celebrate marriage thru porn.

On June 27th 1996, Venum and I drove to Selmer Tn and got married at the Justice of Peace. We were presented with a bag of hygeine products to start off our new life with. I remember that I was already 5 months pregnant and my wedding attire was a maternity skirt and white blouse. There are no pictures of our wedding and there were no witnesses.

On the way back to Chez place, the car ran hot. It was the first time, since my last motor overhaul that the car had an issue. After we arrived at the apartment, we decided for sure that we would have to find a cheaper place to live...we were married now and things would be different....or so we thought.

1996

Summer

I started to remember things from before my pregnancy. I am not sure why I did this...I would just sit and think for long periods of time about things that happened at Chez place. I don't know if I was just unforgiving about things or if it was just the hormones racing through my body. I remembered that I had broken my toe and work and was worried about getting fired for smoking pot. I remember that when they sent me to the doctor, I drank a whole bottle of vinegar and squirted a bottle visine into my urine. I also remember getting very drunk with Venum that weekend thinking that I might lose my job after the results of the drug test...but I didn't lose my job. I wondered if I should have stayed at work, since I passed the drug test and kept my job...seems I squandered my blessings. I then started to think of the time that I got so drunk that I wanted to fight everyone that came into the apartment. I remembered how I stood up to them and even started to shove some of them around. I knew that I had gotten tired of the whole bullshit coming and going of the pimps and whores around Chez place.
I sat on the couch at Chez place for the last time that day that I reminisced and I thought about all these things. I remembered so much from here in such a short period of time. It had been a year of memories. I remembered then of how the whole world seemed to be frozen just a couple months earlier...the Ice Storm of 96, mind you, not as severe as the Ice Storm of 94 ...but none the less, it was bad. I remember how the water froze while I was perming Venum's hair. When we got ready to wash out the chemicals, which by the way, burn horribly if not taken out soon enough, we had no water. We had to run all over the apartment complex to find a shower that worked. Venum suffered some burns but we made it.

As I gathered my last things....I remembered the kiss in the parking lot. I remember how Dexter stood and took that picture of me and Venum right outside that window to the north. I would miss Chez place but somehow I knew there was much more to come. I reached down and rubbed my belly and spoke.

"You are so special, Damian. I hope your memories are special."

1996

Burleson Trailer Park and Duplex

Our rent was cheaper here and it was a little bigger. Of course we decided to live in a Duplex of the property instead of the trailer park. I was complaining that the trailer park had a bad reputation and that the Duplex would be a little better. My aunt came down and helped us to get things settled.
I picked out a certain room as our bedroom and the second room was for the snakes. We now had lots of them and we also had three chinchillas. We chose to give the snakes the second bedroom instead of our coming child.
And so it was...We would have a go at it here and see where fate took us.