It was time to move out of my temporary situation with Alicia & Joe. Mom was back and she had keys to our own apartment. I grabbed all my clothes and stuffed them in my backpack and we were on our way.

The apartment was huge! It probably looked that way because it was empty, or maybe it was the fact that back home, my entire life was in a tiny room. Whatever it was I was happy. The entire place smelled like fresh paint and when we spoke our voices echoed. I think my mom had never seen me that happy because she teared up just watching me run in an out of rooms.

This was our shot. This was her opportunity to be a good mother. She’d need to do the cooking and cleaning and she’d also need to work and find the time to be with me. It was a lot but she was up for the challenge.

The only thing we had was the bed set that was in our room. Mom had no money because she’d spent it all on the move. Our home remained empty for a very long time but I don’t remember ever complaining about that. I happily slept on the floor of my room because I knew it was all mine.

Mom was a horrible cook. I say that with a smile on my face because I know how hard she tried to be the perfect mom. She did everything for me. She even started going to PTA meetings which I thought was a little excessive but I probably somewhat enjoyed it too. She also stopped having boyfriends and dedicated her time to this whole motherhood thing.

On weekends my mother would treat me to McDonald’s and would take me to goodwill to spend my allowance. My allowance was 5 dollars a week so I couldn’t really do much other than buy used books at the goodwill. My room was empty except for a pile of clothes in one corner and a stack of books on the other end. I never was that kid who wanted expensive things. Mom bought me whatever she could and that was enough for me.

I was finally in a stable enough home so I was able to relax. It felt great! The downside to living on our own though is that she had no one to watch me while she was at work. So I started going to my aunt Rose’s after-school. Rose was a huge bitch. She was supposed to pick me up from school but if she found her daughter first she’d just leave me. She didn’t like waiting. Sometimes she saw me and she pretended not to and would drive off. She’s a really great cook though so I put up with her crap. Rose was the queen of psychological abuse. Come to think of it she may very well be a narcissist. She would do things like hide my school books or leave dirty dishes in the sink. Then she’d yell at me for not picking up after myself. I’d be late for school and she wouldn’t give me a ride because I lost my books. I knew it was her but at some point I started questioning everything I did. I thought I was going crazy.

I told my mom about Aunt Rose and for the first time in my life, mom did something about it. She took me out of that environment and had Aunt Marie look after me. Aunt Marie and her husband Mike were awesome. That’s the first relationship I saw that didn’t involve abuse of any kind. There was love there. I enjoyed watching them be a normal family, just like the Winslow’s on TV.