"Three Against One" Submission #21

Meanwhile, on the home front, things grew worse. Not only was my step-father a full-blown alcoholic, my mom, who had never really imbibed much alcohol prior to this, was now matching her husband drink for drink. To ever see them sober was a rarity indeed.

To make matters worse, my step-siblings, Jackie and Phillip and my cousin, Bruce, were definitely not a part of the “Bart Munson Fan Club.” Frankly, they couldn’t stand me. They began a united campaign to make my life miserable (more so than it already was), and it worked. They would berate me, exclude me from any plans and insult me in their “private” conversations… knowing that I was within earshot.

I remember one time, I was sitting on my bed with my feet on the floor when Jackie burst into my room and with great force, slammed the bedroom door into my knees. It hurt… badly! I yelled out in pain as she looked at me with a smirk on her face as I heard Phillip and Bruce laughing from the living-room. Mission accomplished, she returned to the living-room and gleefully joined in the laughter.

Another time, I remember drinking a can of pop that tasted very odd and yet, I took several drinks thinking that my taste buds were playing tricks on me. When I finally voiced my complaint about a horrible tasting Coke, Bruce proudly proclaimed that he had urinated in it when I had briefly left the room. I immediately rushed into the bathroom and made myself vomit.

Although I would never, ever recommend this sort of treatment for anyone for any reason… I was not blameless. I needed to be humbled. I was acting out with displays of arrogance, rudeness and disrespect. I don’t know why. Maybe it had something to do with the trauma that was ripping through my life from the point of my father’s death through the present set of tragic, familial circumstances.

By the end of my 7^th grade year, I felt a large shift in my interpersonal relationships. I already outlined my experience with my family but even my friends at school seemed to be pulling away from me.

A school year that had started out so promising for me, was ending in disaster. My parents were totally detached from me, the sober wing of my family hated me, my “friends” at school began to ignore me, Joni had broken up with me and I was miserable. The walls were caving in on me and I had no clue how to deal with it.

Beyond these years, I never had a relationship with Jackie and Bruce. Once we parted ways, any sort of relationship was completely severed.

Barb, me, Butch and Phil

It was different with Phillip. I never felt that he was a real willing participant in all of this crazy activity directed at me. I think he was sucked into it by “sibling pressure” more than anything. If you know Phil, you know that he has a great heart and it is hard to fathom that he would ever desire to hurt anyone. I have enjoyed numerous occasions of visiting with him over the years and I love him as a brother.

I didn’t see God in all of this but He was there… working, molding, drawing me to Himself. But in my frail, childlike mind… I couldn’t comprehend what was happening to me; why it was happening to me. I had no viable recourse. I had no power. I had no faith. All I had was pain and misery.