Jail Time

Blogging for Books #5: Choose Your Own Adventure (Guest Author: Debbie Farmer) In past Blogging for Books, we've asked contestants to write a blog post on a specific theme. This month, we've decided to mix it up.

For this month's Blogging for Books, choose one of the three "starter sentences" listed below, and use it as the beginning of a blog post totalling no more than 2,000 words:

Just when I thought my life couldn't get any crazier...

Before I had kids, I thought ...

I enjoy reading the stories in your magazine each month, but I never thought something like that could happen to me until a few nights ago, when...

Creative nonfiction essays are preferred, but we won't go to absurd lengths to ferret out skilled liars. Write your essay and post it to your own blog; then come back to this post and leave the URL to your post as a comment. You have until 6am (Pacific time zone) on Monday, November 8th to enter. The top seven finalists will be chosen next week, and then guest author Debbie Farmer will choose the Grand Prize Winner, who will receive a signed copy of her book Don't Put Lipstick on the Cat!

Here's my story:

Just when I thought my life couldn't get any crazier...

He went to jail.

My life changed when I met him. Roy (name changed to protect the not so innocent). It was a Tuesday night and my roommate and I were hanging out at our favorite place, Dance Across Texas. It wasn't enough that we worked there; we had to hang out here too. Tuesday night was pool tournament night. We didn't care about that really, it just happened to be one of the few nights we didn't work.

Roy was there playing in the tournament. Long story short, Roy and I started dating and moved along quickly in our relationship. I was only 19, young and naive and still recovering from my last relationship somewhat, but plenty of time had passed, so I thought I was ready for a big girl relationship.

About a month into our relationship, we were going to make the 4 hour drive from Austin to Tyler so I could meet Roy's parents for the first time. We left around midnight, after I got off work and made the late trek north on I-35. On the way, some of Roy's past began to come out and red flags should have been lining up like voters on Election Day, but no, not for young naive me. Stories of hot checks and warrants and such came forth. We discussed how we (yes, stupid, we) would go about paying these off.

It's 4:00 AM and we are driving through Hutchins County in the middle of nowhere when we see the lights in the rearview mirror. Yes, red and blue lights. Roy was driving, which now I can't remember if he even had a valid driver's license. We had borrowed a friends' car and had tried to clean it out as best we could, but the police searched the vehicle and found a beer can -- And numerous warrants for Roy's arrest. It's now 4:30 AM and they are taking him to jail. I have never experienced anything like this in my life. Police have always made me a little nervous, but I was scared out of my mind.

They will not let me follow them to the jail. What am I supposed to do? I am in a car I know nothing about with almost no gas, it is 4:30 AM and I have to call this guy's parents, whom I have never met, and tell them that their son is in jail. Fun stuff, let me tell you. This is what dreams are made of. I mean nightmares. I'm a good girl. I don't date boys that go to jail. I don't do drugs, I do not pass go, I do not collect $200.00.

I drive until I find I gas station. I have no choice, I have to get gas. I get on the pay phone and dial the number Roy gave me for his parents. Thank God for small miracles, he had already called them. They gave me directions to their house and I finally made it around 5:30 AM.

I met his parents and stayed for about an hour and a half before his father and I turned around and made the drive back to Hutchins to bail Roy out of jail. I spoke with Roy once and he was crying and begging me to come get him out of there. Wuss.

The entire ride Roy's father and I discussed how we (I) would bail him out. During my phone conversation with Roy, I learned the cost of freeing him from that jail. $2000.00. I didn't have that kind of money. I soon learned that Roy's parents had no money. So I called my best friend and begged for money. And she gave it to me. Against her better judgment she gave it to me. Even after discussing the consequences etc and me assuring her that I loved this man and I had to get him out of jail, and she would get paid back. Roy's father assured me that I would get paid back. I believed him.

The wait was excruciating while we waited for the money to get wired. We finally sprung Roy and off we went for a nice family gathering. No red flags here, none at all. After all, I am just a dumb 19 year old girl. What do I know? I just knew I loved him.

A week later when I couldn't find Roy when he was supposed to pick me up from work, I started calling every one of our friends. I'll give you one guess where he was... That's right. Jail. Again. Did I leave him there? One guess... No. Another $800.00 later he was sprung again. He was driving without a license. His truck got impounded and we never saw that truck again. Did I dump him like a smart girl would do? Oh, no. I loved him, I needed him, I would do anything for him. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The best part was how he re-paid me. After we moved his 16 year old sister in with us and I bought her clothes and helped find a job for her, his thanks was cheating on me. I knew there was something wrong when he disappeared from a party at our townhouse and didn't come home for two days. Did I call all the hospitals? Oh yes, but only after I called all the jails. His excuse was lame when he finally did show up and we ended up ending our relationship for a reason I can't remember other than I knew something was not right.

Did I find out about him cheating on me? Oh, no, not until 3 months after we broke up. He blatantly cheated on me right in front of my face too. With our boss.

Regardless, I moved on with my life and I am certainly better for it. Now, I am sure the obvious question is did he every pay me back? Not a cent. Am I bitter? Not anymore. I learned plenty from that relationship. Boyfriends to follow Roy would learn early on that if they found their butts in jail, I better be the last person they called. I don't care why you're in jail; don't call me, cuz I ain't coming.

I finally was able to pay back my best friend this year. 10 years later, but I promised it would get paid and it did. Better late than never, so they say... Live and Learn.