A while back, I think that it was possibly earlier this year during the summer... Anyway, this one day I had decided to hang out with my friend Michael (with whom I no longer affiliate, but that's another story) over at his house, along with our friend Sierra. At the time Michael's younger brother, Mason, was dating some girl named Gabby, whom he was fairly creepy with, for lack of a better description.
That day we had spent the majority of the afternoon down at the park by Sierra's house, which is maybe about a mile walk away from Michael's; normally that wouldn't have been much of a problem because both Michael and Sierra have taken the walk to and from several times, but Sierra had severally injured her foot, and wasn't supposed to be walking on it. The only reason we had decided to leave Michael's house was because his mother, for lack of a better term, is a bit crazy, and you'll start to realize what I mean later on. Not only that, however, but his parents had been feuding for a several months and were mid-divorce, so tensions within his home were running fairly high at the time. So, to Sierra's silent chagrin, we ended up walking down to the park anyway.
About an hour or so since we had been there, playing softball, Michael received a call from his mother asking if Sierra and I would like to join their family for dinner and then go out to a movie afterward, all at his mother's expense. A little baffled at the random request, I just kind of said "Sure", and that was pretty much it. I still however, made sure to call my mother running it past her for permission, though being in a hurry because the battery to my cell phone was dying. In a rush, my mother reluctantly agreed to let me go. So we rushed back up to Michael's house, his mom giving us a ride, perhaps the only useful thing she did for us that night, where we ate some pasta. That was probably the single most awkward tension-wrenched dinner table I had attended to in my life. Sierra and I just kind of sat there silently giggling to each other through most of the meal.
After everyone was through with dinner, we then left for the movies. No though however, before all brushing our teeth, even Sierra and me. We were both handed toothbrushes that Michael's mom had kept on hand under the sink (I still have that toothbrush somewhere in my bathroom). Why she made us brush before we left, I'm still not sure. Especially considering the events that followed. So, after a good scrub of our teeth, Sierra, Michael, and I all got in the truck with Michael's dad (which I had found slightly concerning after watching his dad drink wine during dinner -- though a little background information, I'm a Mormon who was raised by a pretty religious household, so I don't know many people that drink), while Mason and Gabby rode with Michael's mom. Giggling and taking pictures on our way to the movie theater, which was all the way across town. When we had finally arrived, Michael's mom got in line, and his had had driven back home not long after giving Mason about $20 just in case (though he had joked about going to a bar instead). Bored, we had all decided to go in the theater and wait for his mother to come back with the tickets.
About 20 minutes later after watching Mason playing an arcade game, we still saw no signs of Michael's mother, so we went out to check in the line to see if she was still there; and guess what? There's no sign of her. A little frantic we all just sort of pace around wondering what we're supposed to do now. We're in the middle of down town, at night, at the movie theater, with five people and only $20, and the only adult figure we had to rely was missing along with our tickets. Both Michael and Mason had tried to contact their mother via cell phone multiple times to no avail. Our best and only guess is that she forgot and went into the theater without us. So, since we didn't have enough money to buy tickets for everyone, we decided to walk over to the mall about a mile away until someone noticed that we were missing. I just sort of went along with it since I had no way to really contact my family right then, and it didn't sound that far away.
Anyway, so we leave out of the theater doors and start heading down toward the mall. We aren't entirely sure where we are going, and it's dark, so we started in the direction toward the "BEST MATTRESS" store (this is where things start to get interesting). As we all walked up to the gleam of the store sign, we see only what I can describe as this large, old, dirty, badly but provocatively dressed dyke looking woman pull herself off of the curb after being on the ground with her back turned as if she was smoking or snorting something. The first words we hear when being greeted by this thing, as I would like to call it, were "Hey, you kids busy?".
Slightly frightened and taken back by the whole thing, none of us say anything, other than Mason who said, "Um, yeah". The thing then proceeded to explain that she had gotten this free mattress from the mattress store, but that she couldn't lift it into her van by herself so she was wondering if one of us would help her lift it into her van, and come with her to help get it into her house (are you creeped out yet?). Michael then covered by saying, "Um no, we need to go to the mall and pick something up for our parents". "Yeah, we really need to hurry", Sierra added. "YES, IT'S VERY VERY URGENT", I specified. Then, being certifiably terrified, we climbed up the hill to the sidewalk near the freeway. We were all terrified for the rest of the dark mile walk down town toward the mall. Gabby wouldn't let go of Mason, and Sierra and I held hands the whole way being spooked at any number of insignificant sounds.
Needless to say we did still make it all the way to the mall, unharmed. After about 20 minutes of pointless wondering, I convinced Michael to let me use his phone so that I could call my mother to come pick me up, as my phone was dead and I wasn't really eager to have his dad driving me home. So in a matter of minutes my mother had eventually arrived to give me a ride home, we sat in the foodcourt for a few minutes eating strawberry shakes and a pretzel. Not surprising, I was disallowed from being driven anywhere by Michael's parents at this point. Which I was pretty much alright with. Eventually a few weeks had passed since the incident, and nor my mother or I had heard a word from either of Michael's parents regarding the incident. Until one day I was at school with my mother and Sister for parent teacher conferences. My sister Eliza and I had decided to go wait outside while my mom stayed back to talk to one of the teachers. Low and behold, as we walked out of the school we bumped into Michael's parents.
His mother warmly greeted us even though she had no idea who my sister even was, apologized for the "misunderstanding", and gave me five dollars in case of an emergency; or basically paid me off to keep my mouth shut, depending on how you look at it. Why it was important that that night that we all brushed our teeth before basically being stranded down town in the middle of the night, or that a prostitute inquired of a group of high school kids who clearly had no money, I have no idea. That evening was certainly an interesting one, but perhaps one of the most terrifying of my adolescent life. One thing is for sure, it makes for quite the anecdote at parties.
