Family Stories
Jim and Jeannie
Warning: This is one of the saddest stories I tell.
I first met Jim and Jeannie when I was in high school. I had a best friend (since meddle school year) named Monique. Monique was one of those individuals that amazing things happened around. I will write down more of the stories about Monique and the others. My tentative title for those is "Freque Factory." But this story fit in here, since Jeannie was my roommate for a whlie.
Jeanie was a year older than me, Jim a few years older than her. They met via Monique. They both came from very screwed up families. Hers was rigid and demanding. His was abusive. Jim was the victim in his family unit. His younger sister was perfect. Jim could never do anything right. So he kept doing wrong. Once he hit 18 his father tossed him out and Jim lived where ever he could. He had a variety of jobs, but mostly he made his money selling drugs. Sometimes he'd have to leave town for a while, like the time he sold PCP cut with I-have-no-idea. That particular batch was nasty.
Jim was one of the few people banned from Monique's house by her mom. And there were some nasty people who tried to hang out there. Yet, Jim was likeable. In a hurt puppy sort of way. You knew there was a good guy in there, trying to get out.
When life would get especially bad Jim would consume a lot of drugs and alcohol in the parking lot of the hospital where his mother worked. He counted of someone finding him and hauling him in. I saw it as a cry for help.
Jeannie was one of the wildest hippies I knew. There wasn't much she wouldn't do. But then, her brother was reported to be a drug dealer as well. She was very free, as the saying went. At first Jeannie wouldn't date Jim. But he started cleaning up his act and they found out that they had a lot in common. As much as Jeanie was capable, it was a love match. Her parents were appalled.
The turning point in their relationship was when they hit a rough spot and Jim tried the whole suicide things again. While he was downing the drugs he called her. I was with her at the time and she was truly angry with him. That shit was not the way to solve their problems! If he didn't get himself cleaned up right away, they were done! Jim knew she was serious, so he stopped taking the drugs and walked himself into the ER to get his stomach pumped.
They got engaged and began making plans for a life together. He joined the army (to this day I have no idea what the recruiter thought in enlisting him). Her parents hit the roof and kicked her out. Hattie and I had just moved into our temporary apartment while she and Bob were getting ready to get married. Jim begged me to let Jeannie stay with Hattie and I for a few months. Jeanie and Jim had a quick wedding and Jim went off to basic training. I was in the wedding party and it was an odd wedding. Jim's family was delighted that "he was finally making something of himself." I stayed away from his family so I didn't say or do anything that would get me arrested. Jeanne's family was barely there. I didn't like most of them either.
So Jeannie moved in with us. She and Hattie did not get along. It was not an easy time for any of us. But eventually, Jim finished basic and off they went to his first posting-in Texas. Now Texas, at that time, had some of the strongest anti-drug laws in the country. If you were caught with marijuana you were going to prison, for a long time. Jim was staying on the straight and narrow, but not Jeannie. Texas was very difficult for both of them.
I lost track of them for a while with my own life and travels. I knew they had survived Texas and were doing ok elsewhere. The Vietnam War was pretty much over, so no worries there. Then I found out that the US Army, in it's wisdom decided to change Jim's job with them. They made him a pharmacy assistant. Granted, it was a job that he could be good at, but I also was pretty sure he was not strong enough to resist temptation.
And then he got his next posting. The army was sending him back to Texas. That was it for Jeannie. The marriage had enough problems. Texas was too much. As much as she loved Jim, she was not going back there. She returned to Southern California. And very soon after she was back to partying and going out with other guys.
All of this sent Jim into a tailspin. He started stealing and selling drugs from the base. He was, of course, caught. Instead of jail he got a dishonorable discharge. I suspect they had mercy on him due to the marriage problems.
So Jim came back to Southern California. His family (his father really) once again wanted nothing to do with him. Jeannie told him they were done and that she was getting a divorce. I think she was living with a flamenco dancer at the time. So Jim took his gun, found someplace where no one would stop him and blew his own brains out.
I'm still sad about all this. Jim was never strong enough. His own personal demons overwhelmed him at the end, even though he had made so much progress. I was angry with Jeannie for many years. I don't know what happened to her. And rare for me, I don't care.
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