Freque Factory, Chapter 3

Freque Factory

Chapter 3

   Our group of friends expanded in our sophomore year of high school.  Monique found Joanne.  She was a year older.  She seemed odd, but cool.  Her dad was a local lawyer-a little crooked, but successful.  Her mom was a strange mousy woman.  Her older brother was a lot like the dad and while I knew the family was dealing drugs.  Joanne occasionally used drugs, mostly marijuana.  It seemed that more and more of our circle was using pot, downers, and diet pills (uppers).  They were considered to be "lighter" drugs.  Susan, not surprisingly, was especially into diet pills.  Monique and I just weren't interested in experimenting with drugs.

   Time to talk about Brian.  He was Monique's first love.  He was as charming as his Irish ancestors and had the lightest fingers in town-when sober.  And Brian loved his depressants.  For Monique Brian was a real project.  How to reform a drug using thief?

   Monique had her work cut out for her.  Brian was a senior, but probably wouldn't graduate with his class.  In fact, he soon was transferred to our local continuation high school.  His mother had remarried some years back and he was now the unwanted "other" son.  His step-father was unloving and unkind.  Knowing what I know now, I would have considered reporting his for verbal and possibly physical abuse.  His mother loved Brian, but she was unable to help him.  Brian sometimes talked about his home life and I didn't believe him at first.  Then I visited his home with Monique.  Every time we visited, there was that lack of love and underlying dismissal.  It was sad.

   So Brian stole things.  Mostly it was small electronics that he then sold.  Before he met Monique his profits paid for luxuries and for drugs.  But Brian really loved Monique.  There was no doubt about that.  He tried to buy her presents, but when she found out the source of the money, she refused them.  She even managed to convince him to steal less.

   Monique was never able to get Brien to stop stealing altogether because Brian had another love-a mistress with a stronger hold-drugs.  Brian's drug of choice was depressants-any kind.  There was one fatal flaw with his drug of choice.  When sober, Brian could steal almost anything and not get caught-he was that talented.  But when he was stoned, his nimble fingers weren't, and he started to get a juvenile record.

  Monique liked to think that she was the one who stopped Brian's shoplifting career.  I'm a bit more realistic.  After he was arrested a few times his step dad "washed his hands" of responsibility of Brian.  So Brian went to Juvenile Hall.  Not fun at all!  And he would be 18 soon.  Arrests then would mean real prison!

  In any event, by the end of our sophomore year Monique and Brian were a solid couple and he had mostly stopped stealing.  With his family situation (and drug use), Brian still needed money, so he turned to different jobs.  Mostly illegal.  He kept that fact from Monique (and I) as long as he could.  Brian did not graduate high school.  With his new jobs he was out nights and wasn't able to make it to class, even at the continuation high school.  But he was usually up and moving in time to pick up Monique from school.

   Brian's new jobs came from a childhood friend named Friedrich.  His nickname was Fast Freddie.  I heard several explanations for the name.  It was either in reference to his quickness in gaining a dollar-or to his sexual habits.  Freddie's dad had made a fortune quickly in construction.  So dad had moved the family to Beverly Hills.  Freddie didn't make many friends out there and maintained his old, childhood friendships.

   Freddie's dad hired Brian and some of his friends.  We found out later that often the "jobs" involved damaging the equipment of dad's business rivals.  Freddie had learned to act respectable, but inside he was just plain evil.  It took Monique many years to figure that out.

   One of Brian's friends (and part of dad's crew) was Bart.  He looked familiar the first time I met him.  Eventually I heard his last name and the pieces began to come together.  Many years prior my dad had a good friend who was a local police officer.  That man found out that his wife was having an affair.  The officer's solution was to kill himself.  It was quite shocking.  When the dust settled, the wife and kids moved out of town.  Bart was one of the sons.  We had played together as children.  Now Bart was a six foot,  overweight sleazeball.  He was the guy who had gotten Betty pregnant.  Did I like him?  No!  Did I trust him?  Not even a little bit.  His younger brother, I found out later, turned out ok.

   Along the way, Monique took in some strays into our social circle.  Elias and Julie were a year older, friends of Joanne.  They were very much in love.  Her parents had money.  He was a mechanic with no social pretensions.  Talk about Romeo and Juliet!

   Jim was definitely a stray.  I'll write more about him later.  His family didn't want him and sometimes crashing on Mrs. B's couch was the best option for him.  Didn't happen often though, since Jim was sometimes a sleaze.  

   The summer between our sophomore and Junior years  Monique, Joanne, and I went to Hawaii with our senior Girl Scout Troop.  It was 2 weeks of camping on 3 islands and 5 days in a hotel in Honolulu.  Twenty-four girls, 10 chaperones, and the leader's son ( who was our age).  Despite the chaperones it was a good trip.  Joanne was turning out to be a real loon.  Almost no sense of morals or common sense. Or timing.  We lost track of how many times we kept her out of trouble.

   Of course, she wasn't the only one trying to not get caught.  Hawaii was beautiful and the local boys were friendly.  So much so that we have several that followed us from island to island.  Even our leader's daughter got in trouble for spending time "with the local boys."  It was nice to have some of the others be in trouble for a change.

   After we got back it was time to get ready for out Junior year of high school. I had no idea how our lives could get any more interesting.  Boy, was I wrong!