Freque Factory Chapter 4

Freque Factory 

Chapter 4

   Junior year of high school.  It was strange in so many ways.  For one thing, by then a lot of the people we knew were getting stoned, a lot.  Some every day.  Then when they found themselves unable to cope, they would look for Monique and I.

   Two girls in particular took up a lot of our time at school.  Monique and I would switch off if both showed up on campus stoned on the same day.  Sarah was a junior, like us.  She had gone true hippie and was attempting to spend as many days as possible stoned on LSD.  Luckily for us that particular is not effective continually, so she had some sober days.  Bad trip days were awful.  We both got to be pretty good at "talking her down."  Quick too, which was necessary with half hour lunches and 7 minute passing periods between classes.  During class she was on her own.  But even on good days she had to be watched.  Sarah would see some school administrator down the hall and want to show him how totally awesome the talking flowers were.  Not a good idea.  "Sarah, let's go listen to these flowers over here..."

   The other girl, Martha, was Sarah's friend.  She was this cute, little Freshman.  Amazing personal baggage.  Her dad was a major anti-Vietnam war organizer.  My government teacher referred to him by name as a "commie agitator" in class one day.  Her older brother was a major local drug dealer.  Martha had a 25 year old boyfriend.  The fact that he was deaf merely made that relationship stranger.  Martha loved the drug we called speed.  Methamphetamine in any form was what she craved.  It kept her thin and gave her energy.  And she could talk at amazing speeds when she was high with it.  She would want to tell the entire lunchroom how to fight the imperialist forces of corporate Amerika.  I don't think she really understood what she was saying-mostly she was just parroting her father and boyfriend.

   Although we despised the Vietnam War, neither Monique or I got involved with much of the anti-war stuff.  To much Martha.  And in my case I had a brother in the Marine Corps who did several tours of duty over there.

   Brian and Monique was still a couple, mostly.  Monique had the really foolish idea that Freddie and I should start dating.  I think she thought it would be cute to double date.  Freddie was ok with the idea, but I told Monique that I would rather date a rattlesnake-it would be safer.  Luckily for me, he didn't hold it against me.

   Monique and Brian were having problems.  Brian was still working for Freddie's dad.  But they had also gotten into some high end drug dealing.  It paid for Brian's drug habit.  And his habit was getting worse.  Monique didn't have the patience to deal with a drugged out Brian.

   The young men were still flocking around Monique.  At her parent's request she began dating some of them.  Mostly they were guys from her church.  she even went to Prom with this sweet 280 pound football player.  Talk about physical yin and yang!  He hung around for about 2 years, hoping she would take him seriously.  Monique would go out with him occasionally, but it was hopeless for that football player.  I stayed single.  I was still the good friend that the guys all talked to but think to date.

   Our loopy friend Joanne had finally settled down to one guy.  Unfortunately that guy was James.  He was never good looking and his morals were questionable.  Survival without the help of his family made him prone to use people.  But Joanne saw something in him that the rest of us didn't.  And it just wasn't the (crappy) drugs that he  sold.  They slept together, did drugs together-in fact, did about everything together except try to commit suicide together.  Joanne did not tolerate that.  In the first year they dated he tried to commit suicide 3 times.

   Jame's suicide attempts had nothing to do with Joanne.  It was always an attempt to connect with his birth family.  Most of his attempts were in the parking lot of the hospital where his mom worked, or some other place where he knew he would be found in time.  It was a real mess.  His birth family was abusive all sorts of ways and James got into a lot of behaviors he shouldn't have just to support himself and to try to get their attention.  He was rather sleazy at times.  I don't remember why, but he was one of the few people who Monique's mom barred from the house.

   The drama continued.  Julie and Elias, our Romeo and Juliet were having real problems with their relationship.  Not only was her family still upset that she was even dating him, the two of them were now using various drugs and it was causing him problems with his job.

   But the biggest drama of all was what happened within Monique's family.  Her parents had taken in foster kids for years before she was born.  Then suddenly, later in their lives, Monique was born.  Her parents decided to take in (and adopt) one last set of kids-a brother and sister who's drug using mother was going to be in prison for many years.  It was never a secret that Mike and Mary were adopted.  Nor was it a secret that they were Hispanic. 

    Mike was not the brightest bulb on the tree.  During our junior year he turned 13 and started getting into trouble.  He wasn't doing very well in school and was hanging out with some trouble making kids.  Who were white, mostly.  Mike and Mary both had always been treated just like they were Monique's natural daughter, in fact, I forgot half the time they were Hispanic.

   But then, one day Mike came home from school, all upset, asking if it were true that he was adopted?  His parents response was, "Well, yes.  We thought you knew."  Mike was all kinds of upset and his grades and behavior got worse.

   Mike was starting to come to terms with his situation when life dealt him a life changing blow.  His and Mary's birth mother had gotten out of jail, and despite the adoption rules (not informing where kids now are), had found out where her babies were.  Mike's response was, "You mean I'm Mexican?"  Well, Mexican American, but yeah.

   It turned out that momma had ties to the local Hispanic gangs and before we knew it Mike had become Miguel and was joining the local gang.  Monique and I, at her parents request would go to the local barrio and drag Mike back home about once a week.  He had stopped all pretense of going to school.  Finally Monique's parents gave up.  They petitioned the courts to take Mike back, claiming they could no longer control him.  And it was true.  We had hoped that Mary would be ok, but soon after Mike turned gang banger she changed as well.  No longer did she talk about going to college to become a nurse.  Now her big goal was to become a welfare mother.  She was successful.  Monique's parents had to give her up too.

   It was during our Junior year that Monique and I began to talk about sex and drugs.  So many people in our circle were doing both.  At that point, neither of us was ready to be involved with either.  But we agreed that is was probably only a matter of time.