Country Life

"I know you two are set for NYU in August, but hoping you might be able to put it off for one semester. Your Dad and I have decided on a trial separation and need some time to work things out, financially and otherwise." The two are Mary's daughters, Thea and Nancy. They were spending their summer in the family's vacation home in the Catskills. Both were working at a local pharmaceutical factory. A friend had hooked them up with summer work there for the last two years.

"What the hell, Mom?" Thea asked. They realized their parents had some issues but did not see this coming. Their Dad had some troubles and they knew it might be some sort of addiction problem since his accident. He had been distant and moody and now was moving into an apartment near their main residence in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Thea explained to Nancy and they sadly and reluctantly agreed to stay upstate and work for a few more months. "Its pretty boring here and I couldn’t wait to live in the Village and go to real school. This sucks!" Nancy told her sister. They were in agreement on this but decided they had to do what was best for the family. They could manage a few more months.

Boring it was. Work. Come home. Thea wondered where all the kids they used to play with had gone. It was just a few years ago. Some had moved for work or school. A few still lived nearby but seemed to have things to do besides hang out. She cleaned the house. Going through closets and drawers she found pictures and old toys they used to play with. The old Lite Brite set they spent hours with. Once a peg fell down a vent and she believed the furnace was going to blow up. Her mother told her this might happen to discourage a mess. She remembered crying and screaming to her mother that the house was going to blow up. Mary told her it was ok, just be careful with stuff falling down the vents. It was a little lie, so it was ok. Thea got that now. It was funny just thinking about it. How many times would the furnace have blown up if it were true. There wouldn’t be a house anymore, just a burned-out old frame.

The Catskills are lovely and offer all kinds of entertainment for kids from the city. They would walk up the Charlotte Creek to other friend’s houses. There was always a new undiscovered place. A waterfall, a deep pool with large slate rocks instead of all the little ones. Fish all over. Frogs, water snakes, crayfish and stuff to run away from. There were fossils they would bring home like they just discovered the first one ever. Sometimes people would fire shotguns to chase them away. People were isolated up there and not used to seeing strange kids in their creek. It was a thrill to believe they were actually being shot at and escaped. Their parents would get phone calls about the young trespassers.

Visiting farms and seeing the whole operation was fun too. Until some cow almost kicked them. They would ride in the hay wagon with a local farmer who was friends of their parents. Their job was to stack the haybales as the machine threw them back. They saw a few small animals that got accidentally baled up so that became something to stay away from. Plenty of other stuff though. Camping in the woods and hearing owls and foxes. That was scary too but everyone felt safe. Parents were right down the road.

Now the parents were going through grown up stuff and the thrill was gone from all the outdoor adventures. Thea thought often of their dad and called and spoke to him occasionally. Sometimes he was half asleep or didn’t stay much. She wondered what was going on and if he realized where they were, or if he cared. “Dad, Nancy and I are at the country house for a while. I hope you get better soon”. Take care of the furnace he said one time.

Their Dad had fallen in the barn and hit his head and hurt his back. He was chopping wood and slipped over a log. They rushed him to a local hospital where he was in and out of consciousness for a few weeks. He had a concussion and injured some discs in his back. He could hardly get up for a while. They weren't sure if he might be in a wheelchair or if he would ever be a lawyer again. Their Mom stayed at the hospital a lot and just cried. She didn’t tell them much. When it was time to go back to Brooklyn, there was a nurse who came to the house and a lot of physical therapy sessions. He just seemed to be going through the motions of daily life and then sleeping. They weren’t aware of the toll this was taking on their parents’ marriage. They could only let the grown ups deal with this and just be there in case they could go shopping or cook for them. They were lousy cooks.

Work was routine and monotonous but they were making some money. Enough to pay the bills and take care of themselves. Thea was starting to miss the thrill of being almost shot at in the creek. Nancy was just quiet and nervous most of the time. Work was 12 hour shifts a few days a week so it left them with 3 or 4 days off in a row. They weren’t sure how to fill up the time without their parents around.

One day, Ron, a friend of theirs from the town came over. His family knew theirs and he felt safe and comfortable to be around. He told them how he was doing really well at the factory picking up extra shifts and volunteering for different projects. Most of this work was away from the main part of the factory and they would need some security clearance if they were interested. Thea said sure. Nancy decided to keep to her regular hours for now but thanked Ron for offering them a chance to do something different.

Thea showed up for her first night shift with Ron. They would be cleaning machines that sorted pills. Not exactly exciting but it was something different and they could work alone and have a radio. Ron showed her what to do and the night went quickly. They talked about old times and a few of the people they knew. A few security people would show up from time to time and just seemed to talk and hang out. Ron knew them, said they were cool and told Thea there were no cameras in this part of the facility. That’s why security guys kept coming in. This didn’t matter to Thea in the least. She thought it was all normal. Towards the end of the night, Thea got her boot stuck under a piece of equipment and Ron helped her get it out. She said she felt like something was in her sock but Ron said he looked and it was ok. He told her to go change and meet him outside, they were driving home together. When she got in the car, she was still feeling pebbles in her sock and as soon as they were on the road, he told her to take them off. There was a small bag of pills. “How the hell did these get in here?” She asked. Ron told her he dropped them in her sock when her boot got stuck. She couldn’t believe what she had done. They stopped by his place for a beer and he told her what he had been up to. “Security knows about it. We split what we get with them. I drop them off with a friend and he sells them. It’s all safe. We’ve been doing it for a while now. Are you in?” She had to think about it. She was terrified that cops would show up at his door but he assured her they wouldn’t. Anyway, it was too late now. It was done.

He paid her in cash a few days later and she couldn’t believe it. “Where does the stuff go? Who buys it?” He told her it goes through some guy and he sells them. People pay a lot because they get high off this crap. She had no idea the amount and consequences of addiction. The thrill slowly started coming over her. This is dangerous. Maybe just a few more times and I’ll hide the cash somewhere. Mom and Dad won’t have to worry about us and paying for school. Maybe taking that pressure off would help her dad get well. They did it again a few nights later. For a few months.

Mary called to see how they were doing a few times a week but this call was different. She was crying and not making a lot of sense. It seems their dad had become addicted to painkillers after his accident. She found him unresponsive in his apartment a few hours earlier. He was in a hospital in Brooklyn.

Thea and Nancy grabbed a few things and got in the car, heading to the hospital. They arrived a few hours later and were told he was in a coma that he probably would not come out of. He had taken a large overdose and his organs were shutting down. He had been abusing this stuff for months. When the doctors wouldn’t give him anymore and suggested rehab, he started buying them from a guy in his apartment building.

Did they know where the pills came from? Mary said there were bags of it all over his apartment. They came from multiple places. “Some of it had come from the place upstate where you guys work but they are a big producer.” It got into the wrong hands and that’s how your dad got it. The pills were made in various places all over the country.

After the funeral, Thea thought about confessing to her mom but decided that wouldn’t help. She would feel guilty for the rest of her life. Her own private hell to endure.

She wanted to go back to the creek and swim and run. None of us appreciates everything. We take stuff for granted. That’s why we are here. She was grown up now. Way too soon. Too soon for her dad to be gone. Too late for anything but regret.