I followed, heard the order, and went back down dis-heartened. Even now, I get that same feeling when he shouts at me, some things never change. That’s just one particularly bad memory in the otherwise lovely little house. I had some good ones too. Around the same time, my dad and I used to watch the wrestling..
We both particularly liked the wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin, he had a particular saying that we both liked. The Rock, the Undertaker and Cain were also around at this time. One fine, fine day, my daddy drove us near Burger King. The chips… YUCK. When I was younger, I hated their chips with a burning passion, they were too different. Up until now, I don’t think I had experienced McDonalds yet though. Stone Cold was featured on the Burger King cups. These event are a landmark in my memory, and for the life of me, I can’t tell you why.
Till this day, I don’t know what was really happening. I would always be told, “When you’re 18, I’ll tell you!”, “You’ll know when you’re 18!”, “Ask me when you’re 18?”. That’s in a few months now.
So the next thing I could tell you is the day when I was taken away from home.
Before I get to that, let me just say, my mum left for a while. Soon, in the middle of night, we followed.
My uncle on my mums’ side came to get us. I’d never seen him before, and I was woken from sleep. This all amalgamated to the kids in the back of a car on the way to Larkham. Up until then I had been an Northern girl. I went to Stafforn Hill Park schools.
That school is gone now, I think… In the middle of the night, my mother took us. That was that. We were out of there, I remember looking back and my dad was shouting his head off. After an argument or two, we were on our way, bags packed, and out of there. This was the first time I’d met my uncle, and the first time I remember seeing my grandmother, my nana.
The move was hard, and we didn’t see our dad for a very long time. I remember being happy anyhow.
Past Life in the North
In this part of my life I met one of my ‘bestest’ friends ever. I won’t tell you her name, but let’s call her Chelsea. She was amazing if I’m honest. I’ve never been one for making friends, but she decided she wanted to be my friend, and that was that. I met her at the Infants School in the middle of year 1. She brought me out of my shell and we were soon as thick as thieves. I don’t remember too much that happened at school, but I think I enjoyed it, and she helped me to.
I met other people, and had my first crush. On this boy called Luke. I loved him. Love in the way you love a chocolate bar when you are 5. I remember my favourite song was the Ketchup song, I’m sure everyone knows the song, and the dance. We used to spend time dancing to that song and singing it in playtime and golden time. I also liked Atomic Kitten, not like I was old enough to understand the ‘eternal flame’ they were singing about, but it was catchy, I was in love their group. Music wise, I had an unhealthy obsession with S-Club 7. Yes, S-Club 7. I knew every song, all the lyrics, had the CDs, DVDs all sorts. On my 7th birthday, around midnight, Bradley said happy birthday to me! Take that with a pinch of salt if you will, but that’s what my dad told me, and I was sooooo sure it was him, I recognised his voice. I was so excited and that put such a smile on my face. I was a normal child in school, played kiss chase, went on trips, talked about PE and ran around like a lunatic. I liked sport, and skipping – especially skipping. We played all those silly skipping games, sang the songs and really enjoyed doing it.
To be continued….
Copyright ©Arinola Araba 2017
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Arinola Araba 