7. Alone in the garage.

It was not a big surprise to come home to an empty house. There was almost always a way to get into the house. Worst case you have to hang out in the garage. I remember one time I got off the bus coming home from school and the house was all locked up. It started poring rain and I had not brought a coat to school. I was 11 at the time. The garage door was broken and I could squeeze under the gap from the bent track. I needed to change my clothes. I went through the old clothes we had in the garage and found an old dress shirt from my older brother and some purple sweat pants of my mom's. It was the first of the month so I knew they went to Olympia to do shopping. It was 3:00 when I got home. I was hungry then. I wasn't what you would call responsible. I loved playing basketball. I would often skip eating lunch so I could head out to the playground. There was a 6ft rim so we played knock out from the far end of the shed. The trick was to throw it off the brick wall behind the basket run up and dunk it. If you went for the shot you could make it but you were more likely to hit the rim and shoot out into the playground. I started playing this game when I was 7. When I started dunking I would run up, step off the brick wall to jump up, and dunk. It usually was no big deal to miss lunch even if I hadn't had breakfast...which I hadn't because I woke up late for school. (Very common occurrence.) Today though I was stuck in the garage. I was still a bit cold and wanted to see what was in the attic. I climbed the 2x4's nailed to the garage wall and lifted up the wood board that covered the entrance. I found some old curtains, a few pieces of rope, and some old stuff that had been our dad's. After crawling around up there for about a half hour I took the rope and tied it to my waist then tied it to the rafters. I climbed about half way back down and put some weight on the rope. I had made enough rope swings that I knew it was solid. I jumped out from the wall almost in a belly flop pose. I went out and hit the end of the rope. My head dropped and my feet went straight up in the air. I was now dangling upside down from a rope tied to the rafters. My hands could barely touch the floor and I kept bumping into the wall whenever I tried to right myself. It was probably only a couple minutes but it felt like 30. I finally got my hand on one of the 2x4's and was able to pull my head up. I got rope burns all around my ribs and waist, which made the hunger seem that much worse. I grabbed the curtains and wrapped up on top of a pile of dirty towels to get something between me and the cement floor. It only took a second on the pile to pick up the strong scent of cat pee and I was laying in it. Honestly, I was kind of used to the smell. An hour or so later Paul, my mom, and my brothers all got home with a trunk full of groceries. My mom made me a peanut butter and jelly to hold me over for dinner. It was 8:30 when they got home we had dinner at 9. I don't remember what dinner was but I remember the peanut butter and jelly... My mom made the best pb&j's.