Hello, people! Let’s get this meeting started.

Welcome to my Monday Meeting! Please, grab your favorite beverage and sit a spell. I have lots to tell you. Well, maybe not lots, but some. Ok, a few things. 😉

First, I have been super busy with editing my book A Case of Deceit, as I’m sure most are aware of. Good news. I’m done with editing and formatting and have the final edition uploaded to Amazon and soon it will also be ready for paperback release. Exciting times for this woman! It’s been a lot of hard work, lots of frustrating times and a few panic emails to a good friend. But I think I’ve done it! Don’t let anyone ever tell you producing a book is easy. Because it’s not. The writing of the book was the easy part as far as I’m concerned. It’s all the stuff behind the scenes that drove me crazy(ier)! The Amazon edition will be released on October 30th. The paperback whenever I can get it done, which I hope is this week. I’ll let you know, of course.

Now, on to the not so good news. A lot of you follow what has been going on with the husband. Thank you for your concern. We have further news on him.

On October 8th he went for his first ever colonoscopy. We managed to both live through it. The procedure itself is nothing. I’ve been through it myself once. It’s the day before that is crappy. Ha! Pun intended. Poor man. Anyway, the colonoscopy itself went well as the husband doesn’t remember anything. It’s the afterwards that didn’t go so well. They found two polyps and a tumor. Not the best of news. His doctor wanted the procedure done as the husband keeps losing weight. He is way underweight right now. Which I knew. We will know the results of the biopsies done on the polyps and tumor this Thursday the 22nd. We are hoping for the best and trying to prepare for the worst. Cancer is not a word anyone wants to hear. But, we will deal with it…whatever it is when it happens. It’s all we can do. Keep him in your thoughts this week.

Next up is a bit of a bizarre story. Wednesday morning, very early in the morning, like five am early…there was a pounding on our front door. Now this time of year, five am is still very dark out. I didn’t hear the pounding on the door, but the husband did, and of course, opened it. He’s a very trusting kind of man, almost too trusting. I woke up as Sam started to bark his ‘there is company!!’ bark. I got up, confused and tired and went into the living room. In the dark, all I could see is the husband standing over what looked to be a pile of blankets or clothes on the kitchen floor. I ask him what’s wrong, thinking he might have fallen or something. He shuffles over to me and tells me quietly that everything is ok and to just go back to bed. In the meantime, I see the pile of blankets move. What the hell??

I ask again, what is going on? The husband says, “he was cold and a little wet and seems to be beaten up so I got him some blankets. He had a fight with his mother’s boyfriend.” Now, at five am this does not even make sense! So I move further into the room and wonder why the husband has all the lights off, as he usually has at least the light over the stove on. Sam in the meantime is warily eyeing the lump of blankets. Finally, from inside the lump pops out a male head. A young man about 20 – 21 looks out and squints like what little light does shine is hurting his eyes. He’s pale and shivering (it was -1c/34F) outside that morning.

I finally get a disjointed tale from Justin (that’s what he says his name is). He tells me that he lives in a trailer further down from us with his mother and his mother’s boyfriend. He said that the boyfriend had been drinking and his mother and boyfriend had been fighting. He tells me that the boyfriend started hitting his mother, so he got in between them and told the boyfriend they should go for a ride to calm down. They went for a ride in the boyfriend’s truck and went several miles when they got into a fight and the boyfriend hit the kid and threw him out of the truck and took off.

He says he walked many miles in only his underwear and t-shirt and fell down a ravine. He was freezing and started pounding on doors and of course, the husband let him in. Allll righty then.

Now me. I’m not a trusting person. I’m the complete opposite of the husband. I listened to this disjointed story with doubt. Lots and lots of doubt. My instincts were telling me the boy was lying. Will I ever know the truth? Probably not, but I still think the kid was lying. You’ll see why…….

After telling me this story and moaning a bit, he asked if he could lay down on our couch and try to warm up. I tell him sure. In the meantime I look for any kind of weapon in case I have to use it. Like I said, not a trusting person. He lays down on the couch and I notice he does only have on a pair of sleeping shorts and a light t-shirt. I look at his feet in what light we have, they are clean with not a scratch on them. Nor his legs.

After this Sam needed to go outside, so I start to take him. The kid tells me, “please don’t go outside.” I open the door and tell him the dog  has to go out and it’s something that I’m going to do. He shut up. I get a better look at the kid when I come back as he’s talking to the husband. He’s got short black hair and blue eyes. He is also strongly built. He could hurt us easily if he wanted to. So I’m cautious. He was a bit pale and his eyes were……well, they had that look that people get when they are drunk or on drugs. I figure drugs. Oh goody. He wasn’t slurring his words, but what he was saying wasn’t making much sense.

First he says he wants to borrow the phone and call his grandma. Ok, he calls and hangs up. Says grandma will be here in about an hour and a half as she lives in another town. Fine. He lays back down on the couch, covers his body, including his head with the blankets and goes to sleep. Passes out? I don’t know. He’s out of it. So I get dressed. The husband and I sit for almost three hours until the kid decided to wake up. By now it’s 8 am. Now I’m pretty convinced he lied.

He calls a friend. Never mentions grandma again. Says the friend will pick him up after he takes his sister to school. Uh huh. Doesn’t sound like his friend is too concerned. Like he’s done this before? I dunno. He goes to the bathroom. I look him over. No scratches or even dirt on his feet or legs. His arms have a few scratches on them, so does his head. I notice his hands are scraped up. Not like he fell down though. Like he grabbed something and it was tore out of his hands. Something is not adding up. A lot of somethings were not adding up.

He looks at me and asks me if I drive. I ask why? He says, could I drive him to the apartments about 2 miles from here. His friends live there. He never mentions about going back to his mom’s. Never even mentions his mom again. No mom, no grandma, no boyfriend of his mom. Weird. My gut says do NOT take him by yourself. So I tell him the husband and I both will go and I will drive him to his friends. He agrees. What else is he going to do? I just want him gone.

He wraps himself up in our blanket and says he will come back and return the blanket. I tell him just keep it. It’s an old blanket. He says ok. I do NOT want him back. So we take him to the apartments and say good-by and we get back home. I tell the husband …… Don’t EVER let someone in at 5am. Call the police, they will straighten it out.

It was a weird thing. It really was. I am convinced he lied. I don’t think his mom was beaten up, I think maybe he got in a fight with mom himself, maybe because he was using drugs. She kicked him out. He passed out outside….she wouldn’t let him back in…..he came knocking on our door because no one else would answer their door. He did let slip that he tried other places.

None of it made any sense. Once he slept things off, I think he forgot what he told us. I just hope I don’t ever see him again.

So how are things with you guys?