Young Love

DeAnna came running out of her room. She had been laying in bed reading. He had a huge raccoon with a mouth full of porcupine quills.
"Where did you get him? And what happened?" DeAnna asked reaching over to pet him. "He's friendly!"
"Yea, we were eating lunch on the back of the truck. And he just came up to us. So, I fed him some of my sandwich and but him in the car until I got off work. He needs to get those quills out." Steve said as he set him down on the floor. He wondered around the kitchen and the dogs came running over. He hunched up his back and stood on his hind legs bearing teeth and claws.
"Come on let's take him in the bedroom." DeAnna said as the boys pulled the dogs away and DeAnna picked him up and carried him off.
The next day DeAnna and Judy took him to the vet. Which was 30 miles away. They brought him in and the vet put him to sleep. He pulled all the quills out.
"Now, when he wakes up he's gonna act a little crazy from the drugs he just had. He'll settle down once they wear off." The doctor told them as they paid the bill.
"Ok!" They both said as the headed out the door. Judy was driving and DeAnna had Charlie, she decided to call him, on her lap. Completely out of it. They got about half way home and all the sudden he woke up. He jumped up in the air and started running circles round the car.
"Pull over, Judy!" DeAnna was yelling as Judy drove down the road. It didn't seem to bother her none. He kept running round the car. Over the front seat, to the back and into the back window.
"Pull over!"
Judy just kept driving. He finally started to settle down. As he laid in the back window. They finally got home and DeAnna took him inside to her room. He laid in bed with her and they both fell asleep. Charlie followed DeAnna everywhere. She really loved having him around.
Steve and DeAnna was at some friends house in Seney and they were all playing cards and had a keg of beer. Steve and her were partners in spades. Which they ran the table. DeAnna all the sudden felt the baby kick! She lite up with a big smile she was so happy.
The radio was playing all the sudden the DJ broke into the middle of a song. Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane just CRASHED!! Everyone stopped what they were doing to listen. They all LOVE Lynyrd Skynyrd! The DJ mentioned their latest album with all them on the cover and the flames around them. He said there would be no other copies made like that. Then he played their song Free Bird! It was a moment that DeAnna held close to her heart for ever!!!!!!!!!! They had all their albums and she had the one with the flames.
Steve had bought a 55 Ford he found in someone's field. It was still in good shape. So he worked on it and painted it black with yellow and red flames. It was the first flame job DeAnna seen that she loved. And she thought of Lynyrd Skynyrd. He put fake fur on the dash, had a chain steering wheel, clear spark plugs, dice in the window. And boy, was it SWEET!!!!!!!!! You rarely ever saw any old Fords. Chevy's were here and there............. but not Fords!!!
He souped it up and all the guys around wanted to race him. Everyone often raced down Ten Curves Road. You rarely ever saw a vehicle anywhere out where they lived. But Steve wouldn't do it. He said that was his baby! Well, second baby!
He had his Ford Torino jacked up in the back with wide tires. It was white with red and blue flames on the side and a rebel flag on the back trunk. The 55 Ford was more a side toy. Things were really going good.
Then she had missed her periods. She set up a doctor's appointment. Tony and Jimmy had drove her into Manistique in Tony's mustang fastback. Steve had to work. She found out she was pregnant! She cried all the way home in the backseat. God, she loved Steve but A BABY! At her age. She was only 17. She still had one more year of school!
"Sorry to hear that!" Tony said as they drove home. Tony still cared for her. Nothing much was said all the way home.
That night DeAnna told Steve. "Wow!" He said. "Are you sure?"
"Yes!"
"Well, I really didn't want this to happen so soon. I guess we'll have to get a place of our own. And I guess we'll have to get married."
"Yes, but I'd rather wait til after the baby is born. I don't want to unless things are ok."
"Alright."
DeAnna was standing by the wood stove watching tv. Charlie was in the room next to the wood stove. Steve's dog, Bear, was behind DeAnna. She didn't think too much of it. But the next thing she knew Bear had jumped up on the door handle opening the door. DeAnna forgot he knew how to do that. Charlie was standing right there on the floor. Bear got one bite and DeAnna had grabbed him. But it was too late. Charlie was dead. He got him in the throat. DeAnna pushed Bear away. She cried. Her Charlie was gone. Oh, no! Steve got home that evening and buried him out back in the second clearing. DeAnna cried. Steve held her tight and said he was sorry.
One day Duane came running into the house.
"DeAnna!" He held out of breathe.
DeAnna walked into the kitchen. "Yea?"
"You have to call your dad in Georgia! He just called our house! It's your brother!"
Steve walked into the room. DeAnna looked at him shocked. Why would they call Duane's?
"Come on! I'll take you!" Steve said as they all rushed out the door.
DeAnna called her dad. Her brother Larry was dead! She just sat there crying as he told her about it on the phone. Steve and Duane stood there listening.
DeAnna went with her mom downstate to his funeral. She was about due to have John in a month but was so sick. She knew it was because of her brother. A blood vessel had popped in his head. They could of saved him if they could of got him to Jacksonville FL in time. But the doctors said he would of been like a vegetable and would of had to live on a machine. So DeAnna was glad he had past.
What was so weird her grandma told her that the night it happened before he went to bed he came into the frontroom and asked her if she would take his school books to school for him. And he handed them to her. She said she was stunned but said yes and took them and put them on the kitchen table. Thinking he would take them his self the next morning. But that night round midnight he woke up crying from a headache. Grandma gave him some aspirin and he went back to bed. But then he started crying louder. So grandma and pa took him into the hospital just down the road. When they walked inside he just started screaming! They rushed him in the back but he was gone! They both cried together holding each other tight. How strange was that. Like he already knew he was gonna go. He was such a good boy. He was the best one out of the three of them, DeAnna knew. Why would God take such a innocent life?
Just before she had the baby they found a place on the edge of town. It was small but cute. He had sold the 55 Ford to help make the deposit. God, how they both had loved that car and hated to see it go. "It is for our son though he said." So sure they'd have a boy. Soon they got settled in and DeAnna really liked it. Her mom would come by to see her and they'd ride down country roads together. They'd look for mushrooms to eat. BUT THE KIND YOU DON'T GET HIGH ON!!
Roxanne a good friend of DeAnna's would come to visit her and John while Steve was out. Her brother Michael would hang out with Steve and Duane some. The funny thing was those three would sit and talk with DeAnna before they'd all leave together after DeAnna put John down for the night and tell her stories about Big Foot! Then they take off and leave her there alone! DeAnna hated that! Luckily they Steve's dog Bear was chained up outside the door. He was a huge dog. He was the only Malamute there was out of all the dogs. He had a face like a raccoon so Steve had named him Bandit. But he was so big he looked like a bear. So Steve ended up calling him Bear.
Her mom was pregnant too. They were due a few months apart. She had married a man named George Menominee and they were buying a house in Newberry.Before she knew it. The baby came. It was a long ride into Manistique Steve missed the days work. She had a boy and named him John. She had switch Steve's first and middle name around. Steve was a little upset. He wanted him to be called Steve. A few days after the baby was born they married.
Steve still hung out with Duane all the time. And Judy was seeing George the lived down the road from Debbie. So they didn't get to see each other much. Steve would come home late. And DeAnna would complain about him being out so late. She knew he was sleeping around on her. She had been told by a few people. And his dad would tease her saying Duane was Steve's first wife and she was his second. God, how she hated it when he did that.
Money got tight and they had to move back in with his dad. DeAnna didn't mind in a way because she was home alone and scared when Steve was out.
That Sept DeAnna had set up a baby sitter for while she was in school. The first day of school Steve had dropped the baby off on his way to work. DeAnna was standing by the wood stove with Alan. They were waiting for the school bus. And big Tony got up. He noticed she was dressed like she was going somewhere. "Where you going?" He asked.
"To school." DeAnna said.
"SCHOOL!!!!!!" He yelled! "What do you mean? You dropping your baby off on someone so you don't have to take care of it?"
"No! I just want to finish my education!" DeAnna yelled back.
"Oh No! Not while you're in my house you will not be leaving your son with someone else to care for. And that's final!"
DeAnna was upset. It wasn't like that at all. He was living like a long haired Indian. Against school, no running water, living off the land with the wood heat and food. They killed deer, quail went ice fishing to bring in extra food. She wanted to finish her education. But she knew to keep peace in the family she'd have to stay home with the baby.
"Alright!" She said. "I'll get John Zellar to drop me off at Barbra's to get the baby!"
So she got dropped off and Barbra brought her home. She told Steve about it but Steve said for now it would have to be that way. He said they would look for another place of their own. As the months went on they looked at a few places. But nothing much came up they could afford.
One night Roxanne came by while John was asleep and she broke down and started crying.
"What's wrong?" DeAnna looked puzzled. She was just fine a minute ago.
"You know, I hate to tell you this. We've been such good friends. But............ I......... I slept with Steve!" She cried out!
What? DeAnna thought she misunderstood her. She just sat there for a minute thinking about what she just said. She kinda knew Steve was probably sleep around on her. But Roxanne? She was a rather big kinda girl with glasses. No! She thought to her self.
"I'm so sorry DeAnna! I know it was wrong!" Roxanne said as she wiped her eyes.
DeAnna didn't say anything. What could she say. Steve knows better than that. He shouldn't be off doing things like that to her.
"Well, I'm gonna go. I really didn't mean to hurt you!" Roxanne said as she headed out the door. DeAnna just sat there and watched her drive off. She could hardly sleep that night. But when Steve got in and crawled in bed she just pretended she was asleep. How could he do this to her? Always leaving her alone while he was out gallie vaunting around!
That next morning DeAnna was rather cold and distant to Steve. He just went about getting ready for work like he didn't notice.
She stayed rather distant and quite to him. Then one morning he got up for work. DeAnna had just put John down not long ago so she didn't get up.
"DeAnna! Wake up!" Steve yelled as he was holding the baby. "JOHNNY'S ICE COLD AND BLUE!" He said as he put him under the blankets with her.
DeAnna noticed he was cold and blue. She held him close to her body. "What should we do?" She asked Steve.
"I don't know! Maybe we should take him to the hospital!" Steve said knowing the hospital was 60 miles away.
"Yea! I think we should! Something's not right!" DeAnna said as she got out of bed getting dressed leaving him under the covers.
The rushed into Manistique. When they got there Steve dropped them off at the door and parked the car. The nurses took the baby from her and rushed him into a room. DeAnna followed. Steve came in while the doctor was listening to his heart beat.
"Is he alright?" Steve asked.
The doctor looked up at him. "Yes, he seems to be fine. "Tell me" he said as he motioned them out the door "what happened?"
They explained it all to him. Then he looked at DeAnna with a very stern look "Are you sure you didn't do anything to him."
"NO! I just put him down to sleep after feeding him like always. His crib is right next to our bed!" DeAnna said in tears. She didn't like this doctor. How could he even think she did anything to him.
"Alright then. I'll be right back." And he turned and walked over to the nurses whispering to them.
They waited in the waiting room. Finally a nurse came out and said they could take him home. Everything was ok. She told them it may have been what they called crib death. When a new born just forgets to take a breathe and just stops breathing. She said they were lucky he picked him up when he did. It must of saved his life!
DeAnna was relieved. But she was still upset that the doctor was so mean to her. It wasn't very nice him thinking she may have done something to him. When they left the hospital Steve wanted to stop at a restaurant to get something to eat. After all that he said he had worked up quite the appetite. So they stopped at Shoney's.

Then one day DeAnna was at the house alone with big Tony. She had been feeling comfortable around him especially after having the baby. Feeling like Steve, her and the baby was a family of their own now.
The tv was on and they got to talking. John was asleep on the bed in the room next to the wood stove where she was standing watching the tv. Somehow she got on the subject about seeing a doctor again.
"Why?" Big Tony asked.
"Oh, just a little scared about something that's popped up on me. I don't know what it is."
"Well, let me see it!" He said.
DeAnna all the sudden got scared. Realizing they were there alone. She didn't know what to do. She stood there frozen in time. Like that little girl she was so many years ago. Right there in the same place, same house, same person.
"Let me see it!" He said again more forcefully. He grabbed her arm and pulled her into the bedroom and laid her on the bed next to her baby, John, now 3 months old fast asleep.
He pulled off her paints and shirt. She layed there frozen so scared not knowing what to do. She couldn't think. Where is everyone? Please let someone walk through that door.
He took his clothes off and layed on top of her. She turned her head toward the baby laying there still asleep as tears rolled down her face. This cann't be happening again. Please tell me I am not here. Finally he was done. She grabbed her clothes, the baby and ran into her and Steve's room. Slamming the door behind her. She layed in bed crying again.
Jimmy came in she didn't say a word. She packed her bags all the things she could for her and the baby. Duane walked in later that afternoon. Steve was outside doing something to his car. DeAnna walked into the kitchen and asked Duane to please give her a ride into Seney. It was the next small town up from Germfask.
"When?" He asked.
"RIGHT NOW!!!" She said pisted off as she set her bags down on the floor next to him with the baby in her arms.
"Alright! Let's go!" He picked up her bags and they walked out to his car parked on the road.
"Where you going?" Steve yelled out as he seen her getting into Duane's car.
"Get me out of here NOW Duane!" She yelled at him pointing her finger down the road.
Duane took off looking at Steve shrugging his head to Steve.
"Hey, where you going?" DeAnna could hear Steve yelling down the road.