A dark time

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, there was this teenager and her family.

Her mom had a motel with 17 rooms to rent on 9 acres of land.  It was a truly beautiful place, with many mature trees, situated by a river.

The name of the river "Rivière Blanche" was a incongruity as the river was not white, not even clear, but rather brown and murky.

Her mom had owned the motel since her parents had split.  (That split was the best thing that had happened to the family.  The parents' lost love for one another had become an uncomfortable thing)  The motel business had not been doing quite as well in the last few years and her mom had decided to sell. She was also acutely aware that her children were almost grown up and would soon be flying the coop.  Her two eldest had already moved out on their own at one time. The oldest, had moved out for the first time a few years ago, first to live in a bachelor, then a place with other students close to the university he was attending.  The Benjamin, had moved out with a friend for a year.  Even though hey had both come back, it was not going to be for long.  The youngest, was 4 1/2 years younger than the other two but already done with high-school and started college.

Enter Michel.  Michel represented himself as a Real estate developer middleman.  At first he was going to buy the property and develop it, then his "investors" pulled out and he was going to help her mom sell to some other developers for a profit.

At some point in time, he became involved with her mom.  He moved from the motel where he was staying to the home.  He seemed like prince charming.  The whole family was twitter-peeted, thinking he was the most amazing person since  the saviour!  The teenager adored him as he would take the time to listen to her, spend time with her.  As Michel did not have a driver's permit, he had lost it due to drunk driving, the teenager was often called upon to drive him to his various errands.  He was  doctor in psychology and knew how to understand to human mind.  In the beginning, Michel was able to convince the teenager to have self-esteem, perhaps the first time in her life. The teenager even told him once that she wished he was her father.

She would eventually change her mind.

This man was no angel.  In fact he was much closer to the devil.  He knew how to manipulate, and some suspect he might even have known how to hypnotize.  He knew how to be charming to gain trust.  The family's dog was even enamored.

What this man did eventually ruined them and for a period, almost destroyed the family.  In a way, they may never have fully recovered.

Even though Michel may have had many qualities, he had quite a few serious character traits that caused a great many problems.  Michel's main problems were that he was a serious alcoholic, did heavy drugs and was a gambler.  He loved to bet on horses and usually lost.

He had some good and decent friends that the family got to meet.  There was a gentle man from Montreal who seemed to ooze goodness.

So Michel came in to the family's life, offering to fulfill all of their dreams, sell the motel at a good price, maybe develop the land with profit and wound up taking the mom for everything she was worth and more.  WE must admit, he played largely on their greed and their need to be loved and understood.

Not only did he sell many of her assets (furniture from the motel) and drink and gamble all the money away, he also got the mother to take out a substantial loan to develop her property, and proceeded to gamble all of that money away as well.  When he could not get money to fuel his addictions he would become abusive and threatening.

Once, when the mother was away and he was under the influence of alcohol and drugs, he threatened to rape the teenager.  The teenager was so very afraid that night, she cowered in her room and was afraid that the door of her room which did not have a proper handle would not hold to protect her.  She had moved furniture in front of the door for extra safety.

The next day when  her mother came home, she tried to tell her what had happened.  The mother refused to believe that Michel had meant any harm, and she was convinced that the teenager in a fit of jealousy was trying to stir up trouble.  It was decided that the teenager, rather than Michel would move away for "her own happiness".

Feeling completely betrayed by her own mother, that she would choose an abusive, lying. cheating drug and alcohol addicted over her, the teenager would refuse to speak to her mother for months after moving out.  To make things worst, her brothers also refused to believe the teenager and they all felt she was simply being immature and mean.  Here she was, a teenager, barely 18, living away from "home" working two jobs and going to college, trying to support herself.  Mind you, she moved into a 3 bedroom apartment into which her brothers moved in also.  Their father sent monthly checks to help out with the rent, so between the four of them, her share of the rent was not all that high, but she still had to buy her food, pay for her car, and try to have a life.

The teenager had a friend (Sonia) that had moved in with her mother after she and her brothers had moved out.  The friend's family had moved out of town and in order to attend college, the teen's mother had offered to board her in exchange for some help with the motel.

Through Sonia, the teenager was kept informed of the going on's in her mother's life.  After a particularly troubling episode, the teenager had decided to call the police on Michel.  She wanted to get her mother free from the destructive nature of that man.  Even though she was not speaking to her mother, and felt betrayed by her, she still loved her mother so very much.  The teenager's mother and brother became angry with the teenager when they found out that she had called the police.  Michel had managed to evade the police, the mother had hidden him to protect him.

After a great many horrible experiences, which we will discuss at some later time, the mother finally found the courage and the strength to get rid of Michel.  He left with her cell phone (which at the time was quite onerous) and racked up a huge bill for her mom to pay.  Her mom was almost destitute at this point, overwhelmed with stress and emotions, debtors of all kinds knocking on her door.  The teen was massively worried that her mother would either take her own life or die from the pressure.

The teen decided to call her mother's family to appraise them of the situation and of her worries.  She appealed to them to help her and her mother.  They agreed that the situation was dire and decided to send some a brother in law (uncle by alliance) to fetch her mother and try to help her and take care of her.  In the meantime, the teen agreed to try and hold the fort, try to take care of the motel, which was difficult with the school and work.  She had friends come and sleep over as there would be many break-ins ans she was scared.  When she could not have friends over, she would sleep with a baseball bat by her side.  In fact, one night her mom and uncle had decided to drive down for some reason or other without warning the teen.  It was only due to the uncles quick reflexes in warning the teen at the last minute that prevented the teen from bashing her mother's head with the baseball bat as they entered the room where she was sleeping.

The teen had been able to cancel the huge cellphone bill by calling the cellphone company and pretending to be her mother.  She advised them that in fact the phone had been stolen and the charges had been done by the thief.  After a great many negotiations they agreed to cancel most of the bill.

Things settled down for a bit, her mother came back and was able to care for herself.  The teen stayed with her for a while to try and help and renew their relationship.  Her lease expeired, her brothers moved out on their own and her stuff was stored in a shed for a bit.  The teen discovered she had managed to become pregnant during this ordeal and mom and daughter started preparing for the happy event.

Eventually the motel was sold for the value of the debts and nothing more.  Her mom received a loan from her father to purchase an old folks home so the mother would have some income and the teen returned to her adult life with a brand new baby daughter, in an appartment of her own.

To this day most of this story is a blur.  Mother, teen and brothers all have a different memory of what went down.  They rarele speak about what happened and have decided to just move on.


More will be added to the story as teen and mother remember more.  Stay tuned as the story will grow with time.

And thanks for reading.