Sometime
ago there was boy who used to ride is old bike all over the place and I
used to see him every once in a while, it was the places that I saw him
that surprised me.....we would go to Farmington to the movie and he
would be there on his bike, and he would go to Shiprock and he would be
at the store there...he would ride that bike through the rain, wind and
go for miles just to go somewhere.
I
used to talk to him and he was bright, a smart kid and he was never
with anyone. I asked him how he got to town and he would just shake his
head and shrug his shoulders never answering.
After
a while I would see his mother and asked her if he could stay with us
since they lived way out in the sticks and she said no. She is a distant
relation who I never saw with her son, he just kind of wandered around
on his own staying with his grandfather who was an old man. I saw his
mother again and told her that her son was a pretty smart kid and
sometimes he stays over to our place, it seemed like a lot of times.
He
was an easy going kid with a nice smile and each time I tried to take
him and rasie him, his mother resisted. After a while I let it go...I
ran into him the other day and we talked for while and he told me when
he was small no one wanted him. He is full grown. I told him I wanted
him to be my son but his mother said no. He told me you should have
tried harder.
We
sat for a long while and he grew up alone making IT to Portland and
ended up on the streets there and had a hard time. He told me his mother
did not want him but wanted his social security and thought that was
what we wanted it. I told him that I explained to her that I would raise
you as my own with any support from her or any money so I was not
interested in any money but I did not know what the situation was.
He
told me he had a hard life. He is a truck driver now driving between
Arizona and North Dakota and has three kids. I said I know you are doing
well now and are a good father. There are some things I regret and one
of them is not being able to raise him as my own son. He looked at me
and said, I thought no one wanted me. I said that is not true. You will
always have a place here I told him. He was needing to talk to someone
and we talked for some time and then he left. I can still see him riding
that bike on them reservation roads as a kid, he rode a long ways to
make a life for himself.
Later
on in the day my grandson asked me to pick him at school and so I did
and he had a girl with him, I didn't know her but he told me her name
was Joe. I said that is a crazy name for girl, he didn't say much after
that.
When
i got home that night I thought about this girl and just before bed i
asked him about her. He said to me in passing...she is my sister. That
took me by surprise when he said that, he said his father has other
children and she is one of them. I know his father by name but have
nothing to do with him as he has never been around and never provided
anything for my grandson, he is a stranger to me. I
learned
that my cousin had a daughter and she had a child for this guy and Joe
is her daughter so she is related to us distantly and yet I didn't know
her and that is why I wrote that I am think I know everything and
sometimes find out something I should have known a long time ago Anyway
my grandson told me Joe has lived in seven foster homes as she has grown
up and he said she needs a place to stay. Well we talked about last
night and it looks like we have a new member of our family joining
us...I will not make the same mistake I made a long time ago and let a
child go on their own again...so that is what is on my mind today...
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