Joppa Town

That's where this house was located. That's really the correct name of the town. It always makes me think about Barter Town from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, or clowns, for some reason. Our stay there didn't last long, but it was kind of nice while it did. Every Friday, I had to walk about 5 miles to the bank to deposit Keith's paycheck. I didn't mind. It gave me something to do and I'd usually stop for a few small treats at the grocery store on the way back.

There was a time that Keith just didn't come home from work. It was still early in the relationship, so I thought I could do the normal thing and call around looking for him. I called his mom and his uncle and his cousin. I was really starting to get scared that he'd wrecked the motorcycle or something, so I got his cousin to go by his work and see if the bike was there or not. He was actually just getting finished working when his cousin showed up. He gave him a little teasing about scaring me and went on his way. Well, when Keith got home, I got yelled at for about 3 hours.

Don't you EVER call around looking for me! I'll be home when I damn well please! Don't worry about me, I'm a grown man with more than a million miles on the road under my belt. Don't you EVER call my cousin for ANYTHING ever again. You think he's cute, don't you? You want him? I can arrange that!

It was terrifying for this 19 yr old girl from a small town and a family that never really yelled about anything. All I could do was cower, shake, and promise to do what he wanted. And the odd thing about this abuser was that he never did that apologize and promise to be better thing. He just expected me to accept what he said and follow orders.