Kathy Sees
Bio
Stories (37)
Filter by community
Bad Girl House
On a weekend that we weren’t seeing Jonathan, we were on our way to my house. We may have been heading back from John’s apartment, or from my grandparents’ house that was only a short distance away. While riding beside him, I was gazing at the corn fields along the side of the road. wasn’t thinking about his mood —until we pulled up beside another car at a stop light. That’s when I got nervous. At this particular light, when it turned green, the cars in both lanes needed quickly to merge into one. The people who lived in the area were familiar with this. If there was already a car waiting at the light when you approached it, it was common courtesy to stay back a bit so that that the first car could pull ahead when the light turned green. There were of course those people who would still pull up beside the car that was already int he other lane. That’s what John had done. John looked over at the man in the car next us, and gripped the steering wheel tighter. The man in the other car didn’t think much about which lane he was in. He probably assumed that the person beside him would b allow him to safely merge into the one lane. That would send everyone down the street, and on with the rest of their day. Little did he know, that was not what was about to happen. As the light turned green, both cars began to move. The other car seemed to jolt forward in an effort to merge after passing us. John was not going to let that happen. He stepped on the gas, staying right beside the other car. Neither one was slowing down.
By Kathy Sees5 years ago in Humans
Bad Girl House
Before we had even been in Virginia for a few months, John’s father called him about a job opportunity back in Ohio. The contractor they often worked with was bidding on how much it would cost for them to build HUD housing. His father wouldn’t be able to accept the job if John didn’t come back to help him. It would be long term, possibly indefinite work, so turning it down really wasn’t an option. It had been years since either of them had had steady work. It was also not an option for me to quit my job after only months of teaching. We had to figure out how to make both jobs work logistically with one vehicle between us, and Jessica, who had just turned one. Since I had to be able to drive to work every morning, John’s parents really had no other choice than to make the drive to take him to Ohio whenever they needed him.
By Kathy Sees5 years ago in Humans
Bad Girl House
Tuesday, September 11, 2001 began as any other day. John and Jessica were in Ohio, so I was quietly getting ready for a day of teaching. I showered, got dressed, ate breakfast, and put on my make-up. It was a beautiful, sunny morning. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I normally got to school around seven am to make sure I was ready for all of my elementary classes. I wrote the date on my blackboard, along with the day’s activities. I would have a class full of students by eight o’clock, and they would be with me for about an hour. Soon after waking that class out of my room, my second class was approaching. Even from a distance, I could tell that their teacher was shaken up about something. As her students went into my room, she asked me to stay by the door with her for a second. She leaned towards me putting her hand around my elbow. She whispered that an airplane had just crashed into one of the Twin Towers in New York City. I just stared at her as she shook her head. She said that she was going to the teacher’s lounge to see what else she could find out. I looked back into my room, realizing that I needed to teach a class of innocent children who had no idea of the huge event that was currently happening. In order to stand in front of them, I had to push what I had just heard out of my mind. I had to keep them engaged, as well as keep myself distracted. If I stopped too long to think about it, I was afraid that my emotions would be visible on my face.
By Kathy Sees5 years ago in Humans
Bad Girl House
As the summer approached, John’s father still didn’t have any leads on long term work. John was looking for work using online job boards, but couldn’t find a job that he felt was worthy of his skill set as a carpenter. He wasn’t finding anything that was going to pay him what he believed he was worth. His overpowering ego wasn’t willing to take a job that would simply provide a salary that would support his family. There was a strong possibly that his recent arrest left a lasting mark on his record that kept him from getting hired anywhere that required a background check. I had to stay home to watch Jessica instead of attending his upcoming court dates, so I didn’t know exactly what he had been charged with. Whether it was John’s unsuccessful search or his growing police record, he eventually stopped looking for a job. Instead, he decided that the most logical and promising option was to find me a teaching position for the coming fall.
By Kathy Sees5 years ago in Humans
Bad Girl House
The following Spring we were still renting the small house in my grandparent’s neighborhood. Early one calm sunny morning, I heard a knock at our door while I was getting Jessica dressed. I didn’t think anything of it. It could have been a Girl Scout selling cookies, or a neighbor who needed help with something. It could have even been my grandpa stopping by while he was taking a walk. It turned out to be anything but the everyday occurrence that I figured that it was.
By Kathy Sees5 years ago in Humans
Bad Girl House
I suppose that most of us grew up having sweet dreams of someday being proposed to. I know that I did. I’ve always been a hopeless romantic. Although I had come to understand that all of the princess movies did not actually represent the ideal happy ending, or happy beginning for that matter, they were still a big influence on my views of romance. I imagined I was going to be proposed to by a handsome man, dressed in a tuxedo, as the sun was setting on a beautiful beach. He was going to surprise me as he got down on one knee to presented me with a gorgeous diamond ring. Then we would dance under the stars in a haze of happiness, to music that just started playing out of nowhere, like it was coming from the moon. I may have been a tough tomboy, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t dream about falling in love with my own Prince Charming.
By Kathy Sees5 years ago in Humans
Bad Girl House
Only four months after the wedding, I found out that I was pregnant. This was right after I had finished my semester of student teaching. All of our parents were thrilled at the news. It was all they could talk about. Johnathan was very excited that he was finally going to be a big brother at nine years old. Even though I was happy and saw this as good thing for me, in the back of my mind I felt that it would also be good for my relationship with John. I thought that it would make him happy, and soften his demeanor a bit. I hoped that the thought of having a baby with me would change his outlook on everything.
By Kathy Sees5 years ago in Humans
Bad Girl House
The day that I met John’s family went very differently from the day he met my parents. It was much closer to the traditional introduction of the new girlfriend. We weren’t going to be there unannounced for them to find us when they got home. We were going to their house for dinner on Easter Sunday, which happened to fall on John’s birthday that year. He had told me to dress nicely, as if that wasn’t a given. John may have even bought flowers to bring to his mother. When we got there we were greeted by his mother at the door. There were happy hellos and hugs. Everyone was glad to see each other.
By Kathy Sees5 years ago in Humans
Bad Girl House
I immediately started being questioned about my romantic past. Right after our first kiss, John was asking me about my experiences with other people. He said that I seemed to know what I was doing, and asked me how many people I had kissed before him. In a normal situation, my past wouldn’t have been a big deal at all. It wasn’t anything monumental or exciting, and I have no doubt that I was way below the curve of a typical nineteen-year-old. With anyone else it may not even have been brought up. Not to mention that it should have been my business, and mine to share if I and when I wanted to. In this situation, I was dealing with irrational jealousy from the very start. A jealousy that made me concerned about what John’s reaction would be to hearing even the most tame of details. I shouldn’t have felt nervous to talk about things that were just part of life. They were the kind of things that everyone experiences. They should have been laughable stories that I could tell while getting to know someone. John made it very plain that he wouldn’t be happy with me if he found out that I was lying to him about anything. Unfortunately, that made my worries even worse. He told me what his reaction would be before I had even said anything.
By Kathy Sees5 years ago in Humans
Bad Girl House
Returning to school in January of 1996, for my second semester of college, I was hoping to find my friend Connie sometime during the day. We eventually did find each other, and it made me feel good to have someone to sit with during my breaks between classes. Soon after the semester began, a few people from her public speaking class came with her to the student union. One was a short, round fellow, who I think was close to our own age. The other was a short, fit, balding guy of twenty-six who I will call John. Keep in mind that I was still several months away from turning nineteen at this time. At first meeting, John seemed confident and charismatic, but at the same time no-nonsense. Like I normally did, when we hung out in the student union I just sat and listened to the people around me talk to each other. John complained about being penalized for missing classes when he had other responsibilities. He called them adult responsibilities. He talked about having commitments for his job and with his young son. From early on, these things illustrated his disrespect for any type of authority. He felt that he shouldn’t have to answer to his professors, and that he should be able to attend class when it was most convenient for him. It didn’t matter to him that he was required to attend his classes, and that not being there would impact his grades. I would imagine that he had extremely rude interactions with his teachers because of this. John also had plenty of nasty things to say about his ex-wife whenever he discussed his son. From the very first thing I ever heard him say about her, everything in their past was her fault. She was the reason that they were divorced. She was the reason that he didn’t see his son as often as he thought he should. She was the reason he had to pay child support that she wasn’t using the way he thought that she should.
By Kathy Sees5 years ago in Families
