Just prior to being off work for 6 weeks and finding that quarter, I had gone to Quebec on a bourse du Gouvernement. It was for 6 weeks. It was my time away from my life at home. My life of worry about my mother. Her depression. Her 'mental illness'. You see, after the divorce, no one really believed my mom's story about all the beatings and abuse. It was a very difficult time for her. My baby brother was only 8 mos. old at the time. It was Jan. 14th and my dad had been on the rampage again and almost killed her this time. When I awoke that morning and saw her completely black and blue rocking in her rocking chair with Andrew, I saw her spirit had died. Physically she was alive, but she was spiritually dead. This never improved. I was looking into empty eyes. A soul that simply could not endure anymore abuse, but was dead inside none the less. Her smiles were a thing of the past. She told me we were leaving. She said this many times before, but I knew this time she meant it. She planned for a brother-in-law to pick us up before my dad got home. I went to school that day and was to tell them I was not coming back. It happened very fast. We had to escape this way, as he always threatened to kill her and kept the keys from her and often forbid her from driving. Her small 90lb, 4'11 frame was no match for his 220lb, 6'3" build.
So, I was in Quebec as I had been dealing with the aftermath of years of her depression from all this. Life had been difficult. By this point, she was starting to have 'nervous breakdowns'. It was scary and embarassing for me. The family made a decision to put her in Alberta Mental Hospital. I got sent to Lister Hall Dorm at the U of A, my sister went to live with my aunt and uncle, and my brother went to my grandmas and the house was sold. The escape to Quebec was vital to my survival. At this time, I had left Lister Hall to live with my grandma, grandpa and brother. One day i was walking down the school halls with my friend Rose (whose name is significant and will be discussed later). We had 'sneaked' in as it was a Sunday and no one was allowed in the school on Sundays. But you see, Rose met a new french guy and wanted to call him with the pay phone, so I went along for a walk. We had to hide once as we heard a security guard in the other hallway whistling and walking doing his rounds. He never saw us. The floors were of course clean and glistening...except for a paperclip. Odd. Something possessed me to pick it up. Odder. Finally, we reached the phones. There were two of them. So off she went having her happy french conversation to her boyfriend. About 5 minutes into this, what appeared to be ,a very long conversation, I noticed something with the pay phone in front of me. It had dimes all jammed in the coin slot. Ah ha! Something to do! (you must realize that this is before I was ever finding dimes, and before I had any connections with the dimes. All of that came about 2 years later).
I thus starting picking out the dimes with my fingers. I got about 3 or 4, to see that there were still more jammed in there. I couldn't get anymore. Hmmm...wait a minute! I have a paper clip I thought to myself. So I uncoiled the paperclip and was able to get a few more out. I could still see more in there. I then decided to push them in with the paperclip...JACKPOT!!!! The pay phone became a slot machine!! I had never seen anything like it. Quarters came flying out of the machine! Hundreds of quarters! I thought for certain that security guard would come back with all the noise. Meanwhile, my friend Rose started screaming, "Oh mon Dieu, Oh mon Dieu", and relayed what was happening to her boyfriend. Then she started taking my quarters! Well, I guess I had plenty to share.
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