One Year

I worked Thursday straight through to Tuesday this week.
Every day, nose to the grindstone.

Friday evening I was having serious health concerns, so I went home and slept as much as possible.
I was really glad to see June go.  I guess I blocked everything, or work was so busy (it was very busy this weekend) that I didnt have time to remember the events of last year.


Last year, readers, my parents found out about the blog.
Last year, at the beginning of June they confiscated my phone and all access to outside communication.
Last year, they began closing in.

I endured a couple long weeks of this until my respite.
The last week of June we sell fireworks at a roadside tent.  We had done it for 3 years previous and last year was our 4th year.  They offered me 40% off the net they were going to make if I did the majority of the work.  I was excited by the offer, because previously they had paid me only a very small amount.
So I threw myself into it heart and soul.  I was there almost every moment of that two weeks (with the exception of going home a couple hours to shower and change and one afternoon I went to a friend's graduation party).  I took in the inventory in the mornings, arranged products, greeted customers, sold, checked them out, worked with bad signal on the credit card machine, worked around inclement weather and tried not getting any products wet (gunpowder and all that), and slept there to ensure the product safety.

We stayed open an extra day because the sales were less than hoped/estimated by the company we contracted for.  He only let a couple stands do that, and we were one of the better ones. *pats self on the back
We made another couple thousand dollars and that evening we began the arduous process of packing everything up, final inventory, taking down tables, cleaning (if it is left messy we are penalized), and then counting up the sheets and totaling everything.
Having begun the day around 8am, we finished and I drove a full car home at 1am.

Once home, we unpacked everything that wasnt to be taken back to the warehouse the next day, and put away food, did dishes, and put the sleepy kids who helped through showers and to bed.  At 2:30 or so I told my mother I wanted to go to bed.  I was covered in gunpowder residue from packing and dust from sweeping.  I had accounted for all the products and done all the math.  The finished sheets were in order and ready to be taken in at 8AM (just 6 hours away).

She said to wait because Daddy had wanted to run the numbers and 'total' everything. (ie. see how much we made, sales vs return inventory, gross vs net with sales tax, and etc.)  I said that I didnt want to (I was too tired), and that we would be doing it in just a couple hours with the company people.
But no, he insisted we do it and he insisted that I be present and assist him.
I was too tired to care.  I did not accommodate him with something he was confused about (it was so stupidly easy).  He insisted that I spell it out for him and hand it to him piece by piece even though he could have done it himself.  Even mother tried to help him and he refused to listen to her/take her help.  He wanted to make me do it.
He threatened every trick in the book and I laughed in his face.  Literally. When I am overtired I giggle and get very silly.  I laughed.  I refused to help him and I repeated over and over how tired I was and how I needed to go to bed.
He finally got everything counted up and it resulted in a $500 overage.  I looked at my worried mother and told her firmly not to believe it.  He got even madder at this, but she helped him recalculate and found a charge he missed.  When the second round was finished we came up $1,000 short.  Even more upset mother.  I, again, told her to not believe the findings.

I finally got downstairs to take my shower long past 3am.  And I fell into bed exhausted and set my alarm for 8 so I could be up and dressed in time to go. The next morning, just as I was dressed, I received a text from my father (upstairs) telling me that I was not going and I should not get up.
After running the tent and signing my name on all the forms, it was a childish move on his part.  I was still exhausted, so I went back to bed.  The rest of the day I went about doing my housework duties and cleaning up from a week of chaotic going and selling.  When Daddy got home he ignored me with a frosty cone of silence.  I ignored him because I felt that although I may have laughed in his face, I had warned him before we started that I was over tired and needed to get to bed.

We came out only $200 down, and it was our best year in that respect.  The next day, (the 7th) I got up later and everyone was doing their own thing in various rooms of the house.  On the table I found a sheet of paper with my name on it and a stack of $20s.  It calculated the total commission we made, then the net, then my 40% minus a couple hundred for 'being disrespectful' (one of the things he threatened me with the night of the 5th/morning of the 6th).  My cut came to about the same amount that I had hoped to make in the first place.

Also, they were going to 'allow' me to still go on the family outing later that month. 

When (around lunch time) they looked on the table and noticed the money gone they were distraught and questioned me sternly about it.  I told them honestly what time I had come up and taken it.  They were angry and wanted me to go get the money and bring it back to them because I had 'stolen' it off the table.  I asked how I could steal my own wages and they said that unless it was GIVEN to me, it was not yet mine and I had stolen it.
I never brought the money back upstairs, but they were quite miffed at me for taking it without an official 'giving'(/shaming) ceremony.

It was my birthday, I didnt care.  I had the money safely hidden and I had an exit date. 
Through helpful friends and a hideaway spot I had been able to receive mail.
Someone had helped me to a pay-as-you-go phone and I had been able to call late at night when no one could hear me or come in and find me with an illegal contacting-the-outside-world device.
My sister had talked with Mrs. G some on the phone after her offer of housing and we decided to take the chance and drive that far in hopes that I would not be chased/followed/found.
The rest of the day was my second best birthday ever.

I had only a couple more weeks to wait out, a big family outing, and then I was leaving.