"I didn't do it!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That Summer part 6

 

Welcome to my blog. If this is your first visit, I am delighted you’re here, and a hearty virtual hug to my returning friends and family.

 

 

This is part six of a series on a summer that impacted my behavior. It’s about when I started to make stupid mistakes. If you haven’t yet, I recommend starting with “That Summer part 1” and read part 2, 3, 4 and 5. This blog expands on those posts. Also, it’d be great to hear from you, post a comment and share.

 

 I am able sit quietly for long periods of time. I like to think of it as my super power because it has saved my fanny many times over.

 

Growing up Catholic, I attended church every Sunday, Holy Days of Obligation and every Friday during the six weeks of Lent.

 

In case you are unfamiliar, Holy Days of Obligation all Catholic schools are closed so the students attend Mass. These were a way to honor a person or event from the bible.  Things such as the Feast of the Assumption, the Stations of the Cross, All Saint’s Day and the Epiphany to name a few. Our entire school had to attend Mass that day. (See the obligation part?) We were to dress in our uniforms and show up for the 9 AM service, which lasted almost two hours.

 

Let me say as a kid, having to go to Mass on a holiday ruined a perfectly good day. I mean what was the point of a day off? Am I right?

 

For those of you unfamiliar with the distinctions of Catholic Mass, there were two types. The normal hour-long services and the two-hour marathons called High Mass. The priest could spring a High Mass any time he wanted to, or felt like it. Usually, he liked to surprise the congregation unexpectedly with High Mass at the 11:30 AM services.  The 11:30 was the last service of the week, and people who perhaps celebrated a little too much the night before, tried to slip in for a quick dutiful attendance only to be thrown a curveball and get stuck until almost 2 PM. My mother got us trapped by that once. She never took us to late Mass again.

 

So, when I was caught shoplifting and placed in a small cell like room, I sat on the bench, folded my hands in my lap and prayed. I was in that room for over an hour waiting for my mother to show up and take me home. I didn’t wail or act out, as my friend Kathy did in the enclosed room next to me. She was quite disruptive. The whole station heard her.

 

When I was finally brought in to sit with my mother and the lady detective for my interview, again, I didn’t cry, but I sang like a canary and threw Tina under the bus so far she could have changed the oil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ah, I think I may have skipped a step. Let me back up.

 

It was the Saturday after Halloween and the stores at Del Amo Shopping Center were hosting a Fall Sale. The papers were full of advertisements announcing major price reductions. Every afternoon after school that week, we camped in Kathy’s bedroom. Syndi, Tina, Kathy and I, examined the advertisements and drooled over what we wanted. Tina had inspected pictures of jackets on sale at Lerner’s Department Store, and circled her favorites. She and Syndi lounged on the floor giggling about the dresses. The Harvest Dance was coming up in two weeks and Syndi needed a new dress.

 

I asked Tina to see the paper because I wanted to look at the shoe sale, but Tina and Syndi paid no attention to me. Embarrassed that I was ignored, I got a little miffed. Kathy rescued me and talked with me about shoes. But I felt left out in my friendship with Tina.

 

It was decided we’d go to Del Amo Shopping Center on Saturday. That morning, we piled into the station wagon, Kathy, Syndi, Tina, Kathy’s brother and his friend and myself. Kathy’s brother drove as he had gotten his driver’s license in August.

 

We arrived at the shopping center and it was busy. We agreed to meet Kathy’s brother at Woolworth’s counter for lunch at 12:30. The four of us girls set out to Lerner’s.

 

Syndi and Tina were inseparable that morning and skipped over to the dress section. Kathy grabbed my arm and we went to look at shoes. I bought a pair of two-toned slip on flats for $3.75 and Kathy purchased a blue and white shirt for $2.35 that matched the skirt she was sewing in Home Economics.

 

Pleased with our purchases, we strolled over to the jacket and handbag section where Tina and Syndi were standing. Tina had tried on an amber colored wool coat with double-breasted brass buttons, but Syndi said she should get the dark blue one with black buttons because it looked better on her. The amber one cost $4.00 more than the blue one and Tina couldn’t make up her mind. She set both jackets aside, and moved over to the belts and wallets.

 

Syndi pulled Kathy aside and whispered something. Kathy’s eyes widened. I walked over to Tina and asked her to see my new shoes. I felt a little excluded at this moment and wanted to reclaim my friendship with Tina.

 

I opened the bag I was carrying, took the shoes out of the box and held them out like Vanna White. Tina agreed they were cool. My chest filled with pride.

 

Syndi waved Tina over to where she and Kathy were examining belts. Left alone, I rewrapped the shoes in the tissue paper, placed them back in the box and slipped the box into its bag. The bag had little handles so I could carry it easily.

 

It took me a few moments to locate my friends. I suspected by her secretive behavior that Tina had been shoplifting.  As I said in an earlier post, she usually took little things every time we went to a store, a chap stick or a candy bar. This time I thought maybe she and Syndi had done it together and now it looked like Kathy was part of it, too. I wasn’t.

 

Finally, I heard Tina and Kathy laughing and saw them hold up a big belt. The sales lady came up to them and they put the belt back and moved away.

 

They walked over to me. I was standing near the wallets, leather key cases, and purses. Syndi and Kathy chatted about dresses and how much they cost. Tina came over to me and held up a wallet with a wicked look in her eye. I knew what Tina wanted me to do. I thought if I put this in my bag, I could be important, dangerous, exciting. Tina and I spoke no words. I took the wallet and slipped it inside my shoe bag.

 

“Come on, let’s go,” said Tina. I followed. All of us left the store.

 

“Stop right there, young ladies,” a strong female voice shouted at us.

 

Tina gripped my arm, I turned around and the sales lady told us to come with her.

 

 Syndi argued and the sales lady said she saw us leave and not pay for several items and she listed them. A sweater, scarf, lipstick and a wallet, she asked to see the sales receipts for all the items.

 

Syndi had a sweater in her bag with the tags intact and no receipt. Tina had several items of make up, a compact, small perfume bottle and a lipstick with no receipts. Although Kathy had the receipt for the blue shirt, she didn’t have the receipt for a scarf. The lady turned to me and asked to see my bag. My mouth dropped. I knew what she’d find. She claimed our bags and escorted us to the back offices of the store and called the police.

 

A woman detective must have flown to Del Amo. In the blink of an eye she appeared and we sat in the back of the police car and were taken to the police station.

 

This was a very different experience with the police than our last one when we told of the naked man in the van. This time they didn’t bring us cups of water, and they didn’t care that Kathy was upset and crying. We were separated.

 

I was put in my cell along a hallway of little rooms. Each of us placed in different rooms. That’s when Kathy freaked out and began to scream, they told her to be quiet. I sat quietly and prayed.

 

Finally, my mother showed up. I was taken out of the cell and we sat with the lady detective. She asked one question, “What happened?”

 

In all that time of prayer, you’d think I’ had time to reflect my criminal indiscretion and apologize for it. Nope! As I said earlier I sang like a canary. I threw Tina under the bus so far she would have come out the exhaust pipe.

 

I said it wasn’t my fault. It was all Tina. She gave me the wallet and told me to put it in my bag.

 

The lady detective held up her hand to me and said, “Hold it right there.”

 

My heart stopped beating. I looked up and finally saw the woman detective. She was young and very pretty. But there was hardness to her presence that all her soft hair and makeup couldn’t obscure.

 

Have you ever sat in front of someone who holds the cards to your future? Have you looked into the eyes of the person who can reduce you to a puddle of blubbering snot?

 

She said, “The best thing you can do in this moment is to tell the truth. Now, at any time did you ask Tina not to do this?”

I shook my head no. “She never said any thing to me. I put it in the bag.”

 

“Good. Now you need to think about your future and where you want to end up. If you keep going this way you’ll end up spending a lot of time inside a cell just like that one.” She pointed to the hallway of little holding rooms. The sterile rooms with cement brick walls painted a ghastly green.

 

Then she sent me to sit on the bench at the far side and spoke with my mother. I don’t know what they talked about. I didn’t want to know.

 

On the drive home, my mother and I didn’t talk. When we arrived, I went into my room and sat at my desk and prayed. This time I prayed for guidance.

 

I didn’t like what happened. More importantly I didn’t like how I behaved. I wondered how had I changed? Where was that girl who helped the different looking girl on the 3rd grade playground? What happened to the girl that was willing to shout down angry kids throwing rocks simply because she was different? Where and when did I get so lost?

 

I returned to school but my friendship with Kathy, Syndi, Tina faded. Luckily, a girl named Molly took pity on me and we became fast friends for the reminder of 8th grade. Mostly she told me about her crush on a boy named Todd. I was a good listener for her long-winded stories of how he looked at her, or didn’t look at her that day.

 

In the last weeks of school there were a few 8th grade parties I attended but they were tame compared to the one that exploded at Syndi’s house. Her older sister Monica was graduating from high school that summer and hosted an epic event. Her parents went back to Australia for a month and while the cats away...

 

Word spread of no adults in the house and several high school boys brought liquor and cigarettes. There were make-out sessions in every dark corner inside and outside of her house. A neighbor called the police to break it up. Monica was esthetic because her reputation as a bad girl skyrocketed.

 

Syndi was mortified.

 

The police called my house and asked if Syndi could spend the week with us given that her parents were still abroad. Of course she could. That eased the tension between us and we were friends again.

 

I completed 8th grade with slightly above average grades. I was planning on spending time at the beach that summer with Syndi and the old gang, when my mother announced that my younger brother and I were to spend the summer in Minnesota with my father.

 

I wasn’t unhappy about this. I could see my old friends, play basketball with the neighborhood guys, swim in one of the many lakes around the city, and take a breather from the fast paced life in California.

 

Next Week: I dig my heels in and don’t return to live in California.

 

“Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens,

you say,‘This is what I need.’

It may look like a wreck,

 but go at it as though it were an opportunity,

a challenge.If you bring love to that moment-not discouragement–you will find the strength

 is there. Any disaster you can survive is

an improvement in your character,

your stature, and your life.”

 

Joseph Campbell