Chapter 29

I have been given many great gifts in my life.  One of these gifts was that I now had the opportunity to start fresh ~ a clean slate.  No one at my new high school knew anything about me or my past.  I could decide right now who I wanted to be.  However, as the Knight in Indiana Jones said, I did not choose wisely.  Without thinking about it, I became a liar.  I lied.  A lot.  To everyone.  It started before I even made it to Kansas.  I had to get a physical that summer and when I was given the record of all my stats, I was mortified that my fourteen-year-old weight was 132 pounds.  So, I carefully penciled in a two over the three and I instantly dropped 10 lbs.!  However, the keen eye of Uncle Doug noticed and brought it to my attention.  Devil!  Remember, I inherited my obsession with weight from my mother.  Then I started to lie to my new classmates.  It wasn’t the norm to live with your Aunt and Uncle, so this often prompted questions from my new friends.  I created the story that my wonderful parents died in a car accident, so I had to leave my beautiful life in Iowa and move in with my Aunt and Uncle here in Kansas.  I remember telling this tale to my choir friend Jenny.  She believed every word.  I guess I had a knack for acting, which is just a nice word for lying.  This was, of course, a behavior that my Aunt and Uncle would not tolerate, so I was in trouble quite a bit from the start.  I didn’t just fall easily into family life.  It was a difficult transition.  My old fear of being preyed upon at any hour of the day was replaced by a fear of being sent back to my old life.  I was so overjoyed to be with my family, and I certainly never took it for granted how lucky I was.  Still, I kept putting my new life in jeopardy by misbehaving in some way.  I’m sure some would say I was testing their love and maybe I was, but I don’t know why.  One thing I know I tested was their patience.  But they never sent me back to Iowa.  Even though I’m sure they often questioned their decision to bring me into their home, our new family was permanent.