DIVISION FROM TURMOIL
JUSTIN HOUSE
2021 RED MESA REVIEW | 16
“Happy Birthday dear Justin, Happy Birthday to you” This was sung asynchronously throughout a trailer in a trailer park, Redhills, on the east side of Gallup, New Mexico, in the month of February. It was dark outside of the trailer that was lighted with various lights, this included lamps, stove lights, light from the TV, and the roof lights from all of the rooms in the trailer. I was waiting for this annoying ass song to be over with so I’m allowed to hurry up and blow out the candles. As I did that, the crowd around me cheered and clapped, and I wished I was with my mom. But I alas was stuck with the family I honestly couldn’t care less about, and a dad I could care less about. After that ordeal, I made my way back to my seat by the table to wait till the party was over, and I could get one day left in my visit with my dad over and done with. “Hey Justin, want to open your presents now?” my dad asked me loudly since the whole trailer was pretty loud. He walked up to me with birthday cards most likely holding up to $10 at most. “Sure…” I said in a monotone voice that I used then I was around him. He then handed me the birthday cards and went to get the other presents and he came back with a total of five other presents. As I’m about to open a letter, he stopped me. “Hey let’s do those last, so you can read them out loud to everyone” he said seemingly calm, and I put it down. And as I put it down he handed me a present that was pretty heavy. It read “From: Dad. To: Son.” Once I tore through the wrapping, I saw the box for the PlayStation 2. I was stunned mainly because I always wanted a console since I played on one at my dad’s mistress apartment, and her son let me play some truck game on his GameCube. For the very first time I was actually happy being around my dad since I started the visit thing with him when I was 3 years old. And I couldn’t believe it, that was one of the best gifts I have ever gotten on my birthday was one not from my mom but from my dad. And after a couple more weeks, my opinion of going with my dad had a huge change. I was actually somewhat looking forward to my visits with him. But it wasn’t because I wanted to spend time with him or anything, but I really wanted to play on my PlayStation 2. I think he knew
this since he wouldn’t allow me to take it back with me to my mom’s. He never really bought me games until later on, and so I would have to get games I could play from the Blockbuster in between McDonalds and Burger King on the east side of town. “Hey did you pick a game yet?” my dad asked while holding a DVD of a movie that he was going to watch for the night. We were at Blockbuster and that was a thing we started to do after I got my PlayStation 2. I was looking in the PlayStation section for a game to play for the weekend with my dad. I ended up getting Marvel Ultimate Alliance. “Yeah I decided to get this game again,” I said walking him to the counter. “Dang you’re getting that again?” my dad joked. “Yeah,” I said in a monotone voice as I put the game box on the counter for the cashier to scan, and put it into a bag. The reason I liked that game and my sudden change of heart for going on visits with my dad was mainly because I had something to keep my mind off him, and the reason that helped was because my mom told about what he did to her. So I had to spend a weekend with the man who did horrible things to my mom, and that would piss off any kid who loved his mom. And before I had the PlayStation, I would have more time to realize what he did, and even worse being near him. Playing the game was a way for me to relieve that stress. This was backed up by the fact that a lot of people use video games to deal with any sort of stress whether physically or mentally had positive effects from playing video games. With all that in mind, it’s no real surprise that I got more and more okay with visiting my dad. But also the fact that this would play into another part in my life that would involve another console that would help me in a similar way.
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE >
