Karma

Karma

Ricki was a young girl who grew up on Long Island, New York. Her parents divorced while she was very young and she was only raised by family and strangers, no one really loved her. They were paid to take care of her. After graduation, at 17, she left home and married a man who was 13 years her senior. He was divorced with a kid, but to her, she felt loved and wanted, she could finally have a family. But this man was so abusive and mean. He hurt her every single day, with words and his hands, but she knew no better. The only thing she dreamed of was to be loved and to go to college. Ricki left him after he hurt her so badly that the cops had to come and take him to jail because the neighbors could hear her screaming and begging for help. After that, he never showed up for court and it took her two years to get a divorce from a judge without him present.

After this, she struggled through life, alone. Ricki worked all kinds of odd jobs, but never could seem to fit in anywhere. She was very quirky and odd to most. She was very misunderstood. She did not know how to even have relationships, not with anyone. Even in school she was bullied and had no friends. She could not afford a student loan for college. Did not make enough money to pay for it herself and she had no one at all who even cared about her, or her dreams.

Ricki was waitressing at a little diner, and this diner was near the highway, the Long Island Expressway, the 495 “DIE” (because of the death counts). Most diners, such as this one, were open 24 hours. She walks over to a table and greets her customer. The night was slow, it was raining very hard outside. The rain on the windows made all the lights from the highway look so amazing and beautiful. Then this customer calls her over and he strikes up some small chat and gets her to smile, something that she only fakes, for the sake of her customers, when really she only goes home to her cat, alone and cries. She felt something, something warm inside. Feelings that she never had before. Excitement, desire, curiosity. After he leaves, with the tip, is a little note with his phone number, asking her to please call him so he can take her out and “see that smile” again. Again, she smiles. So she calls him.

Ricki and Josh, that was his name, they start dating. It has only been two months and she finds out she is pregnant. They barely know each other at all, and now they have to prepare for a baby. Josh was a correctional officer at the local jail. They rent an apartment and move in together and prepare for the future. This is so difficult because they barely know each other and already are living together and pregnant. No more drinking and smoking and hanging out like teenagers, even though they are in their late 20’s. They have to now be responsible. At least Ricki was.

When Ricki was 8 months pregnant, she was forced to marry Josh. What else could she do? She has no one but him and this beautiful little baby growing inside of her, who she already loves. She wants a home birth. She finally wants to do things her way, as she never could before. At age 30, she gave birth to her son.

When Ricki had her son, she did not want to know the sex, she named him Jared. She spends the next few months just feeling the most unconditional love she has ever felt in her life. She now is a stay at home married wife. Boyfriend/Girlfriend, Husband/Wife and now Father/Mother all within a year. To Ricki, it was all the best. She had a family. She loved to cook and take care of her son. She loved being a mother. She loved watching him grow. She loved her husband. But this man was not there for her, not there for her needs, her emotional needs especially. But Jared made it bearable.

One year later, Jared is now walking and Ricki is still missing something. Her Josh. Her husband. He seems to always be working, but she respects this as she is finally with family. She still cannot go to college, because she has a baby and her husband is working for all of them, he cannot afford a babysitter or daycare. She is content, but not happy.

Josh had to go to Boston for a death in the family and Ricki has to drive him to the airport. She drops him off and goes home, already missing him more, as she hardly sees him as is. While driving home, Ricki notices the messy trash in the car. It was almost like he was living out of it. She drives back to the empty house, and the next day, she wakes up and decides to clean his car, that was in disarray and dirty, let alone the smell.

Ricki starts with the floors, the seats and is cleaning it making sure it smells and looks good. She is proud and excited for when he comes back, he would be pleased. She gets to the glove department and finds this little black book.

She finishes cleaning his car and goes back to the house. Of course, the first thing she does is sit on the bed and start reading what is in the book. All of a sudden, all of her dreams, her hopes, her whole life comes crashing down before her. This book contained nothing but coupons. Not the kind to take to the grocery store either. These coupons were for sexual favors, and had already been used, from what she could see, ¼ of the book had been ripped off, so Ricki assumed they were used by her husband with another female.

A week later, Ricki drives to the airport. She is ready to pick up her husband. As she waits in the car and she is so upset and hurt, but does not know the facts yet, so can’t assume anything. She can’t lead on that she is suspect of something that may not even exist. They go home and they make love and he falls asleep. She takes his cellphone and goes through it.

Ricki finds text messages, phone calls and the worst part of all, pics, of this girl Taylor. The two of them together. All the dates and times are there. Her heart sank and broke and she cried. She scrolls through contacts and there is Taylor’s name. So from Josh’s phone she calls Taylor, who answers thinking it is Josh. Ricki asks, “Who is this”? Taylor answers and says, “Who is THIS”? Ricki say’s, “Josh’s wife” and she says she is his girlfriend. She was not shocked, she knew he was married. She does not care and says that she is pregnant.

After this fact, Ricki tells Josh that it is her or Taylor. He leaves. So again she is all alone, with his son. While he is off playing new daddy to his new wife. Ricki’s world is crumbling all over again. Alone, and now with her son. She does not have anyone. No family, can’t afford a sitter. So she becomes a webcam model. Ricki was a beautiful woman. Long brown curly hair and big brown eyes and never even had to work out or even got a stretch mark after child birth, just a beautiful woman. She was finally getting attention. She was finally making money and being able to stay home with her son and doing it all on her own. She was still alone though, and still wanting more from life.

One day, Ricki was driving the grocery store, with her son. He was in the back, in his carseat, and out of nowhere, this old lady hits them, drives through a stop sign. The car flips over, and she could not tell, because it happens so fast, that all she can hear is the car sliding across the pavement. But if you have never heard this sound before and it happens in a second, it is something unfamiliar. The car spins around and lands in the middle of the road. Ricki immediately crawls on the ceiling of the car to her son and he is safe. She has to break out a window to get them out. The ambulance and the police were already at the scene. Ricki and Jared are taken into the hospital and both are miraculously with only minor scratches. The other driver was completely fine, but shaken.

Two weeks later, the other driver's insurance company tells Ricki that she will be getting a check for 20,000.00 dollars. Ricki can finally go to college and have a better life for her and Jared, the only one who ever truly loves her. It is a catch 22, so they say. But God does work in mysterious ways. No one was hurt. And yet both will survive.

Ricki went on to graduate from a Culinary Arts School in New York City and is now a chef at a well known establishment. She worked so hard for all that she has accomplished, on her own. She is still lonely and looking for love, but Ricki is proud. Cooking is what she loves to do. She now can save and dream of opening up her own restaurant.

Josh’s wife, eventually cheated on him and she got pregnant with another guy. They are now divorced and he is now alone. Karma is a bitch.