The Beginning of Real Life in Captivity

This is my personal story (FROM THE BEGINNING).

PRELUDE:

I was told to take my children and run after visiting the family of my new companion for the first time. It was meant to be the initial introduction as his new wife. It turned out to be more of a warning. After one failed marriage, I simply hoped for success the 2nd time around.

Now it is time to visit my new... (In-Laws)—This is how I felt after visiting his family.

An alarm went off in my head, when his mother answered the door. Instead of a smiling face, I saw (Fear). She immediately ran to the phone and dialed another one of her adult children. This is what I then overheard: Your brother is here from New York City, get over here quick. In the south, it was not a surprise that many family members lived in short routes to one another.

Although she treated me kindly, I silently understood that a threat of danger was in the air. The other five siblings arrived like timid soldiers to greet their brother, not knowing what to expect. I was greeted by each one of them with intervals of minutes between the next. While my new husband spoke with his brother, a sister grabbed my arm and requested that we go for a walk. She shared that she saw goodness in me; and for this reason she wanted me to know that my new husband held his first wife captive in their home. She asked if I had children. I answered "Yes." Once she realized that they were not all boys, the next set of words out of her mouth were:

"RUN LIKE HELL & DON'T LOOK BACK."

After her verbal instruction, she added the words: "Especially because one of them is a girl." What are your thoughts on the additional words, about one of my children being female? His sister seemed so kind, and extremely serious about the message she wanted to give me. I was silent and mortified by this sweet stranger. My head had seemed as though, words and faces were swimming in my brain; along with many question marks. She seemed afraid to keep me out beyond ten minutes, so we returned to their mothers' home. She secretly gave me her phone number, and I knew immediately that I would soon be dialing that number. She had now raised every ounce of suspicion within me about this man that I married. We walked back swiftly as if we had something to be afraid of. My new sister-in-law refused to say why running was of such great importance.

Back at the house, the other sisters greeted me with warm hugs before each one of them gave an excuse to flee. They did not seem happy to see him at all, except for the baby sister. When you think about it, most young siblings never really know what goes on behind their backs. Now I spent a few moments with his one and only brother. I was nervous, as I realized my new brother in law seemed scared to hug me. He must have realized that I picked it up, because he hugged me a second later and seemed as if he was sincere about the meeting. My silent question at that moment was, ....."Why didn't they seem happy to see my new spouse?" We only had another day, before returning back to the city. It wasn't even 11:30 am, and everyone had scattered like roaches. Well, my mother in law then offered me some fruit, but it did not take long before her exit line was given. She said, "Well if you both can't make it back tomorrow, have a nice trip back home."

I was surrounded by serious fear.

I gave her a smile and a hug, but that woman wanted to tell me something. (Sigh!)—She glanced at her son and then backed away from me. I somehow knew that something was wrong, but couldn't put my finger on whatever it was. It only took two minutes more before his mom was making her exit too. She told us that her appointment to get her hair done was in 15 minutes, so she had to leave. The funny part of the story was that she had closed the door on us, and we were the ones leaving. The man that I married and myself sat in the car as he shared stories of his childhood with me. Perhaps his mom thought we weren't leaving her property, so she came outside and got in her car for the hair salon appointment. I had this strange feeling that she was basically going to drive around the corner, just so she can pretend to have somewhere else to go. That poor woman wanted us to leave really bad, and those siblings were long gone. "So much for a family visit," I said to myself.

I did not want to ruin our time in the deep south, so I smiled and acted like there were no questions to be asked. I was also happy to leave that house, and all of those scared people. The more time you spend around others, you can feel their energy. There was so much anxiety bouncing around that it made me feel sick. Now it was time to visit some other family of his. When we arrived at their home, I overheard someone ask him, "What are you doing here?" The gentleman at the door did not wait for an answer, but the door was slammed in our faces. A few moments later, a woman answered the door and for my sake, she allowed us to come in. Needless to say, our visit at that cousins' home was extremely brief. If there was anything good at all about this trip, it was the beautiful weather that day; and the phone number which remained in my pocket. The one his sister had given me in secret, was going to be used the minute that we arrived back home. After seven years of being with this man, I had realized that marriage was the wrong thing to do. Now all I wanted to do was get back to my home town to see my children. This trip was toxic. He actually never wanted to introduce them to me, and now I saw that they weren't interested in seeing him at all.

Are you intrigued?

I'm sure you'd like to know why they seemed to avoid my husband like the plague. I wondered why myself! I'd love to share more on this issue, and desire beyond belief that you are interested in knowing what happened when we returned back to the city. You already know that I legally married this man, you also know that one of my children from a previous marriage is a female, and last but not least you've been told that we only have one more day before returning back to the city where we live.

What do you think happened? …………………………………………………………….Am I worthy enough to write for Vocal? You be the judge, and I await sharing the next chapter of real life with a man that everyone seemed to be afraid of. The warning flags have been waved.