Saturday 23 August 2003

The student body wasn't the only wreck at Holmen at the time... my body was in pretty much the same shape. I hardly slept at all, no more than two or three hours at a time. Although the psychotic whore did not know where I lived and I felt relatively safe in my apartment, I had no clue where she'd strike next. I was working close to 80 hours a week; though home before midnight each night and in plenty of time to get a good six hours in, sleep rarely came.

This was not helped one evening when I heard a knock on my door one night about 2am. I threw on some clothes when a young man asked to see Nicole. I let him know there was no Nicole there. He didn't believe me, saying he knew she was inside. I explained that I had been living in the apartment for about a month and that I didn't know the name of the person who'd lived there before me. He wanted to come in, but I stood firmly in the threshold. Once he realized he wasn't coming in, he left down the hallway. I glanced down through a crack in the closed curtains from my window and saw a car that looked like Kari's, though I could not distinguish the driver. The car waited there for about five minutes after the young man sat in the passenger's seat, talking with the driver.

To be honest, I don't know if it was Kari's car or not... but it did fuel the feelings of paranoia to the point of being uncomfortable. More sleepless nights followed. One of those sleepless nights was also followed by a morning in which I'd shut off my alarm clock while so tired I hit the pillow before I hit the shower. I was late for my study hall, but in time for my first academic class.

Setback Number One reared its ugly head again in November. The Pontiac died once and for all, but at least the Audi was running. It had been repaired and sitting at the garage for a month (the owners there were about ready to start charging me for storage), when I took my next paycheck and rescued it at the expense of not getting ahead at all with the payday loan sharks.

Still, classes were going well, algebra parties went on as usual, and visits from students who cared came before and after school every single day.

Continue...