If you've been following this story, you know my life is quite probably in danger at this point...
and part 2 here before reading on :)
Confessions of a Vagabond:
The Next Chapter: "Remember the Time I Worked for a Drug Runner in Punta Cana PT 3"
A gypsy life bought to you by @heart-to-heart
From January 2014- June 2017 I have been what you would call a vagabond, a nomad, even a gypsy by definition of the words. I had what they all have in common: no fixed home...and no fixed income but the wildest stories.
I woke up, dazed with a pounding headache.
Laying there trying to catch my breath, my heart felt like it was about to pulse out of my chest! I dug deep into my mind, looking for answers, memories, a glimpse of what happened but there was nothing.
The last thing I remembered was picking up my drink at the restaurant, and next thing I knew, I was here.
When my phone had enough charge to turn on, it read 3 something in the afternoon! Meaning I had slept through the entire morning, knocked out on who knows what. My body was battling against me, clearly punishing me for whatever I had done to it the night before.
My mind was turning so fast I could hardly keep up with my thoughts.
What happened to me?
How did I get home?
Did someone put me in my bed?
Why does my head hurt so bad?
Why are my eyes so fuzzy?
Could I have actually just drank too much?
This doesnât feel like a hangover⊠of course it does, stop being paranoid.
This really feels worse than a hangoverâŠ
I need to get some medication, I think I have been drugged.
At this point, I was freaking out. I had made tons of excuses for weirdness beforehand that I didnât even get into before now⊠but this was next level and I was absolutely afraid I wasnât safe anymore.
I realized that I couldnât just hide away forever and I was not entirely sure what to do to get answers aside from going over to âtheirâ apartment. I showered, got dressed and dragged myself over to their place⊠trying hard to guard my eyes from the sun that was threatening to blind me!
When I walked in the door, Emily and and James were there, playing with the baby. They looked at me, looked at each other and laughed. Then James looked back to me and asked me how I was doing.
I didnât tell you guys this earlier to save time but itâs important to know that when I got to Punta Cana and saw things that were not lining up at all, I called that guy back in DC we keep talking about and told him that I was scared that things were not quite what they seemed.
It turned out that he actually knew James from back in Canada. James was friends with someone my guy was friends with and so through that connection, I put a lot of faith and trust in James that without, I never would have dared.
James was a really big guy, covered with tattoos, shaved head and a loud personality. I had been getting to know him here and there but generally avoided it because quite frankly he scared the $*&^ out of me.
Em told me about various crimes James had committed previously but I always did my best to zone out during those moments, I honestly didnât want to know about any of it and if he was reformed and changing his ways who was I to judge his past? Em kept assuring me he was a good guy so that's what I wanted to believe... so badly.
James looked at me and told me to come in and sit down.
I remember being fully committed to getting online as fast as I could to send out a distress call back home. Iâm not a huge fan of admitting defeat but blacking out and having no idea what happened to me in this kind of company was a sign for me to reel it in and get out quick.
The internet wouldnât connect. I was seriously going to throw up. I was trying to be cool but I also was in high alert mode, especially with the tension in the air.
âYou got pretty mangled last night buddy.â James said to me.
Em looked up at me for just a split second, then looked away quickly.
âUmmm⊠I guess I must haveâŠâ I replied timidly, too afraid to ask anything else.
âYou guys didnât do so well on the boat, I hear.â
âNo, not really⊠the kids didnât bring any money with them so we didnât make much.â
âIâm sorry to hear about that. Weâll work on it for next time.â He was being so normal it was making me uncomfortable.
Em was focusing completely on the baby and wasnât even pretending to be involved in the conversation.
âI just wanted to connect to wifi, do you know whatâs going on with it?â
âYou should probably just go on down to the cafĂ© from now on if you want to connect. Itâs not far, you know where it is.â He said something about data usage and needing it for Skype callsâŠ
So since they werenât saying much else, I excused myself saying I was feeling really rough and started out to the cafĂ©.
On the other end of my Skype conversation, a calm, collected, fearless (cough, military) voice told me to stop stressing out, go with the flow, live a littleâŠ
My heart was bursting at the seams. I was so in love with this man, this man who used to (or at least pretend he used to) love me and who now had grown so cold, so shut off, so distant.
This was supposed to be my chance to let him go, to get him off my mind, to find myself without him yet I found my mind was always leading me back to him and I started to get desperate for his attention.
It infuriated me that he wasnât worried about me despite what I told him was going on. It drove me mad to the core of my being that his reaction lacked any emotion that would signify his love for me.
So, I kept on fighting.
When I got back to the apartments, Emily was outside. She stopped me and we started talking. Emily said they took me home because the heat had gotten to me and I couldn't even eat my food. She told me nothing happened, not to worry and to get some rest. She said it was probably the weird stuff we were drinking on the boat and so, trying to trust her, I put it out of my mind and went to bed.
Fast Forward.
James loved the fact that we were associated through a line of mutual friends and seemed like he had let his guard down and in turn, me in.
There was so much rum, I might as well have been a pirate. I wasnât necessarily complaining because when the days came, I found myself confronted with the pain from my heart and the nights were a welcoming numbing of that.
I started to hear things, to see things, to learn things that I didnât want to be a part of.
I rarely talked to Kyle but this day, he came to tell me he was planning the launch date for the club (finally) and showed me his posters for it online. I could not believe my eyes, my old boss (Adam) was the headlining DJ for opening night! I asked him if he knew Adam and I were close and he seemed like he genuinely didn't know and that it was a fluke chance in my favour!
Kyle began to soak up all of my suspicion, he seemed to be hiding something that to my knowledge, no one else knew about but this turned everything around- I became really excited to have Adam come and be there with me- a new light had arrived at the end of my tunnel!
Naturally, with my trust now peaking, I became relaxed, comfortable even. I was spending the days in the sunshine with Emily and had even gotten friendly with their pitbull who at one not so far away time threatened to bite my hand off every time I came over.
The night before Adam got there, Em and I were hanging out, just talking, singing along to some music without the guys and we both started to get super emotional. Somehow that emotion translated into rum and the rum got us in a mood to party.
We were screaming the lyrics to âwrecking ballâ flinging ourselves around the room when James walked in. At first he seemed angry, but he beelined for the bathroom and when he came back out he was all about the party. He ordered us some pizza and more rum before you know it, we we were all laughing and having a blast.
Then the door opened suddenly and in walked Kyle, hands filled with posters that he threw down on the table, looked at us and started yelling in Spanish.
He had been out promoting the grand opening and was not impressed to see us partying while he was working as hard as he was. Somehow through James, that conversation turned into Kyle staying home, watching the baby so we could all go out and 'promote the club opening.'
This was Emily's first time out without the baby and she was living it up. She was not taking no for an answer and definitely making up for lost time. I couldn't keep up with her... she had way more energy than I did. So did James for that matter.
I couldnât believe how lively everyone else was too, I remember thinking that clubs back home were never so animated, so energetic⊠but then I realized why- the obscene amount of drugs. Everyone was trying to give me some, it seemed like they were associating me with them, but I wasnât sure why since I kept denying everyoneâs offers.
I was sitting outside on the patio, sobering up and trying to make sense of everything I was seeing and hearing. The locals started telling me stories so I started drinking water. I was getting that bad feeling in my gut again.
Wait a minute....
I was on a chair in the middle of a conversation with a guy who lived in our building when everything went black⊠again.
- If you want to hear what happened next, you're going to have to wait until next time! Kyle is about to accidentally tell me something that I know you all want to hear...*
