So to keep you in suspense on whether my step-daughter Sage reappears back to this world, I’d like to take you back a few years. Back to about a year or so after my separation and divorce.
It’s a big struggle for me financially. Those years between 2008 and 2012 were tough for everybody. I was so lost. I wasn’t sure what to do with my life. I tried different jobs. But it was hard, man. When the life you know is destroyed, you don’t know what to do. It’s like someone threw you in a dark cave with wet matches. It’s cold, lonely, and most importantly- you don’t know where to go.
Well my ex wife knew where I should go.
Besides Hell, she also knew I should go to court….as often as possible. And- if she could really make all the choices- eventually jail.
I’ll never forget the only words she said to me that day in the court halls:
”I hope they incarcerate you.”
Now let’s break that down for a minute.
She is hoping the courts put me in jail because I am behind in child support. Not because I murdered her secret lover or was physically abusive to her- no… it is because her purse didn’t have enough money in it and child support wasn’t coming in the timely fashion she expected. So to her that is grounds for me to join criminals and murderers and rapists in jail.
But as I have stated before, I will try and be as objective as I can within this story. So let’s say you- my precious readers and listeners- truly believe that being $1100 behind in child support deserves ”incarcerartion”. How can a man and a father pay any child support in jail?
The answer is he can’t.
So the reality is: this is revenge. There will be a strange satisfaction for my ex if I’m hauled off behind bars for a while. Let’s just call a duck a duck.
So I’m sitting in the courtroom waiting for my name to be called. I’m watching all these divorced couples go up to the judge and argue their cases. Some men owe many thousands of dollars- with promises to get a job and get back on track. Many of the wives don’t know what to do. They take what they can. Or they agree with the judge to give him 30-60 days to get a job or start making more money. None of them send them off to jail. One wife actually said:
”Why would I do that? He ain’t making any money in jail!”
But the judge would offer the jail option sometimes. Depending on the amount the father owed or the amount of times he had been in court, the judge would ask the wife if she wanted to ”press charges”. But they all declined.
This is not my first time in court, but it is my first time owing so much. I had been brought in for less owed, but I would make an agreement with the court aide and catch up in 30-60 days. But this time I just couldn’t catch up. I had about $200 on me and that was it. The aide said that wasn’t enough for my ex to accept so we had to go in and see the judge. But he seems lenient today so I’ll be able to work something out, they said.
“Stouten Porter versus Marsha Porter?”, the court aide announces.
Here we go.