Part one is here:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/7/107530/1.ashx
For the second date, we agreed to meet the same way and go the same places. I called her in the morning to wake her up. She was incredibly tired, but we agreed to meet again on the bus. I again told Jehovah and my mother that I was going downtown just to look at the stores, and headed off to the bus stop. When the first bus came, Becky wasn't on it. The second bus came, and she wasn't on that one either. By this time, I'd been standing at the bus stop for over an hour. When the third bus came, I took it downtown regardless of whether she was on it or not.
When I got to the mall, I called Becky. She apologized for falling asleep and told me she'd meet me at the mall. By this time, another hour had passed and she finally arrived at the mall. Her hair looked like crap this time. But I just kinda ignored that, since I was feeling what I thought was love. During this date, she tried giving me hickies on my neck. I had to put a stop to that one! Mother and Jehovah would freak!
After we were done downtown, we went to her house. She left me in the living room for about 15 minutes all alone while she was finding her dreaded photo albums. While I was sitting there, I noticed the phenominal amount of religious literature that was on the coffee table. That kinda gave me the creeps. Thankfully, she finally came out with the photo albums, and saved me from the demonic glare of the religious books. I then sat on the carpet with her for about an hour, bored out of my skull looking at family pictures of people who I didn't give a shit about.
The summer came to an end, and I was looking forward to starting grade nine with a girlfriend. The thing that worried me was the other JWs at school who were in my congregation. I was now trying to hide my "secret" relationship from my mother, Jehovah, and the judging eyes of the congregation. Unbelievably, I managed to pull it off.... for a while.
It was kinda fun having a "secret" girlfriend in high school. Now, I was a straight A student, and Becky was a straight D student. The teachers were absolutely horrified to see us together. We had fun making out in the gym stairway during lunch hour. I can recall one of my classmates grinning at me, giving his thumbs up. Hell, it all felt great!
Me and Becky were waiting in the lunch line one day to get some fries with gravy. She was chatting to one of her friends named Amanda. I overheard her say that she was going with her friend to the HALL tonight. This confused me, and I started to wonder if this "Amanda" was a Jehovah's Witness. I just kinda shrugged it off and didn't worry too much about it. Maybe it was some kind of gathering of this "Cadets" thing that Becky belonged to.
A couple of days later, Becky came up to me and asked me if I was a JW. I responded with "not officially". One of my classmated had told her. However, Becky was quite happy with that because it turns out that her friend was in fact referring to the Kingdom Hall! Becky started a bible study with a JW.
After this, Becky immediately thought it was okay to be dating since we were now both of the same religion. Unfortunately, she didn't know that it was WRONG to date before you're "mature". She then decided to get a little gutsy. One of Becky's friends lived down the street from me. She had grown up in the neighborhood, and knew where I lived. She volunteered this information to Becky.
Anyway Becky and her friend were riding their bikes on my street. Now, they weren't just passing by, I mean riding the damn things up and down the street as if they were casing the place. I had a big picture window in my bedroom upstairs, and I was watching all of this action. However, I didn't dare go downstairs, out the front door, and chat with them. The two of them did however, stop in front of my house, and knocked on the door.
Previously, I had told her that she would probably never meet my parents, since it would cause a lot of trouble for me. Anyway, she knocked on the door, and my mother answered. Yikes!
Becky: Is Ben here?
Mom: WHO ARE YOU!??!?
Becky: I'm Becky
Mom: WHAT DO YOU WANT??!?
Becky: The chain fell off my bike, and I was wondering if Ben could fix it
Becky proceeded to tell my mother that she was in the East Kildonan Congregation, her age (14) and any other information that my mother asked. Mother didn't buy her bike chain excuse, and Becky never got to see me that day. I clearly remember mother writing the following on the calendar: "Sept 15: Becky comes to the house". My mother was fuming about this, and decided to find out some information about Becky, which she did by asking around in Becky's Congregation which shared the building with ours. She found out that Becky was ONLY studying the bible, and had come from a horrible family. Mother was determined to stop me from seeing her.
As a resuld of all this, I got some nice "counsel" from the Young People Ask book. Fuck I hated that. Everytime something "questionable" should happen, I have to sit down for an hour or more, reading about how it's wrong.
After about a month of dating Becky, I got tired of listening to her nonstop talking about people I didn't know, and was also upset that she came to my house despite what I told her. I remember she walked with me home from school and asked me for a hug. I rejected her and made my way home. After that, I proceeded to get 3 notes from Becky. Her writing was that of a five year old, and I could barely make out a single word, but I managed to decipher most of it.
I'm going to try posting the letters. If any of you have one of those Cap'n Crunch decoder rings, could you please try and decipher what I can't? It would solve some 13 year old mysteries!
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e121/bpony/beckynote1.jpg
To: Ben
Hi. What have you been up to lately? How are things going in school I was wondering?
What Hall do you go to? I'm trying to find a Hall that is close by the area. There is only one I know of in Elmwood and EK. I know the one in EK Congregation by Superstore. Do you know of any a bit closer? Not North Transcona congregation cause I know where that is off by heart.
I wrote a math test this morning, it was a blast and before I wrote this letter I had a Social Studies test and it is 6th period.
When I had shops last and walking in the hallway, you were looking at me. Why? I don't mind and that I was just wondering.
P.S. Write back please
Your friend,
Becky
I wrote responses to the letter, which was actually a poem. It's probably the stupidest poem I had ever written, didn't make any sense, and I must have left her confused as hell. I refuse to share it :)
I'm surprised that she responded with another note after I gave her my dumass poem:
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e121/bpony/Beckynote2jwd.jpg
Dear Ben,
Hi, sorry for the way I act. Are we still friends or what? I still think you're cute, but can't do nothing about it.
Guess what? This lady from Elmwood or EK congregation finally reached me so pretty soon I'll be going to meetings and book studies. Cool eh?
I was wondering if you could help me catch up with Jehovah Witnessing please. Do you know how to dance to any kind of music? If you do I was wondering if you could help me with that, it's up to you.
Do you want to hang out with (????) sometime? I miss being with you. You're a lot of fun!
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, where do you go so you don't have to hear the O Canada song, or where do you go when it's on?
P.S. Write back or call me or come talk to me some time. I'm probably quitting Cadets cause I don't like the idea of killing people. See ya.
From your friend,
Becky
Although I had written yet more stupid poetry for a response, I didn't give it to her. After a few days, I recieved another note from her.
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e121/bpony/Beckynote3jwd.jpg
Dear Ben S.
Hi. Now I'm going to meetings which is fun. I go to the hall by Superstore. There's two meetings that go at the same time. I never knew that could happen. On Thursday, I went to a book study which was great and a meeting on Sunday, then when they were going on service, I got a ride in a van home. I had fun. I got a new Bible and three new books. Here's the name of all the books I have: Sing Praises to Jehovah, N.W.T. of the Holy Scriptures, Young People Ask, All Scripture Is Inspired of God and Beneficial, Revelation. New books - Making Your Family Life Happy, Your Youth, The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived, and (????).
I have a book study partner now as well. I got to her place at 12:00 or 12:30 for book study, then I have no idea what next, but everything seems great. Oh yeah, what hall do you go to Ben? How's weight lifting going? I can't go to the weight room for a (????) cause I have to (???? ????) my left shoulder and right arm or I can't lift it at all.
I was just wondering, would you ever want to maybe have lunch together when you have time or something? Maybe anything like that if you don't mind. You don't have to if you don't want, OK? Well I got to go now, so as I say now, "don't (????) if you have a bad day turn it good with (????) or read to calm down." Bye
P.S. Please write back, please!
Sincerely,
Becky
I didn't respond to this one at all. However, Becky quickly moved onto another guy, and almost immediately got pregnant. It happened so quickly that some people thought Becky was pregnant with my baby. Anyway, I decided to move on. However this became an incredibly difficult task. I had a lot of trouble trying to hook up with another girl. There were many missed opportunities on account of Jehovah's watchful eyes, along with the eyes of everyone in my congregation.
I eventually transferred to a different high school. I decided to leave my JW lifestyle behind, and try fitting in with the others at school. I was never able to fit in with the people my age at the Kingdom Hall, and I felt I needed to fit in somewhere. I was well accepted at my new school, and made friends quickly. Things started to go really well, and none of the JWs there knew I was one of them!
Sometime in January, I recieved an interesting phone call.
Me: Hello?
Caller: Hi, Is Ben there?
Me: Yeah, that's me
Caller: Hi! Do you know who this is?
Me: No.
Caller: It's Becky.
End of Part 2...