NewDayNews Recovery Forum
Posted By: Jane <Send
E-Mail>
Date: Wednesday, 9 November 2005, at 7:28 p.m.
Mother Eve told Jeremy and me that we were to go to Italy to be in the colony in Naples. I had resisted going to Italy while in the regular Family, for some reason it seemed like France was a better country. So I wasn't too happy about being sent to Italy and was kind of in a state of numbness from being sent away from Mother Eve and her protection.
Jeremy had done everything that Mother Eve told him to do. He got me a coat, proper winter shoes and clothes. Even a woolie hat. There were two paper bags of stuff. I accepted that I had to go back and didn't say anything. We were much humbler with each other now. We got on the train from Carcassonne and went to Rome first. We spent one night in a pensione before going to Naples.
The house was huge and old. Very old. It was about 3 stories high with a basement. Some old crone of a lady lived in the basement. We didn't have anything to do with her. The stairs to go up to the different floors were open to the air but covered. The walls were real thick, cement, plaster, whatever, old. The upper floor was mostly bedrooms. The ceilings were flaking off and occasionally a piece of plaster would fall down and bean somebody. So there was a safety net stretched across the upper part of the room. We could hear the plaster falling into it at night.
There was a second floor with bedrooms, an open area like a loft where we held meetings, I think a bathroom, but don't remember exactly. One of the bedrooms had a balcony that overlooked the fennel down below.
The first floor was the living room, the kitchen and a bathroom, plus a room to develop pictures. The kitchen was rustic but had marble counters. The house was furnished with some fabulous dark old furniture with marble tops to all of the counter areas. Everything was old and dark. We had a forsake all room which was more like a crawl space half way up the stairs.
The house was on the side of a hill, just up the road from the circumvesiuvio (commuter train) stop. It was surrounded by small farms. There was small farm behind the house where they had chickens and sold eggs. A lot of the surrounding country was almost desert like, rather arrid, scraggly brush. Then there would be the acre of cultivated farm land. At the top of the road was a camp ground. Camping trailers were parked there but it was really a dismal camp ground.
When we first got to this house there were tons of people all over it. I don't remember half of them. They were living and sleeping everywhere. One couple even lived in the crawl space off the stairs. Some of the people who lived here were: Elkanah and Tamar with their son Rex/Robie and baby Venus, Meshach (american), Bithia, Beanie, another couple with about 3 or 4 kids (I think the wifes name was Promise. They were all blondes. I think they were Scandinavians.) Ezra a single brother from Holland. An Italian woman with a daughter about 6 or 7. There were lots more but everyone was going in and out so much.
I went through a bit of culture shock here. The surrounding areas and small towns were not quite what I was used to. The meat stores with goat and cow skulls hanging in the windows, open to the air and flies over everything. The town of Torre Del Greco was particularly fascinating. Some vendor had a cart by the side of the street with layers of white intestines and stomach lining, sliced lemons decorating the stuff. People would buy this stuff and eat it raw, squeezing the lemon juice onto it. I watched in horrified awe. This didn't help my queezy stomach from being pregnant.
Elkanah was the shepherd of the home. He had a rule that only the pregnant girls could eat the thick cream off the top of the milk and he always made sure that we had lots of milk at the house. Elkanah was an interesting guy. He always looked half asleep. His eyelids drooped badly. When we had meetings I could never be too sure if he was awake or drowsing. Tamar, his wife had just had their baby daughter. Tamar was beautiful with very voluptous breasts. I mention this because she always got a lot of attention from Italian men when we went out. I felt like the little brown field mouse next to her, but luckily Tamar was extremely nice, so I liked her.
We were being sent out on the road down to Sicily. Jeremy was extremely unhappy about the situation. He used to be a shepherd in the regular Family and now he was a nothing. The atmosphere was very relaxed and nobody was in too big a hurry to do anything. Pretty much it was a free for all. Jeremy didn't like it when we were split up to go on the road with other people. He started to raise a ruckus but it didn't do any good. I was sent out on the road with an Egyptian brother. This guy had an Italian wife but she didn't live in the home. My first glimpse of Sicily was a positive one. I liked litnessing in the little towns near the ocean, staying in the pensiones that were really just somebodys garage with a bunch of cots. One town we were working our way up this very steep hill and I saw an incredible sight. I didn't know what it was but it kept getting bigger as we climbed up the street. I asked the brother what was that thing up there and he said it was Mt Etna. A live volcano looming over this little town. The Sicilians were fabulous people, even the town people reminded me of country folk.
When we got back to the colony in Naples, Jeremy was starting to voice even more doubts to me about Mother Eves group and this bunch in particular. A new brother joined. He was a long haired, long bearded guy from Germany named Ernst. I was scared of him because he looked so wild. When I was told that I was going on the road with him I really didn't want to. Jeremy got mad that they were sending me with this guy anyway.
Well, Ernst who Elkanah renamed Earnest turned out to be a real decent guy. He was sensitive to my needs and didn't come onto me at all. I was changed my opinion of him while on the road with him. Again we went down to Sicily. We litnessed in the town of Syracuse. Again a very hilly town but very cool. You could feel the history of the place. We caught glimpses of old ancient ruins.
When we got back from the road trip Jeremy wasn't at the house. Elkanah told me that Jeremy was acting all rebellious and was refusing to come to the house. He was in a pensione. Elkanah said that Jeremy was probably going to be thrown out. I had a choice to make. I could go with him or stay. If I stayed then he, Elkanah would take care of me and make sure that my baby was okay. Jeremy came to the house. In a very wierd state of mind. He demanded a meeting with Elkanah and tried to tape the meeting but Jeremy was taken back when Elkanah just laughed at him and took the tape player away. Jeremy was ranting and raving. I know now that he was just extremely frustrated at being thwarted at every turn, but at the time I was scared of him. He truly seemed crazy to me.
Well Jeremy was indeed thrown out. Right then and there. He went upstairs to pack his stuff. I was sitting there with him and he was trying to talk me into leaving with him. But I didn't want to leave with this crazy man. I let him take everything that we owned together. The tapeplayer, the camera. When he left the only thing I had left was my own clothes. I was in a state of shock. I was thinking that I needed to be in a safe place because of the baby.
The next day we were sent out into Naples to go litnessing. I was teamed up Meshach. It seemed like I was teamed up with Meshach for the next six months. I could only sit on some stairs and cry. I cried for hours while Meshach litnessed at the street corner. I was so sad. Yes, I had troubles in my marriage and I was the one who chose not to stay with my husband, but it still hurt. All the hopes and dreams from when I first got married were falling around my feet. My heart was broken.
But no time to rest because we were sent out on the road again. Again to Sicily.