Today my girlfriend’s daughter was invited to a sleepover at a classmate’s house. This is a fairly regular occurrence for ten year-old girls so we thought nothing of it. I heard mom ask the girl’s name, if she was a nice girl at school (all the regular stuff) and that was it.
We get the address and stop at Wendy’s to grab a quick bite before the drop-off. I entered the address in my [awesome] new Nexus One phone and was presented with my first (of many) red flag. My map pointed us to a place right off the highway, right between a trailer park and a run-down used car lot.
“I think I know where this is,” I thought to myself, “I thought those places were abandoned.”
I wasn’t sure about the location so I didn’t think much of it. Soon enough we were on our way… To my dismay, the house was exactly where I had thought; a small cluster of (seemingly) abandoned, run-down houses sandwiched between a trailer park, community center and used car lot. We had some trouble finding the right place because there were no street lights and every house had its light off.
“This is a bad idea,” I thought to myself, but we pressed on.
Eventually, we found the place and it looked worse up close than from the highway. As we walked up to the front door the lights turned on and a man came to the door. ”We’ve been expecting you! Come on in and meet my wife.”
Okay, this guy seems both polite and very friendly so that helped assure me of the situation. About four seconds later that all changed…
The inside of this house was right out of an episode of Hoarders. Everything about this place lived up to it’s facade facing the highway (and then some). It was truly how I imagined a haunted house would look on the inside. The clumps of animal hair, the dirt, the smell, the temperature, the overwhelming feeling of claustrophobia and concern were reducing my ability to understand the conversation this man was trying to have with me.
After navigating through the kitchen and a bedroom? we made it to a small space full of clutter that had just enough room for 2-3 people to sit. I don’t know if it was his lisp or accent, but I had a lot of trouble understanding this man. I couldn’t make out a single word from his wife as she seemed to have the same accent as well as a number of missing teeth. I couldn’t understand what they were saying so I did my best to understand what they didn’t say… The husband was balding but had braids (with beads) in his hair. He wore a Chicago Cubs T-shirt and pajama pants. I could tell this man wasn’t wearing any underwear because about half of his bare ass was hanging out of the back of these pants. The wall was covered with pictures of his family and he seemed eager to show us pictures of his mother. His wife didn’t say much but wore a denim moo moo and smiled a lot. My girlfriend saw some cats in the house and asked their names but was told they were just strays and they hadn’t been named. That said, this gentleman was able to train one of the kittens how to roll over. My girlfriend informed the parents that the cats may affect her daughter’s allergies and that she can use her inhaler (if needed). The couple graciously told us they would send the cats back outside but didn’t seem to understand my girlfriend’s explanation that it wasn’t the cat itself that posed the problem, but the fur/dander left behind.
So here was the dilemma; neither my girlfriend nor I felt comfortable letting her daughter spend the night at this house. That said, the husband wife and their five kids all seemed gracious, polite and friendly. What would you do?
So my girlfriend and I non-verbally decided to leave her daughter there (for the time being). We went home and quickly came up with a plan to get her daughter back before the kids got to sleep. This way, the kids would have a chance to play together and we could sleep well knowing her daughter wouldn’t get crushed under collapsing pile of clutter.
Later in the evening, when my girlfriend’s daughter called, my girlfriend said her daughter sounded too winded on the phone and would need to come home to use her nebulizer (i.e., super-duper inhaler). Much to her daughter’s chagrin, we picked her up before bedtime and spent the night at home.
I think this experience was very interesting. I’m glad I didn’t have to experience this with my own kids (rather through my girlfriend’s daughter). On paper, I think this is one of those situations that I would say, “no way man!… we’re outta here!” But, having it actually happen and feel really torn about the state of another persons’ home and struggling with the decision to leave a kid overnight (or not at all) versus the feelings of another family; it just makes my head spin.
Overall, I’m satisfied with the way it turned out but I would have preferred to have never been put in such a situation. What would you have done? Please leave a comment as I am very interested to learn how others would react.
