The most wonderful man that she has ever known.
The King was a big man. Big in the tall sense. Big in the big sense. And I don't think he was afraid of anything. Or anyone. That's why today, Amelia has a hard time backing down to people. Because she wants to keep "that part" of her daddy in her. Sometimes it may not be the best of traits but it's a trait anyway. Some of you that read this, knew the King. And if you knew him very well, you knew that he had a big, loud, boisterous laugh. He could be heard from afar when he laughed a belly laugh. All of his Princess's got that laugh. There's no mistaking it.
Amelia's favorite thing about her dad though, was his presence. It didn't matter what kind of situation had arisen. If the King was around, she knew it would be okay. And if it wasn't okay, he would hold her hand through it and do whatever needed to be done so that she could get through it. He had a brain tumor many years ago and when he came home from the hospital, he had to wear this silly little hat. It was even sillier than the regular ole King hat he normally had to wear!! Amelia hated that hat and she still doesn't understand today why he had to wear it. Unless it was just to keep the wound from getting dirty and infected. No matter, when he came home, she was a tad bit scared of him. And she was at least twelve or thirteen years old at the time. I think she was afraid he would break and she would get blamed for it. She was a teenager, of course she thought she would get the blame!!
A bed was set up in the back of the castle living room and the King laid on it while he was recovering. One day he asked Amelia to sit on the bed beside him and watch tv. The King knew that Amelia was scared. He also knew that he could put her at ease. She knew it was going to be okay because well............he was her daddy and he was the King. Nothing was ever going to happen to him. He was going to live to be two hundred years old and ALL his Prince's and Princess's and the Queen would die on the same day. That's how Amelia wanted it. That's how she planned it. In her head. God didn't so much like her plan though. He foiled her. But that's okay. Amelia tells of the day sitting on that bed, beside him and just feeling"comfortable with him again." Like the brain tumor never even happened. If he had been able to take that silly hat off, maybe it wouldn't have hurt her heart so much.
As a very small girl, the King smoked. A pipe. This was back when the Princess was probably only three or four. Amelia's memories are starting to flood back. She climbed up on his lap and took that pipe out of his mouth and put it right in her own mouth. There is a picture of that somewhere. Amelia wanted to do everything that her daddy did. If he was going to smoke, then dammit, so was she. Maybe that's why he quit shortly after that. Maybe he thought he was going to pass that on. He did. Took a while. I mean, she didn't start right then at three but eventually she did the smoking thing.
Amelia idolized her daddy. When she was in first grade and they handed out those coloring book pamphlet thingys about fire and strangers and drugs and things like that, her dad's picture was right on the inside of every one of those books. Even SHE wanted his autograph back then! Amelia grew up thinking she was more a celebrity than royalty because she lived in a castle with a jail on the back of it; She had a whole courtyard that she didn't have to share with anyone (other than the siblings); She had a whole courthouse to play in when she wanted to; She had armed guards (Deputies) that drove her to school just about every morning; What more could a girl ask for, right?
As Amelia got older though, and wanted to do the things that bigger kids do, like run the streets, and drink beer, you know..........the FUN stuff......................she changed her way of thinking a little bit. She didn't like being that celebrity any longer. She didn't want to be royalty. She wanted to be a normal person like everyone else in her village. Everything the Princess did, always got back to the King and Queen. Sometimes even faster than she could get back to the King and Queen. The King was in charge of the punishment too. You know why? Because his hand was heavier. Amelia got a lot of spankings growing up but when she got too big to be spanked, she got grounded; or had to go stay with her Grandparents on the weekends. No, Amelia didn't always like living in that castle all the time.
But as we all know, the Princess has many many many more GOOD memories of growing up in that castle and of the King, than bad memories. There was no King like HER King.
Another thing that most people probably remember about the King is the way he drove. F-A-S-T. Amelia LOVED riding with him. Once, the King told Amelia to count the little yellow dashes on the road between the lanes as they were driving home from the Grandparents' house and Amelia told the King that she only counted three lines by the time they got back to their town. The King couldn't believe that she had only counted three because it had been a six mile (two minute) ride. It's true though. When someone drives ninety miles per hour, all those dashes turn into one long line. The King always thought that was a funny story.
Once, when Marta was working in the Sheriff's Office and her son, Jimmy was very little, they called the castle and asked Amelia to bring Jimmy to the office to meet some friends of theirs. In the courthouse they went, down a few steps and Amelia opened the heavy metal door to let Jimmy in when these people just started making a fuss over poor Jimmy. It scared him and he didn't want to go near them. So he stood right by the door and Amelia shut the door. The big metal one. And Jimmy started screaming. His fingers were IN the door!! Amelia opened the door while Marta grabbed Jimmy to look at his fingers and then Amelia took off. She knew she was going to get a spanking and it was going to be a booger of a spanking because Jimmy was the King's FIRST grandson. Nobody hurt his grand kids.
He was protective of his kids but dammit, just look at his grand kids funny and he was all over you. So Amelia took off running for the castle. There were bad people locked up and she couldn't get in WITH them, so she ran for the upstairs. She hid. For a couple of hours. Nobody could find her. She only came out because the King knew she was in her room (and I think he knew exactly where she was at by this time) and he wasn't leaving. She was crouched in a ball between her bed and the wall. When the King told her she had to come out now, she did. Crying. She didn't do it on purpose and she knew she was in for it bad this time. The King sat her on her bed, wiped her tears and told her that he knew it was an accident but the Queen had to drive Marta and Jimmy to the hospital to get his fingers looked at and that Amelia was going to have to go with him right now.
Amelia followed the King. She didn't make eye contact with him though because she knew she would start crying all over again. The King got the bad guy out of the jail and the three of them walked to the King's car. The bad guy sat in the front and Amelia sat in the back. She had no idea where they were going. All she knew was that nobody was home. The drive was about twenty five miles or so. Fifteen minutes (tops) for the King to drive. Halfway there, the bad guy reached around the back of the seat and grabbed Amelia's leg and squeezed it. The King told that bad guy that if he touched the Princess again, he wouldn't make it to their destination breathing. THAT'S how things got done back in the day. Wish we could make those same statements now!!
That bad guy never touched Amelia again. When they reached their destination, Amelia got out of the car to see many big buildings. It was dark and they looked very very scary. They went in one of the buildings and the King never let go of Amelia's hand. Another person joined them and they all got into a big, old, iron elevator. The King looked at the bad guy and said, "This is what happens when you do bad things. You get to stay in places like this." Amelia, already feeling full of remorse and worry for Jimmy, thought the King was talking to her. She started crying and pulling away from the King. She told him that it was an accident and she didn't MEAN to hurt Jimmy. She loved Jimmy. "Please please PLEASE don't leave me here!! I will be good! I promise!!" Tears streaming down Amelia's face as she begged and pleaded with the King.
The King bent down to Amelia's level and hugged her. He assured her that he would never leave her in a place like this. He told her that Jimmy was going to be okay. That he probably just needed stitches but the reason Amelia was there was because the King didn't want her to stay home alone and worry. He told her that the bad man would be staying there.
Amelia has carried that memory around with her for so long. Maybe it's the reason she kept her nose as clean as she did. All she can say is that she is SO GLAD that the King took her home that night. And as for Jimmy, he had to have A LOT of stitches. In several fingers. To this day, he has scarred fingers. Amelia has that memory to carry around with her too. It's not one of her favorites.
Another story that Amelia holds near and dear to her heart is the one about "the boy." This boy was a family friend and spent many many hours at the castle playing with Amelia. Usually Amelia ended up playing cars with him and that was the end of it because like Herc, he would NEVER play Barbie's with her! One particular day, when Amelia and the boy were about nine years old, they decided to play "house." It was decided that they needed babies so they needed to do what this boy saw his mom and dad doing. Amelia and the boy go to the basement of the castle and go behind the big furnace (which just happened to be under the stairs) and take their clothes off. Amelia laid down on the floor and the boy got on top of her. The boy kissed her and they just laid there.
The next thing they knew, the Queen started coming down the stairs. She was going to do laundry in the next room. The boy jumped up and Amelia jumped up too. Amelia tried to whisper "Get your clothes on!" but it mustv'e been louder than a whisper because the Queen came right around the corner from the laundry room, around behind the furnace and caught the two of them! The boy had his jeans on but poor Amelia, she was stark naked!! She held her little jumpsuit up to her body so her mom couldn't see that she was naked behind it and the Queen told the boy he better get home now and that she would be calling his mom. As the Queen followed him out of the room and out the basement door, Amelia jumped in her jumpsuit and took off running. She didn't even zip it up. She just got the hell out of there!! Up the stairs she went.
She remembers seeing one of her brothers in the livingroom as she rounded the corner to the hallway but she didn't stop to talk. She had to hide and NOW!! The Queen was known to use a belt when she had to! Upstairs to her bedroom she went. Back to her spot between the wall and the bed. And she stayed there. The Queen came up to her room but couldn't find her. "AMELIA BEDILIA WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?? YOU JUST WAIT UNTIL YOUR FATHER GETS HOME!!" To this day, those words make Amelia break out in a cold sweat. Amelia KNEW that the King knew her hiding place and it was only a matter of time.
She fell asleep. Next thing she knew, the King was coming into her dark room and sitting on the bed. "Come out Amelia. I want to ask you something." Well.....he didn't sound like he was about to plummet her off the face of the earth so maybe the Queen didn't tell him! Amelia came out and sat on the bed next to the King. "Did you do something today that you know is very naughty?" Amelia shook her head yes and started to get tears in her eyes. "Tell me what you did." Oh shit. Do I have to say this outloud? Are you fucking serious??? "I took my clothes off and had a boy lay on top of me." Dear God, I love you. Please make the journey from this body to my everlasting body, painless and forgettable. Amen. "Do you know WHY that boy was laying on top of you?" Duh daddy!! "Uh huh! Because his daddy laid on his mommy and then they had a baby And we were playing house." How did the King not laugh at this? Man he was good!! "Okay, I think I understand. Well, you have to promise me you won't do that again, okay?" Amelia nods her head and is still fearful because she knows this can't even be close to the end of it. "I promise daddy."
Amelia got a big bowl of ice cream for dinner that night. THAT part she has never forgotten. AND, she didn't get naked and let a boy lay on top of her for a long long time after that because Amelia had promised the Queen (when she was twelve) that she didn't EVER want to be a mommy. Kids were too much trouble! AMEN!!! And looking back on that, Amelia wonders if this boys mommy and daddy always tried to make babies behind THEIR furnace?!? Maybe that's why they got divorced!! Maybe he hurt her back!!
A week from today will mark the sixteenth anniversary of the King's death. It's a day that is still hard on Amelia. The day he died was the hottest of that summer. The King was out mowing and Amelia had been helping him but she went home early to get things ready for Ashley's thirteenth birthday party. The King had a massive heart attack. Nothing could have saved it. It was so big; so bad; so fast. The doctors told the family that he was dead before he ever hit the ground. The King always knew he would die of a heart attack. He didn't have heart trouble but he knew his heart was going to kill him that way. That was the first black day in Amelia's memory. Her world came crushing down around her and she couldn't breathe.
Watching the paramedics try to breathe life into his body, knowing that he was already gone. Following the ambulance for half an hour. Amelia stayed in the drivers seat of her car. The procession of cars behind the ambulance stopped only when they did. That was when they transferred him from one ambulance to the other and went on to the hospital. Several told Amelia not to drive. To let someone drive for her. But she wouldn't have it. She prayed and willed herself the whole way to the hospital. How could this happen? How could he leave Amelia? The Queen? The rest of the Prince's and Princess's? How were they to go on with life?
The King was the handsomest, the bravest, the smartest, the best.....MAN on the whole face of this big ole ball of grass and water. No matter how many spankings, how many talks, how many groundings or how many NO's, he was the best. Amelia T. Bedelia IS who she is today partly because of this man. This King. She owes half of her life to him. She will never feel anything but respect and love for this man. No matter what.
I hope you enjoyed Amelia's story about the King. Slowly, she will tell her whole story. Be looking for the story of the Queen. Whom Amelia owes the other half of her life to. Thanks for reading.
Oh My. All I can say is WOW. What a wonderful tribute. But tissues are definitely a plus when reading this. You all were definitely blessed with a King and Queen for parents.
ReplyDelete