It Could Happen....: A Family Adventure

It Could Happen....

A Family Adventure

J. Castillo

ISBN 978-1-63630-415-1 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63630-416-8 (Digital)

Copyright © 2020 J. Castillo

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

The Clan

The Adventure Begins

The Unexpected

Pushing On

An Entire New World

Aly’s World

Zeke’s Discovery

The Great Rumble

Things Come Together

Put Two and Two Together

The Clan on Offense (On the Attack for Non-sports Fans)

Surprise, Surprise!

The Retaliation Begins

The Revelation

Dad’s Preparation

Mom and Zeke Up at Bat

Aly on Offense

We Meet Again

The Grand Escape

This book I dedicate to my family, for without them, none of this would be possible. Understand that with my family, there is never a dull moment. The names of my family are their actual names. All other names are strictly coincidental. I based the book on a theory I have always thought about. Whether it is believable or not, this is purely fictional and not intended to replace what we know as our actual reality. Or is it?

Chapter 1

The Clan

Of all the things unexplainable in this world we live in, there is a constant battle between two forces always—whether it is religion vs. science, data vs. hearsay, logic vs. illogic, perception vs. deception, political vs. nonpolitical, and so forth and so on. People are always trying to have an answer at all costs, and their answers favor their beliefs. Music is one field in which everyone has an opinion and is unwilling to accept anybody else’s. Such groups argue or shall we say hotly debate on what the artist’s intention was, without even thinking the artist might not have had any actual intention, only that the song sounded good to their ear and they recorded it.

Authors are also victims of these debates. Groups often debate about what an author was trying to say but wrote something else. So are all authors good at writing in parables such as in the Bible? To listen to these groups or individuals, one would think they wrote the song or book. Add all these dimensions to a work of art, whether they are right or wrong, whether accepted or declined, depending on what group you belong to—and there is an infinite number of them.

At work or in every occupation, there is at least one of these people:

First is the Oh yeah, yeah person. This person will ask a question; and as you answer it, out of the kindness of your heart, as you get to the end of the answer, they strike at you with their famous Oh yeah, yeah and then ignore you and walk off. Later in the day, you will find them telling someone, especially their boss, how miraculously they answered their question and saved the day.

Second is the are you sure person. This person is so insecure that by the time you finish with them, you are damn close to being afraid of the dark! You might be lucky to find your way home after this conversation, and you might remember the names of some of your family members. This conversation goes something like this: first the question and then a puzzled look on their face when you attempt to answer. The magic words follow, Are you sure? Because I googled it and your answer is different. Now, a few seconds before you were confident in yourself and nothing could shake you, or at least you thought so. Your house of confidence has just gone from rock solid to melting jelly, and you do not understand how you got there. If you say I’m sorry for any minor thing, you have just had a large dose of insecurity from this Are you sure? person.

Third—and there are so many versions of this—is the I thought you were smart! person. That conversation goes something like this:

At one in the morning, I received a call from a coworker who was working the night shift. Part of the job was filling out a spreadsheet as to the night’s activities.

Hey, sorry to wake you up, but I need some help on the paperwork. Do you know what I need to put on the square on this spreadsheet?

Which square are you talking about?

The square on this spreadsheet.

Where is the square, Joey?

On the spreadsheet.

Okay, where on the spreadsheet?

Wow! It seems like you do not know! I will call someone that knows. Thanks.

So now you are wide awake, feeling like a real dumbass, because you did not know what to put on the square, thanks to Joey.

With all these opinions and dimensions added to almost any subject, it is a wonder we ever learn anything. In so many ways, we can project things. It just makes our world so much more complicated, or another version would be it makes our world more interesting—a prime example of how we have made everything in our world debatable.

We should always wonder when and where it started. Did it start with Lucy, the entire world’s mom? One can only imagine if she started it. Was it something like I don’t like the brown grass because it makes me break out in hives. So I will eat the green one; it looks healthier? The next morning it may have been Oh no! Now I have to walk around with a green tongue. I will eat the gold one instead. Now I have a severe case of gas and so forth and so on.

Wherever it began, it developed to a vicious level. Men compete and debate about trucks, guns, fishing, sports players, and even lawn mowing. No matter what you have or do, the other guy does it better and has something better than yours. And it is all a matter of opinion! Some men think of themselves as gourmet cooks, especially if they are from Louisiana. Being from there somehow gives them a birthright to be cooks, but very few of them work in any restaurant setting. Nowhere else is this more prevalent than in the oilfield of the USA. So if anybody is interested in going to work offshore on the rigs, don’t bother; there are two guys in west Texas who have sucked all the oil out, and they did this while sitting in a trailer about one thousand miles away!

Women compete and debate on a different level. They stare at another woman when she walks into a place. They more than likely are competing on how they look. Women are far more vicious when competing, and we all know that. As opposed to men who are always lying, women are looking at details.

So, despite all this competing and debating, kids love their parents and are watching this and learning it; and it gets more vicious with every generation.

Keeping all the competition and debating in mind, our story begins with a family of six—Dad, Mom, daughter, son, middle son, and youngest son.

Dad enjoyed his children to where they ended up spoiled. He came from a family of ten, of which he was the youngest. Juan was the guinea pig for everything his brothers invented, such as rolling inside an old tractor tire, downhill! Now being the youngest member of his family, some of his brothers and sisters claimed spoiling him, an accusation they had yet to prove. Juan’s life was uneventful—the usual school grind for twelve long years. After high school graduation, he went to a college in Monterrey, Mexico. Man! Was that culture shock! Since he grew up in South Texas, right on the border next to the Rio Grande. When he realized that was not for him, he joined the Army. Upon his return, he heard so many theories on what he should do that he just shut everyone off and went to work in the oilfield. He had an excellent job and supported his family and was happy doing it. At home, his pet peeve was keeping their yard in top shape. Minor repairs were no problem. Life had been good to him; and yes, there were trials, but the entire family got through them. Now all his life Juan thought he was of Mexican descent. He spoke good Tex-Mex Spanish, a border version of Spanish which mixes English and Spanish, and loved border cooking. He enjoyed taking family trips to the great southwest (Big Bend, New Mexico, Arizona). He did not feel comfortable in enormous cities with many people. Every time he visited the southwest, deep inside his head, he felt a calling of some sort and did not know why. His wife really enjoyed a few websites dealing with a person’s ancestry. One day she convinced him to take a DNA test just to find out where he came from. Someone on that website contacted, and lo and behold! He had all the family trees! Juan came from a lengthy line of Chiricahua Apache! How is that for a different dimension? he thought. At last all that calling he had felt made sense, and it was not open for debate. He felt a lot of closure in his life now, and he was proud of his heritage now.

The matriarch of this small clan was the mom, Yolanda. She was the genius in the family. In contrast to Juan, she was the oldest in her family, which had three boys and two girls. Yolanda also grew up in south Texas and had the same qualities unique to the border—being well versed in Spanglish, border cooking, strong family ties, and highly intelligent. She grew up the same way as her husband; both he and her parents were of lower income, but life was great. She attended schools in south Texas, which were predominantly Hispanic, and this area even had their own accent. Yolanda got accepted to a college in south Texas and started her career in nursing. In direct contrast to her husband, Juan, she stuck to her guns and got an associate degree in nursing and started her medical career in a local hospital. Yolanda worked tirelessly for several years, becoming one of the best nurses in that hospital. Soon she got transferred to the medical intensive care unit, where only the nurses with excellent skills were. After a few more years, she went to work for a home health agency, where again she excelled and got assigned to a managerial position. Life was wonderful. She later went back to a four-year school and got a bachelor’s degree in the nursing field. It was then that she opened her own home health agency. Things started going good now. Juan quit his job in the oilfield and went to work for her. As Juan later related, Those were some of the best times in my life. Yolanda was the glue that held the clan together, with her wisdom, intelligence, and fairness. She also had this trait that very few people have, the gift of not imposing. It was something that had to be seen to explain