Image: Artem Horovenko
Despite the security of Bernard’s state park job and Suzanne’s growing internet fame. They both knew it was all fleeting without a permanent place to call home. The State’s Parks Authority was willing to overlook the many violations that were being broken by their extended stay on the park grounds. But the country was in the middle of a pandemic and having a fulltime employee on the grounds was at the time an asset. But now that the park up and fully operational again. There were rumors that the SPA and the state’s environmental regulators were ready for the family and the Airstream to move on.
It's not that the was willing to fire a long time employee, but they were applying the pressure for the family to move. So to avoid being formally evicted and possibly losing their main source of income the Case family moved their Airstream into a nearby trailer park. Forcing Bernard to commute to work, while Suzanne and the kids lost their little garden paradise. With the two oldest kids going to primary and pre-k school, it now meant riding the bus, such Benard needed the truck for his commute. It also meant getting used to a whole new set of neighbors. With the youngest still too young for school, daycare was out of the question due to the cost. So Suzanne kept to herself while continuing to post content and take care of the little one.
But the trailer park wasn’t without its distractions, first there was the trailer park hierarchy of drug dealers , gang members, the old, the sick, and the worker poor. It wasn’t nothing to see an ambulance and load of police cruisers every night and especially on the weekends. Plus having them all crammed into the Airstream wasn’t any fun either. Although they were out at the park as much as they could, still at night you lived in fear that one day a stray bullet wound come flying in. the one small ray of light was the one neighbor a few trailers down Annette who had two young children with her boyfriend Ned.
Annette much like Suzanne was white trash poor born in a nearby town. Her and Suzanne would often sit on the trailer steps drink coffee and watch the kids play in the dirt. There they would talk about their lives and their situations and how they ended up here. Suzanne being a bit cautious, letting Annette do most of the talking, because she sounded like she really needed a friend. Everything was good till Ned showed up from wherever he showed up. In a ratty ball cap greasy t-shirt and jeans, he’d simply pull up practically stomp into the trailer and yell for Annette to get him a beer and fix him a plate. A few months have passed and was the usual routine Ned would drive up and holler for his beer.
After a typical weekend of police calls and screaming matches between couples. Suzanne noticed Annette or the kids weren’t around. She also noticed Ned’s pickup was gone as well. After a few days the landlord was making the rounds for the rent, rather weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly she as out like clockwork. As Suzanne and the baby awoke from a nap, she noticed the police and an ambulance parked over at Annette’s trailer with the landlord looking distraught talking to the police. Apparently Ned got especially violent one night over the weekend and killed Annette, leaving her body in the trailer and taking the kids. It was alter learning he dropped off the kids with a relative in Florida and was caught in Daytona passed out drunk in his truck.
After a few weeks the tragedy that made headlines and had long faded from the regional TV news and newspapers. The landlord had the crime scene quickly cleaned and rented out again. No one in the park spoke of the tragedy out loud, only in hushed whispers. The police did step up patrols and busted some of worse of the worse in the park. But nothing really changed. Annette and children’s things were picked through after being dumped in the dumpsters. With nothing ever mentioned of her kids again. But as Suzanne pulled a wagon full of trash to the dumpster, she noticed a small shiny object on the ground near a dumpster. As Suzanne bent over for a closer look, she discovered it was a broken silver locket that Annette once wore with a picture of her girls inside. Suzanne quickly put the locket in her pocket and moved on.
It's not that the was willing to fire a long time employee, but they were applying the pressure for the family to move. So to avoid being formally evicted and possibly losing their main source of income the Case family moved their Airstream into a nearby trailer park. Forcing Bernard to commute to work, while Suzanne and the kids lost their little garden paradise. With the two oldest kids going to primary and pre-k school, it now meant riding the bus, such Benard needed the truck for his commute. It also meant getting used to a whole new set of neighbors. With the youngest still too young for school, daycare was out of the question due to the cost. So Suzanne kept to herself while continuing to post content and take care of the little one.
But the trailer park wasn’t without its distractions, first there was the trailer park hierarchy of drug dealers , gang members, the old, the sick, and the worker poor. It wasn’t nothing to see an ambulance and load of police cruisers every night and especially on the weekends. Plus having them all crammed into the Airstream wasn’t any fun either. Although they were out at the park as much as they could, still at night you lived in fear that one day a stray bullet wound come flying in. the one small ray of light was the one neighbor a few trailers down Annette who had two young children with her boyfriend Ned.
Annette much like Suzanne was white trash poor born in a nearby town. Her and Suzanne would often sit on the trailer steps drink coffee and watch the kids play in the dirt. There they would talk about their lives and their situations and how they ended up here. Suzanne being a bit cautious, letting Annette do most of the talking, because she sounded like she really needed a friend. Everything was good till Ned showed up from wherever he showed up. In a ratty ball cap greasy t-shirt and jeans, he’d simply pull up practically stomp into the trailer and yell for Annette to get him a beer and fix him a plate. A few months have passed and was the usual routine Ned would drive up and holler for his beer.
After a typical weekend of police calls and screaming matches between couples. Suzanne noticed Annette or the kids weren’t around. She also noticed Ned’s pickup was gone as well. After a few days the landlord was making the rounds for the rent, rather weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly she as out like clockwork. As Suzanne and the baby awoke from a nap, she noticed the police and an ambulance parked over at Annette’s trailer with the landlord looking distraught talking to the police. Apparently Ned got especially violent one night over the weekend and killed Annette, leaving her body in the trailer and taking the kids. It was alter learning he dropped off the kids with a relative in Florida and was caught in Daytona passed out drunk in his truck.
After a few weeks the tragedy that made headlines and had long faded from the regional TV news and newspapers. The landlord had the crime scene quickly cleaned and rented out again. No one in the park spoke of the tragedy out loud, only in hushed whispers. The police did step up patrols and busted some of worse of the worse in the park. But nothing really changed. Annette and children’s things were picked through after being dumped in the dumpsters. With nothing ever mentioned of her kids again. But as Suzanne pulled a wagon full of trash to the dumpster, she noticed a small shiny object on the ground near a dumpster. As Suzanne bent over for a closer look, she discovered it was a broken silver locket that Annette once wore with a picture of her girls inside. Suzanne quickly put the locket in her pocket and moved on.
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