Chapter 10

January 2, 2003,

Where do I start? The "living with Michael Jackson" documentary premiered last night and it didn't go at all like dad expected it to! He is not happy at all, some things actually ended up getting broken by dad because he was so angry. He made her leave the room once he got the feeling that the documentary was headed in a bad direction. Even after we left the room, we could hear dad yelling and throwing things. I had never seen my dad so mad in my life and I probably won't ever see him like this again! I came downstairs and saw dad sitting on the couch. I was debating whether or not to go up to him after what happened last night. I walked into the living room dressed in my super Mario pajamas and sat down next to him. We both looked at each other and neither of us said anything. Then he just reached over and hugged me as tight as he could. I asked "what was that for?" He said "I just want you to know how much I love you!" I said "I know you love me!" He looked like he was about to cry and I asked "are you okay daddy?" He said "I'm fine. Don't worry about me!"

Prince and Paris woke up and came downstairs. Grace followed behind them and passed Blanket to dad. Dad snapped out of the mood that he was in and went to the kitchen to make us French toast. I could tell that he was still aggravated by everything that happened last night because he spent 20 minutes rapidly stirring a few eggs in a bowl. Then he came to the table with our food and said "I think all of us should go on a long vacation for a while!" I asked "where are we going to go?" He said "I haven't figured that out yet. I think we'll just go from place to place for a while." I asked "why all of a sudden are we going on vacation?" He said "I don't know; I just think we need to get out of here for a while!" I don't know what's going on… But I know something is up because dad is acting really weird!

February 6, 2003,

It was 9 o'clock at night and we were just boarding the private jet that dad rented. We are headed to London and we are staying with Mark Lester and his family. It's been a while since I've seen Kyle and I am really excited! I'm still curious as to why we are leaving so late at night

About five hours later, we pulled up in front of Mark's house in London and I jumped out of the car. Prince and Paris have fallen asleep and Grace carried them inside one by one. Dad brought Blanket inside and Mark greeted all of us. I was full of energy still and Mark said "AJ you have to be quiet! The children are sleeping!" I continued to run around crazily in circles and dad asked "Alanna Michael Jackson; did you just hear what Mark said?" I said "yes but; I'm so hyper!!!" Dad looked at Grace and asked "did you give her the ADHD medication this morning?" Grace shook her head "yes" and he sighed was exhaustion. He walked up to me and said "go get your pajamas on and I'll be in the guestroom in a minute to put a movie in." I could tell he wasn't in the mood to deal with me so; I did as I was told.

February 7, 2003,

I woke up this morning in the guestroom of Mark Lester's house and went out into the kitchen to wait for dad to get up. Grace came downstairs with Prince and Paris who had both slept in one of the other guestrooms. Dad had slept in the den so he could take care of Blanket because he has been waking up in the middle of the night crying.

Grace took my bottle of ADHD medication and passed me a pill. Just as I put it in my mouth; dad came out of the den carrying blanket and smiling. I ran up to him and hugged him. He said "good morning you guys!" Mark's son Kyle came running downstairs and said "wow: you really did come here!" I said "I can't believe it either!" The two less ran upstairs and Kyle said "I can't wait for you to see my new bedroom! We redecorated it last month!" He brought me to his bedroom and it was all Star Wars themed. Posters were on the walls, a whole bunch of Star Wars blankets, pillows, and a huge flat screen television with a Nintendo GameCube and games. I said "wow; this is so cool!" He said "I know; the TVs best part though!"

Dad walked up the stairs and into Kyle's room. He asked "are you guys having fun?" I said as I got up to hug him "thank you for bringing us here!" He said "you don't have to thank me but; you're welcome!" I said "how long are we going to stay here?" He said "I'm not exactly sure yet." I said "I have an idea daddy!" He asked "what that?" I said "all of us should have a water balloon fight!" He said "okay; then that's what we'll do!"

Dad, Kyle, and I went downstairs to start filling the water balloons up. Prince and Paris walked up to dad and asked "can we play too?" Dad said "of course you can!" I brought the water balloons outside and put them in a bucket. Dad followed me and helped Paris and Prince take their shoes off. Dad had filled the water balloons up so much; I could barely pick them up without them breaking in my hands. Before I could throw one balloon; Kyle threw a balloon at the back of my head and it exploded everywhere. I said "I'm so going to get you back for that!" Dad said "I think we should make teams." I said "that wouldn't be fair though because there's an uneven amount of people." He said "no; it will be fair because I will be with your brother and sister! They don't have good enough aim so; I'll be there to help them! Trust me; it will be evenly matched after all!" I said "all right… Kyle and I; versus you, Prince, and Paris."

Knowing how good my dad is a water balloon flights; Kyle and I didn't stand a chance. I wasn't too worried about Prince and Paris because they are still little but; I knew dad would demolish us! The object of our water balloon fights is to get the other team as soaked as possible by the time all the balloons are gone. Whichever team is the most soaked at the end loses

20 minutes into our water balloon Fight; Kyle was completely exhausted from dodging every balloon dad threw at him. I said “you don’t have to avoid each one Kyle. Just don’t get soaked!!!” He said "I know; but I'm trying to stop us from losing!" I had made it whole time without getting wet at all and Kyle decided that he was done because he was tired. It was down to dad and I in the end and I was still going strong because of my ADHD. There were five balloons left and dad had stayed away from every balloon that I threw at him. I was determined not to lose against him for the millionth time. By the time there was only one balloon left we were both getting out of breath. I don't think that dad saw that there was only one left so; I ran for it. He said "no, no, no, is that really the last one?" I started laughing and said "yes!" I started to slowly walk up to him with the balloon in my hand and he ran as fast as he could away from me. His socks started to fall off and he was stumbling. I knew that this was my one and only chance to get him. I backed him up so there was a tree on each side of him! He laughed as I took the balloon and broke it over the top of his head. I shouted "finally; I beat you!" He said in a shock “I can't believe it!"

March 1, 2003,

We were just arriving at our hotel in Las Vegas when dad got a phone call. I stared at him the entire time and he just looked distraught. He hung up the phone and said "AJ; go in the other room so I can talk to Grace." I left the room but; I could still hear everything that was going on in the other room. Dad said "they just served a search warrant on Neverland!" Grace said "that district lawyer is out to get you all over again Michael!" He said "they are just doing this because they want to believe that I would do something that awful! Grace; I promise you that I would never ever do anything like that! I guarantee you that those police officers will not find one single shred of proven evidence in that house! I know one thing's for sure… If they decide to prosecute me I'm not going to just settle like I did back in 1993; I'm dragging this thing all the way through a trial to prove my innocence!"

The only thing I understood from what my dad said was "police officers" I knew whenever was going on; it wasn't a good thing. I didn't think too much of it at the time because I didn't want to worry about him. I assured myself that everything would be better in the morning and that it wasn't that big of a deal; even though deep down that something serious is going on!

March 8, 2003,

Well; we weren't in Las Vegas for long because for some reason we have to go back to Santa Barbara California. I asked my dad several times why we were going back so soon but; all he said was that he couldn't tell me. Ever since we got on the plane to head home dad seems really nervous and I want to know why!

We left the airport and drove to Neverland. Dad's manager Frank was standing outside the gate and the car pulled up next to him. Dad rolled down his window and Frank leaned in to talk to him. Frank said "Mike you don't want to go in there!" Dad looked at him and asked "why not?" Frank said "those police officers absolutely DESTROYED the house! Everything is out of place; thrown everywhere and your office is a complete disaster!" Dad asked "what do you mean my office? They only had a warrant to search my bedroom, bathrooms, and storage!" Frank said "I hate to tell you this Michael but; they searched every square inch of that house; whether they were supposed to or not!" Dad asked "how could just a few officers do so much damage?" Frank said "oh; it was way more than just a few officers!" Dad said "I was informed that there would only be three or four of them here! How many of them were there?" Frank said "like 20 of them." Dad said "this is ridiculous; absolutely ridiculous!"

Dad opened the car door and got out. Frank asked "where are you going?" Dad said "I have to see this for myself!" Frank said "if you want to but; I'm warning you to prepare yourself for what you're about to see!" I said "I want to go see too daddy!" Grace said "no; you are going to stay right here! I don't want you to see what's in there!" Dad came back outside 15 minutes later and he was crying. By the time he got to the car; he had calmed himself down so; we didn't see him crying or upset. He opened the door to the car and got in without saying a word. Grace asked "is it really that bad?" Dad said "oh yeah!" Grace asked "where are we going to go now?" Dad said "I don't know yet; but we'll figure it out!"


March, 10, 2003,

We are staying in a hotel for the time being until dad can find a new place for us to live. I saw dad getting ready to leave and asked "daddy; where are you going?" He said "out my little while. I'll be back soon though!" I asked "can I please, please go with you?" He said "yeah; as long as you listen to me!" I said "I promise that I will!" I grabbed my jacket and the two of us headed out to the car that was waiting outside.

We drove to a shopping mall and got out of the car. Both of us walked inside and went into a Toys "R" Us store first. I said "look daddy dart guns!" He said "wow; I've never seen one's that look like this before!" I said "they have claws at the end of the darts!" Next to the dart guns was a Star Wars display and dad walked over to it. I followed him and picked up a talking Anakin Skywalker action figure. I said "Prince would love this!" He said "then I'll buy it for him!" I asked "can I pick something out for myself?" He asked "what do you say first?" I said "oh yeah; please?" He said "yes you can but; nothing too expensive because your birthday is coming up in a few days!"

I ran down every aisle looking for something that I have been wanting for a long time. I found the Pokémon ultimate trading card box that I wanted and took it over to dad. I passed it to him and he asked "more Pokémon cards? Really? Don't you have enough of these already?" I said "I know that I have a lot but; these ones are different and there are 500 cards in this box." He said "I don't see the point in those silly little cards but; if that's what you want then go ahead and put it in the cart." I kissed him on the cheek and said "thank you daddy!" He said "you're very welcome! We have to find something for Paris and Blanket so they don't feel left out."

Dad found a Disney Princess movie set for Paris and got a talking Mickey Mouse for Blanket. As we were walking out of the store we saw a McDonald's in the food court and dad asked "do you want to get something to eat?" I said "yes please" while tying my shoes. He said "okay; what do you want because I'm going to have one of the bodyguards get it for us?" I said "a cheeseburger please!" Dad passed his wallet to our bodyguard James. He said "get three happy meals. Get two cheeseburger meals and one chicken nugget meal. Get me a medium-sized fry and a vanilla milkshake please." While James bought our food, we walked out to the car with the other bodyguard named Tim.

May, 4, 2003,

Dad was out doing something and all three of us kids were in the hotel. I was in my hotel room searching through the TV channels when something caught my eye. I was changing the channels quickly but I said to myself "was that daddy I just saw on TV?" I went back to that channel and could not believe what I was seeing. It was a news report that said at the top of the screen "King of Pop: Michael Jackson arrested in Santa Barbara County today." Dad was standing with his arms behind his back and a police officer handcuffed him. Then dad was directed him into a police car!

I was absolutely mortified by what I just saw and jumped out of bed. I ran down the hallway as fast as I could and started hitting the door as hard as I could. Grace opened it and asked "what's wrong?" I said "daddy just got arrested!" I was surprised by her reaction because she looked like she already knew that he was going to be arrested today. I walked into their hotel room where my siblings were and sat down on one of the beds. I said "alright; I want to know what's been going on and I want to know now!" Grace said "your dad will be home in less than an hour… There's nothing to worry about!" I said "I know there's something going on and I want to know what's happening!!!" She said "I'm not going to tell you; you're going to have to ask your dad when he comes back.”

A half-hour later; there was a knock on my hotel room door and dad walked in. He looked at me and I was crying. He sat down on the bed and asked "what's wrong sweetheart?" I said "I wish you knew how scared I was. I had to watch my dad being arrested and I have no idea what's going on!" He hugged me as I cried uncontrollably into his shoulder and said "I know and I'm sorry that you had to see that!" He started to cry too and I asked "will you please tell me what's going on?" He said as he pulled away from hugging me "okay; I guess you should know. Just promise me that you won't tell your brother or sister because they are too young!" I shook my head to show that I agreed and he proceeded to tell me what was going on.”

He asked "do you remember that boy named Gavin they used to come over to Neverland all the time with his brother?" I said yeah; why?" He took a deep breath and said "well; he said that I did some inappropriate things to him!" I asked "inappropriate as in what you told me kidnappers and some strangers do to kids?" He said "yes but; I want you to know that Gavin is lying and I would never ever do that to anyone!" I said "I know you wouldn't and that's awful that he would lie about something like that!" He said "I'm going to have to go to court probably within the next couple of years so; I can prove that I didn't do anything like that!" I asked "Will you promise me that you won't go to prison?" He said "I can't promise you that because there is a small chance that I would go to prison but; I will do everything in my power to stop that from happening… I can promise you that for sure!!!" He wiped the tears away from my eyes with his sleeve and said "I love you and I always will; no matter what happens!" I kissed him and said "I love you too!"