From Michael, By Michael, To Michael

By Michael Belton

Michael, I'm calling your space just to say that from just visualizing you, it's been so long. I'm not sure if I was looking at a little girl's sweet, tender, unique handwriting on a special private drawing with your name somewhere on the picture. It could have been on a poster somewhere stapled as some type of advertisement or perhaps in a magazine or on TV. Wherever it was at that particular moment, I became a serious dreamer. All of a sudden, my entire interest changed....

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9781684988990

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

1 The Reason for Me Admiring Michael Jackson

2 First Time Appearing on a Television Show

3 Finally Moving to the City

4 First Introduction to the City

5 Given a Chance to Stay in the City

6 Found My First Job

7 First Night Out on the Town

8 First Visualization of Victoria

9 Appeared in a Second Television Show

10 Contacting Victoria Again

11 Moved to a Different Location in the City

12 My Job Had Layoffs

13 Moved In with Victoria

14 I Decided to Go to a Business College

15 Victoria Took Me House Shopping

16 Purchasing My First Designer Suit

17 Became a Men's Suit Salesman

18 My Manager Gave Me a Whole New Wardrobe

19 Moved to a Fancy Apartment

20 Meeting the Next Beautiful Lady

21 Changed Jobs Selling Also Men's High-Quality Suits

22 Moved into a Big Home

23 I Received Another Invitation for a Different TV Dance Show

24 First Time Making Lots of Tapings for TV Show

25 My Cousin Ronnie Knox Passed Away

26 Job Closed Down

27 Continued Business School

28 Became Chef at Italian Restaurant

29 Graduated Business School

30 Started New Job Selling Men's Suits

31 I Met Another Friend Who Gave Me More Suits

32 Place of Residence Caught Fire While I Was at the Dance

33 Moved In with Hometown Friend

34 Move to Different Place

35 Old Girlfriend Reappears

36 Owning My First Car

37 Back to Catching Buses

38 I Moved Again

39 Got Second Job

40 My Aunt Florence Passed Away

41 Back to One Job Only

42 Sister Gent Came to Washington Also

43 Back to Working Two Jobs Again

44 Began Thinking about a New Invention

45 Dated Wealthy Lady

46 Changed Departments on Regular Job

47 Introduced One of My Friends to a Nice Lady

48 My Uncle James Belton Passed Away

49 One of My Sisters Went to the Hospital

50 Met a Different Beautiful Lady

51 I Took a Vacation

52 Got Hit by a Transit Bus

53 Released from the Hospital

54 Walking with Crutches

55 Had Cast and Pins Removed from Leg and Foot

56 I Began Walking without Any Assistance

57 Began Collecting My Suits from Where I Left Them

58 Moved from My Sister's and Got a Room

59 Moved Again

60 Met Two Friends, Both Their Names Were Michael Also

61 Disability Began, so I Moved Back with My Sister

62 I Met Another Beautiful Lady

63 Read about My Accident in the Newspapers

64 People Started Approaching Me a Lot

65 Contacted My Friend for More Suits

66 First Time Accepting Money from a Stranger

67 I Was Jumped by Two Guys, Stabbed Once

68 I Moved Again

69 I Went to Court about My Accident

70 My Uncle Frank Belton Passed Away

71 I Read Something Else in the Newspaper about My Accident

72 Borrowed Money from a Friend

73 I Was Robbed in Broad Daylight

74 I Asked My Lawyer for a List of Loan Companies

75 Wearing a Hospital Shoe Daily

76 Moved Again

77 I Met Another Friend Who Loaned Me Money

78 My Uncle Leroy Belton Passed Away

79 Received Another Loan from a Friend

80 Finally My Lawsuit Check Arrived at My Lawyer's Office

81 I Drove Back Home to See Family and Friends

82 Remembering on the Past

83 Started Writing My Book

84 My Aunt Sue Bell Passed Away

85 Remembering People of My Past

86 I Began to Work on My New Invention

About the Author

cover.jpg

From Michael, By Michael, To Michael

Michael Belton

Copyright © 2023 Michael Belton

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2023

ISBN 978-1-68498-898-3 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68498-899-0 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

To Michael Jackson

1

The Reason for Me Admiring Michael Jackson

Michael, I'm calling your space just to say that from just visualizing you, it's been so long.

I'm not sure if I was looking at a little girl's sweet, tender, unique handwriting on a special private drawing with your name somewhere on the picture.

It could have been on a poster somewhere stapled as some type of advertisement or perhaps in a magazine or on TV.

Wherever it was at that particular moment, I became a serious dreamer.

All of a sudden, my entire interest changed.

The reason is because at the time and at my age, which was around ten, I was not exposed to hardly any great entertainment, but at that particular time, I actually became captured for some reason, so I watched, and I remember looking at you and not actually believing that you were a real person.

To this day, I can remember thinking that what I was looking at was just an entertainment setup.

The television somehow played with my eyes and mind. But then, you started moving your feet and hands, and then I started watching your dance moves and watching how you seemed to be so ready and positive about what you were doing.

Well, after you went off the show, I still waited before I turned the channel to see if you came back on stage before the show went off.

No one in my entire acknowledgment of people or entertainers ever meant anything as special as you have, excluding family.

Since the first time I laid eyes on you, you didn't leave my thoughts no given day afterward.

As soon as I look in a mirror, the thoughts of you cross my mind.

Because of you, as I grew up, my life became extraordinary. It has been so amazing that to a point, my life was made up of Michael and myself mentally for over thirty years.

I've felt content with myself, just because of your existence. It's like I could just sit in a room for months, even years, and just step out, and you will have added more light to my existence.

And just think, we've never met, and you don't even know I exist. Please remember, Michael, how hard it must be for me to have only one idol, and that person is the same age as I am.

Usually, a person's idol is older or younger. I mean, I am so proud of you.

When I was growing up, I would close myself up in my room and put on one of your records, standing in front of a tall mirror and dancing and practicing on how to spin around just because I saw you do it.

After a while, I became better and better. Then after, I felt as though I could spin well enough to actually try it out in public, at a dance. I tried it, and I felt different but good.

I also looked around me to see if anyone was looking, and there were several people looking.

Then every once in a while, during the same record, I would try and spin around a few times before the record was over. And every time I'd spin, I would look around to see what the other people were doing.

They were watching me, which made me feel uncomfortable.

2

First Time Appearing on a Television Show

So I just decided to continue to dance, and if they decided to look, then maybe it was a good thing.

A little later on in life, I joined up with a Catholic Young Men's Club; we used to have Friday night dances. I became a regular.

Later, a talent show was put together, and I chose to be involved. I received two parts: one was singing a song and the other dancing freestyle with some friends.

To my surprise, after we finished dancing, that was the end of the show. A man approached us and asked if we would like to dance on a television show.

Of course, we all were excited. We said yes, we would be delighted to dance on television. So the man gave us information about the show and a telephone number where we could contact him.

Later, we called and received a time and place to dance on television. My friends that were together in our group went on television, and it turned out to be a great experience.

Then later, when the show was shown on television, we all got together and watched it with some of our friends, and everyone was so excited and we all were being congratulated by our friends and each other.

Afterward, I began to practice my personal dance steps, including my spins at home in privacy. I would also get together with our dance group and practice routines.

Local bands with an offer to travel to and from different cities to dance while they play their music had approached us. Things were beginning to start looking in the direction of my dream, which was for me to continue dancing and traveling in order that I might possibly get close enough to you to at least exchange a few words and shake your hand.

To this day, I cannot explain what it is or how it happened. It's like you have two lives: I'm living one side and you're living the other. This is why I waited so long before I began to speak on this.

I was all the time thinking that this natural feeling in me would, more or less, just fade away eventually. But the older I got, this feeling is only becoming more and more a part of my everyday natural existence.

Later on in life, I began to have dreams at night, about seeing myself dancing in a studio on a regular TV show and enjoying myself a great deal. So I decided to wait until I graduated from high school and moved to a large city, to get closer to stars from television.

Eventually, I began to enjoy dancing so much, and people around me seemed to enjoy watching me dance. They also began to compliment me to the point that I wanted to dance for more and more people.

Then I began to try and decide on what part of the world I wanted to start a new life in. At that particular time in my life, my finances were low, and I had to come up with a plan to get to a big city because it was getting close to graduation.

At the time, I was thinking about California because I gained the information that a lot of stars resided in LA.

I got an after-school job working at a cloth mill in Fort Mill, South Carolina. After graduation, I had saved up about $200 because I wasn't making much and I had other responsibilities.

Years earlier, my sister had moved to Washington, DC, so I decided to move there so I would have someone nearby to consult with when I needed advice or to borrow $5.

In Rock Hill, South Carolina, where I lived, I had so many friends that I decided not to tell any of them that I was leaving because if I had, I'm sure it would have delayed my departure.

3

Finally Moving to the City

It was in 1975, the exact month I'm not sure. But I woke up and started packing my suitcase. After packing, I sat down and told my mother that I was going to catch a bus to Washington, DC. She was a very understanding person. She made me feel so positive about myself, and she showed no doubt about whether I could take care of myself or not. So that night, I went to the bus station and caught the bus to Washington, DC.

Also realizing my brother was possibly in Washington also, I didn't concentrate on that matter because I knew he was the kind of person who moved around at his own will, but I really admired him for that. I call myself making my trip to Washington more adventurous by not letting my sister know that I was coming. The reason for that was even if I get to Washington, DC, and have to turn right back around, I would have at least seen with my own eyes very tall buildings and would have gained some experience on what it feels like to travel such a distance.

At this particular time, I was all of a sudden extremely amazed with my existence. The reason is because on this day August 19, 1997, at 9:16:00, I was watching cable channel 12 and I'm almost about to shed tears. But why this is happening to me? I asked myself. When I'm trying my best to defocus from you and your lifestyle and try and figure out my own personal directions in life, which had become so impossible for me to do so. I walk down the street, and people call out my name, Hey, Michael, how are you?

I went to clubs and discos, and I soon began to feel instantly that I'm the total center of attraction. Then when I began to dance, everyone gave me his or her total attention. And in some way, I actually feel as though it's a part of you there with me, and I start dancing as though I were Michael Jackson.

The entire time I was there, every move that I made became special, and everyone around me blended right in and started complimenting me. The ladies couldn't take their eyes off me.

Thank you very much.

4

First Introduction to the City

Now back to on my way to Washington, DC. I went to the bus station and purchased a ticket, then my bus arrived and I boarded. The way I felt was as though I was headed to an unknown world. So I conditioned myself to the point as far as eliminating desires of materialistic things that I happened to come across unless I could afford them for myself.

After I completed the sentence prior to this one, I decided to re-read over what I had written, and every time I began to do so, after at least the first two pages, I have to stop, because I began to cry out of joy.

I mean, cry so silently that it is hard for me to believe it's me. It's these feelings that come together inside of me that I cannot hold back.

After boarding the bus, I was so excited. The next thing that I became overly concerned about was maybe going to sleep and missing my stop in Washington and ending up in some strange faraway place and not having enough money to even catch the bus back to Washington.

So I began to think of different ways of things that I could do to make sure that I did not miss my stop in Washington, DC.

So anyway, while I was deciding what I would actually do, the bus started out, heading for Washington, DC. Since I hadn't traveled before, as the bus moved, I began to look out of the window, and as I traveled, I began to continue to see so many exciting places and buildings, also airplanes in the sky. On the way to Washington, I began to condition myself to become sort of a loner and try my best not to get too involved in other people's affairs. My ride on the bus turned out to be very interesting and exciting, and I did not fall asleep at all.

When my bus arrived in Washington, I got off the bus, and behold, there were so many people all over. The bus station outside had lots of people; I looked around toward the street.

5

Given a Chance to Stay in the City

I saw lots of people walking and heading in different directions, lots of automobiles on the streets, and all of a sudden, my hearing became captured on a particular sound that I had been familiar with. That sound was music. To my surprise, I looked toward the direction that the sound was coming from, and I saw people very well dressed standing in line in front of a building and lights were on around the building. It turned out to be a disco.

At that particular time, I was nineteen years of age. I had not yet begun to understand what it was about music; that's when I heard a song that I liked. It seemed to affect me on the inside and gave me a particular unknown feeling and the desire to dance and enjoy myself. But even though that particular feeling started coming over me, I had to catch myself at that moment because I had to call my sister and let her know that I was in the city.

But before I went inside the bus station, I stood outside and listened to the music and observed the ladies that were around the outside of the disco site.

Eventually, I made my mind up to go inside after thinking that if my sister allowed me to stay with her and I got a job, I would make it a point to attend that particular disco.

Okay, now I'm inside of the bus terminal and standing at a payphone about to call my sister and let her know that I am at the bus station in Washington, DC. Now this I must say was a definitely serious situation that I had put myself in. For instance, I had $200, my bus ticket cost around $75, plus food. I arrived in Washington, DC, without knowing whether or not my sister was going to allow me to come and stay with her until I got a job and got my own place. So I'm about to dial her number. I wonder if she's going to be glad that I'm in Washington and come pick me up and make me feel at home. I would hate to think that she would be disappointed in me, because of the fact that I refused to allow myself to ask her permission before leaving Rock Hill.

So I called her, and she answered the telephone, then I mentioned where I was, and at first, she didn't believe it. Then I continued to say that I really was in Washington, and she became slightly disappointed. But not totally because she actually allowed me to say what I had