Entry #521199, added on 06-28-08 @ 7:42 pm EDT
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| Part One - Chapter Three: I'll Always Be Your Friend | Entry #521199 |
Chapter Three
In the kitchen, Kathy took a spoon from a mixing bowl as she read from her recipe book, a birthday gift from a nearby neighbor, Miss Lexey, a big, jovial woman who loved to cook. She brought us all kinds of cookies and pies.
Kathy leaned back over the bowl to taste her new creation. It smelled like cinnamon.
“What are you making?” I asked.
She smiled and almost danced over to me with the spoon and held it in front of my mouth. I tasted a sweet mixture of the cinnamon and another spice I didn’t recognize.
“Mmm. It’s good. What is it?”
“It’s cookie batter. I’m making gingerbread and cinnamon cookies for my favorite sister, so maybe she’ll dress up in different costumes for Halloween and trick-or-treat each door three or four times. More candy for all of us that way.” Kathy hugged me.
I laughed. “But I’m your only sister, and besides, I like trick-or-treating.”
Kathy’s hair, dark-brown and long, stretched to the middle of her back. I thought she was the prettiest girl I had ever seen and was proud we were sisters. Boys came to the door often to ask for her; we didn’t have a phone, no money for things like that. My brothers David and Les, Kathy, our mom and I lived in the apartment. It was small, nothing fancy, but clean.
As I got ready for school the next day, I couldn’t wait to get home and play with Benji again. I had thought about her as I went to sleep the night before. She was eight, the same as me, and small; but there was a toughness about her I liked.
However, it was two days before I got to see her again. I came home from school that day, ran to the kitchen, made a mustard sandwich and raced to the playground. Benji sat on the swings alone with her head down. I was happy to see her and ran to her, but slowed as I got closer. She was crying, her face red, swollen and bruised.
I sat on the swing next to her and asked, “Are you okay?”
She looked over at me. “My brother Brian is an asshole, I hate him.”
I didn’t know anything better to say, so I offered, “My brother will beat him up for you if you want him to.”
She stopped crying and chuckled.
“Do you want to come to my house?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Brian said I have to stay here; he’ll hit me again if I don’t.”
For a while, we watched some of the other kids play. I thought about how my brothers and sister fought sometimes. We argued with each other but usually made up quickly. Our motto was, “The fighting stays between us.” Let an outsider hurt one of us and they had to face the whole clan. Like me, Benji was the youngest in her family. I just assumed hers was the same as ours and she would be better soon.
By the next Saturday afternoon her face had healed. We played and laughed until I was forced to go home. I asked Mom if she could spend the night with us.
Mom folded her arms, curled her eyebrows and glanced back and forth between me and the kitchen window. She seemed so serious, I felt nervous for several moments; but then Mom smiled and said, “I guess it’s okay, but she needs to make sure her mom approves."
Benji ran home to ask permission. Our moms had never met, and I was afraid Benji’s Mom would say no. She didn’t. Benji’s sister Kay came to the door with her.
We had the best time telling ghost stories and playing board games. She stayed with us almost every Saturday after that.
I suggested once, “Benji, let’s stay at your house tonight.”
“My house is too boring, Lisa. I like yours better.” I didn’t care much, as long as we were together.
We were so close for the rest of the school year and most of the summer that followed. My whole family came to love her; she helped with chores and made us laugh.
On the Fourth of July, in 1974, the City of Fort Worth held its fireworks show in a park created along the Trinity River bottoms. The projects were less than three blocks from the levee that bordered the park. We sat in the swings that night with Kathy and David and watched the awesome display. Explosions resulting in falling fragments of multi-colored lights kept our faces skyward as particles of blue, green, red and gold drifted lazily to the river.
After the fireworks we went back to our apartment and played with Benji's dolls while David and Kathy sat outside and smoked.
“Lisa,” Benji whispered. “I know you don’t have a dolly, but I have two. I think this one likes you. See, she has dark hair and freckles just like you. Her name is Sarah, do you want her?”
I said, “Thank you, Benji. I’ve never had a doll like this before. Will your mom get mad?”
“She won’t care, she didn’t give them to me anyway. She never gives me anything. She's too busy.”
Kay often came over to tell Benji to go home on week nights during that summer. Kay, about the same age as David, had long blonde hair and a dark tan. She wore cut-off shorts a lot, and Les would get all weird when she came by.
I heard Kathy tell David, “Les has such a crush on Kay. I don’t think I've seen him act like that before.”
“He’s an idiot. She’s a bitch with a mean attitude. She doesn’t even know he's alive.”
Kathy laughed. “Well, I see you stare out the window every time she goes by. Maybe you’ve got the hots for her, too?”
“Shut up, Kathy. You think you know everything.” David glared at her.
I asked, “Kathy, what’s the ‘hots‘?”
David yanked Sarah out of my hand and threw her on the couch.
“Stay out of this.” He stalked out of the room.
Kathy put an arm around me. “Don’t worry about him baby, he’s in love and won’t even admit it.”
The next Saturday, Benji came to the back door; it was open. Kathy and I sat at the kitchen table. Saturday was wash day. We folded towels Kathy had brought in from the clotheslines out back.
Benji spoke rapidly, “Lisa, Kay said I can’t spend the night tonight, I have to get up and start Sunday school in the morning. Can you go with me? You can sleep over at my house and ride the church bus with us.”
I was so excited. I had never spent the night with anyone. I looked over at Kathy and asked, “Is it okay?”
Kathy pulled more towels from the basket on the floor. “I don’t know, Lisa. You have a lot of chores to do, and we haven’t talked to Mom about it. You know she has to work late on Saturdays.”
“It'll be okay; Mom’s always talking about church and how we need to go.”
I moved the folded towels from the table to the empty basket on the floor.
Kathy looked over to Benji. “Why can’t you just sleep here? Can’t you get ready from here and go?”
Benji leaned against the wall and said, “The church bus comes real early. My sister says it’s too hard for me to come home and get ready to go. I may miss the bus.”
Kathy, quiet for a moment, turned to me and said, “I guess it’s okay Lisa, but you need to finish your chores before you go so Mom won’t be upset.”
Kathy looked at Benji. “She’ll be over later when she's finished.”
Benji leaned over and hugged her. She said softly, “Thank you, Kathy.”
I cleaned the dirty dishes and picked up all the clutter in the living room. I was so elated; I did it in record time.
We didn’t have many clothes. I had one sundress with a stain on it, but I didn’t care. I felt like a big girl getting to spend the night away from home. I packed my bag, grabbed my black dress shoes and ran down the stairs to the living room.
“I’m ready, Kathy. Can I go now?”
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© Copyright 2008 L. A. Powell (UN: lisapowell at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
L. A. Powell has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.
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Content Rating Notice: Recommended for Readers 18 Years and Older Only
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