Anne of Green Fables

Anne needed a kitchen that looked nothing like the one she had growing up, and her desperation for this goal to become a reality had manifested into an all-consuming dream in adulthood. The kitchen had been a happy place for the family to come together at meal times, but in between meals, it was a planning station for the fall-backs regularly experienced due to Mama's inconsistencies and Papa's drinking problems. Finally, her wish was becoming a reality as she helped develop her new home she'd had built over the past year. Anne specified that she wanted a meal room and a place for company to sit and have tea and coffee, while the planning and the bills would be at her desk in the sitting room. Kitchens were places to create new and joyous food wonders, to have conversations with friends and laugh together over delicious tastes, and she firmly stuck to this outlook. The kitchen had to be perfect. It was the center of many potentially good memories to make in the future.

"A kitchen that my guests will talk about when they leave," Anne instructed her assistant as they walked the unfinished room of her new home. "I want original artwork, Mama actually had it right when she said you want something a thousand other folks aren't going to have. I'd like homemade, raw, modern art. I want ants and grasshoppers as my theme, no budging on that."

"Ants? Grasshoppers? Not gonna find much in the way of decor, Anne."

"Well, that's where you'll look for artists to commission, Ben. I want uniqueness, but I want uplifting. The color green is my favorite, always has been, but other colors will do fine. I'd just like to see green in here."

"There'll be green grasshoppers."

"Of course. Whatever accents that can happen in shades of green will be fantastic as well. I want nature in this room, a connection to the outdoors, sticks and bugs both but with a home comfort my guests will appreciate." Anne paused. "Is this too much? Would you like someone to help you find commission artists, or to search for completed pieces to buy?" She threw Ben a concerned look.

"Nah, it's a little weird, but I get it. I have a few ideas in mind. Got a guy named Todd who can make just about anything, and he probably has some artsy friends who can help."

"Terrific. Please, whatever you do, no fruit."

"No fruit," Ben mumbled as he jotted the note down. "Can I ask why?"

She was trying to sneak into the kitchen, quiet as a predator on her hands and knees crawling her way to the doorway, hoping to scare Mama to death when she'd stopped at the sound of Mama sniffling. Mama never cried; she was the type to command the children to "suck it up, buttercup" and demand logic before emotions.

"It's just so much debt, Mick," Mama whispered into the corded phone, pulled as far as it could manage from the wall to the kitchen table, where the peeling wallpaper with various fruits was falling away from the walls from a half-ass job done by Papa while he'd had six too many. "We have too many cards maxed out. The house has to be sold. We're going to starve to death."

Anne had scooted back on her behind and hid in the sitting room, slinking behind an end table and listening as carefully as possible through small, heavy breaths of panic.

"No, I'm sorry. Maybe another time; I'm running late now and I hate that. Is there anything else you need from me before I leave?"

"No thanks, I'm gonna give Todd a call and see if he can work something up for me. He likes visuals so d'you mind if I send pictures of the room? Or bring him by to get an idea?"

"As long as you trust him, that's all that matters. Good luck, Ben, and thank you." Anne locked eyes with her assistant. "You're a valuable assistance to me, I hope you know that."

Ben smiled weakly. "Just doin' my job, Anne. Thanks, though."

Anne rushed off for more meetings with clients at her marketing firm while Ben contacted Todd, confirming a time to have him swing by and review what the kitchen looked like. By the time Todd arrived, Ben was sitting on the floor of the kitchen with his laptop open and several pages laying around him in a chaotic organizational method. Todd knocked at the front door and Ben yelled for him to come on in.

"Wow, great set-up, Ben, this looks efficient. New office?"

"Funny," Ben replied. "So, what do you think?"

Todd looked around and sighed, his dark eyes darting noticeably as he reviewed wall space. "I'm not an interior designer man, but she's got definite room to grow. Why not start with some simple pieces and have her add on slowly as the place grows with her?"

"She wants it all done at once. Very 'all or nothing' type of person, Anne." Ben shrugged. "Do you even have any ideas for anything with ants and grasshoppers?"

"Well, I'll be honest, it's a weird request. I don't think I've ever heard of a kitchen with bugs in it on purpose..."

Anne could be heard entering the front door from afar, and Ben brightened up. "Actually, that's her now! You can talk to the one in charge! Maybe that'll help you get some better ideas."

She entered her future meal room and stumbled slightly, her hand slapping itself dramatically over her chest as her red hair tousled further loose from the quick bun she'd pulled up to cool her neck.

"Ben! What are you doing?!"

"Hey, Anne, this is Todd!" Todd nodded at Anne who refused to look at him.

"You have to pick all of this up so we can plan in another room. Please."

Anne's voice shook, and Ben's eyes widened as he gathered his papers and laptop up. "Okay, sorry."

"Todd," Anne said suddenly. "It's nice to meet you. My apologies, I'm a bit uncomfortable using a kitchen to plan things. Can we speak in the sitting room? There are a few pieces of furniture at least. Ben, you can set up again in there, I'm sorry for my reaction..."

"No worries, let's just get started."

She chanced a look around the corner as Mama stood to pace the kitchen with the phone, watching Mama's furrowed brow be massaged viciously by her free hand. Mama walked around, commenting on money problems, throwing wild suggestions around about living with family or sending Anne and her brothers to their aunt's home.

"They can pick pears from the pear trees for her, Mick, you know how much she's always complaining about needing help. We have four people who can help. They'll earn their keep."

Todd, Ben, and Anne planned for two hours after they relocated to the sitting room. Anne and Todd threw suggestions between them, with remarks and helpful comments from Ben peppered in between. Within no time, they were talking like they'd been friends for years, and the strange energy of Anne's reactions had faded entirely. Sarcastic banter filled the sitting room with a positive energy that Anne loved.

"I know you said you're not an interior designer, but..."

"Oh, no. You can't ask me to come on in a bigger capacity. I have four kids at home waiting for Dad to come fix god-knows-what."

"Four kids?" Anne inquired. "By yourself?"

"Well, I can't say 'by myself' as I'm never really by myself at any point...ever. My youngest likes to follow me everywhere, and the other three follow me everywhere else." Todd smirked and shook his head. "I love those pains in the ass."

Anne smiled, enjoying hearing a father speak lovingly about his children with perhaps a slight undertone of realistic parenting woes.

"Do any of them work?"

"Nope," Todd chuckled. "The boys are old enough to do that but we do all right. I'm happier letting them enjoy their youth for now. Let the adults worry about adult things."

Pear trees and Aunt Jo's house? Earn their keep? What were they, disposable family members? Mindless worker bees?

Anne's heart clutched in her chest, her hiding spot no longer providing the peace and comfort she had felt before this. She was just a little girl, all of nine years old, trying to have some fun. What was Mama doing? Was Mama drinking now, too? Anne shouldn't have to work to live somewhere at this point. She wanted to be a happy kid with her brothers.

She laid a hand over her chest, trying to calm her breathing. At least her brothers weren't hearing this.

"I need a fable," she whispered to herself.

"Now that's a life perspective I can get behind." Anne smiled widely at Todd.

"Really? Most people think I baby them."

"Really. Well, I'm happy with all of this. Gentlemen, if you're finished up here, you're free to head home. I do appreciate both of you." She pulled a crisp hundred dollar bill from her purse and handed it to Todd. "For your time today. Please, buy a good dinner for those kids. They sound like good little humans."

"Not sure about the 'little' part, but thank you, I appreciate this." Todd placed the bill into his wallet and nodded. "I'll give you a buzz here in a few days with some concept pieces and we'll go from there. Gonna snap a few pictures of the kitchen and head home. Take it easy." He headed into the kitchen, took the photos necessary, and left with a wave and a charming smile.

Anne released a breath she'd held in for several moments as Ben stood and packed his laptop bag.

"That was a little weird."

"What do you mean? Todd is perfectly professional and capable. Plus, he was your contact..."

"I mean you. No fruit, ants and grasshoppers, now I'm not allowed to take notes in the room we're working on?" Ben asked, pushing his black-rimmed glasses up his nose.

"I'm sorry, Ben. I feel like I'm saying that a lot today. I know I've always been more forthcoming than this. I promise, we will talk soon, I just need a bit of time."

"No worries. Maybe you need a fable." Ben slung his laptop bag over his shoulder with a lopsided grin.

"This one is good, but this isn't my Papa," Anne mumbled to herself, flipping through her book of Aesop's Fables. "There has to be one that makes me feel better."

Fables always made her calm. They were short, sweet, and morally superior to a lot of other books in very few paragraphs. She liked the idea of learning a lesson quickly. Mama always called her Anne of Green Fables as a joke, because she sought her fables book for understanding so often.

It wasn't long before the children were summoned to pack a few bags for a "short stay" with Aunt Jo, and before she knew it, three years of pear plucking with her brothers had passed. She read "The Bundle of Sticks" to them as a routine every night, to remind them that they had to stick together to get through such a strange time in life. Mama had sold the house anyway, Papa was in jail for hurting Mama when he drank, and Mama still couldn't keep her finances under control.

Anne grew with an understanding that she could never turn out the way her parents had, and found fables to cling to in times of need. The most important one to her, besides "The Bundle of Sticks," was this one:

Anne nodded in agreement.

"I planned on it."