Oh Momma

“Johnny Pichette! If your momma knew you talked like that, she’d pour liquid soap down your throat!” Lilly said as she gracefully stood up on the edge of the pool deck.

Lilly walked to get her towel that sat on the lounge chair, when she got up her shadows moved with her. When I say shadows, I’m referring to her two best friends. Every move Lilly made they were sure to follow. Lilly dried one leg and then the other, she shook her towel, fluffed it, then laid it on the lounge chair moving it in just the right position for the sun. Her shadows did the exactly the same. Johnny tossed a football across the water to his friends, but hoisted himself out of the pool, there was hardly a moment that he wasn’t distracted by Lilly.

He walked over to Lilly who was now contently bathing in sunrays. Then he shook his head and body like a wet dog right over Lilly and her shadows. Lilly abruptly sat up guarding her hair and began yelling,

“Johnny! Jaaaw -nee-y!” with several huffs and sighs, she then started laughing…. “You’re rotten Johnny Pichette, just rotten!”

Lilly stood up and put her arms around his neck. They giggled, then she pushed him away trying not to create attention from their public display of affectionate. He grabbed his shirt and made one more attempt of flirting by swatting her bottom with it before she sat down to gathering more sunrays.

“Get outta here!” Lilly said with a smile on her face, “Just get outta here!” she repeated.

There was no wondering why or what Johnny saw in Lilly, everything about Lilly was perfect. She situated herself in her chair, pulled her long dark hair up to a high ponytail, and put on her sunglasses. She leaned back and positioned her legs in that Barbie pose where one leg is slightly bent and the other is perfectly straight from hip to toe. She was tall and curvy with big boobs, but she didn’t flaunt them like the other girls with big ones. Her skin was like velvet and her hair was silky and dark and was every girl’s envy. All the girls wore their hair short with bangs, but not Lilly, it was all one length and touched her butt. She wore it in a bun when only schoolteachers wore it in a bun, but Lilly could pull it off. I have long hair too and I would not dream of wearing it in a bun.

I sat in the shade watching everyone, and I especially liked watching Lilly and Johnny. Not in a weird way. It’s just that Lilly was so perfect, so opposite of me. I glanced at Lilly then took a review of myself. Looking down at my short white legs, my ragged shorts, and jagged unpolished toenails, yuck I thought. I looked back up at Lilly and thought, watching her and Johnny was like watching a movie. My own personal movie they had no idea they were creating. I watched others too! I watched the shenanigans of young boys wrestling with their friends, and young girls trying to catch the eyes of those young boys. Listening to mommas tell their kids they have five more minutes of play time and hearing all the babies crying because they’ve had their fill of fun. These summer days at the pool were my escape.

I was usually the first one to get to the pool on a Saturday morning, and I always grabbed the spot under the tree. I was usually alone except for the occasional and annoying drop by from my older sister, Anne. Being a new kid on the block during the summer didn’t allow me to meet new friends as easily as I would if I was in school. However, this whole summer, sitting here every day, allowed me to get to know a lot of people even if I hadn’t meet them yet.

I rolled up my shorts and put my flip flops back on my feet. I stood up and began walking out of the grass to the concrete sidewalk that led to the shallow end of the pool. I only go thigh high in the water, on the first step, to cool off. Its not that I didn’t like to swim but I didn’t own a bathing suit. And my momma would kill me if I got my shorts or my clothes wet. As I walked to the concrete, I heard my name:

“Marla? Marla, honey is that you?” a woman walking by the chain link fence, which kept the pool separate from the neighborhood, was calling me.

“Yes.” I said, “Oh yes! Hello Mrs. O’Connell, how are you?” I took a few steps her direction with my eyes over my brow for shade. Mrs. O’Connell was the drug store owner’s wife, that’s where momma worked with Mr. O’Connell.

“Sweetie, I just spoke to your momma she wanted me to tell you to get home right away she has a very exciting surprise!”

“Really? What is it?” I wasn’t enthused. I loved Momma, but what excites Momma usually has the opposite reaction for my sister and me. I continued,

“But Momma’s at work – right?” I continued, “I’ll see her when she gets home, Thank you Mrs. O’Connell.”

“No, now… well yes! She is still at work but…” Mrs. O’Connell came closer to the fence and put her fingers in the square shaped wholes, “You just get home. Be sure to get home now. You and your sister.” She stepped back, “She’ll be wantin’ ya home, both ya!”

I watched her walk away with her finger pointing in the air and mumbling like she was still talking to me; it was so strange. If she knew Momma, she would understand that Momma thinks everything is exciting. That’s how we ended up here, according to Momma, it was the exciting new place to be! She packed up everything we could fit in our car and we moved across three states. She always says a friend will send us the rest of our stuff but that never happens. One day after school she told me and my sister to stay with a neighbor we barely knew because she had an exciting surprise for us! When she called us home, we were told to close our eyes when walking through the house, to discover she painted our bedroom bright green and sold our beds. She replaced our beds with hammocks that anchored from the ceiling. The next morning when we walked to school, our bedroom looked like a neon sign as we stared at it from across the street. So no thank you Mrs. O’Connell, I will stay right here until momma gets home and we can reveal the priceless surprise!

I stepped out of the pool and walked my dripping wet legs back to my blanket under the tree. I sat down and grabbed my tote filled up with all my essentials. I pulled out my little black notebook and my pencil. This notebook was labeled Savannah GA. I had several black notebooks, and each one with a different title of where we lived or what we did. Each book was my imagination being someone else. The “Savannah GA” notebook, I was Lilly. I rolled to my tummy, and I flipped past a few pages deciding where I was going to correct or enhance my story. I giggled at some of the clever things I wrote and tapped the pencil to the page daydreaming of what it would be like to be Lilly. The hottest boy in school likes me… my thoughts became fluffy clouds above my head.

“Hey Dork!” a voice came up behind me along with a swift kick to my butt. It was my sister Anne.

“Whatcha doin’?” she said, “daydreaming about your girl crush”’ she laughed and tried to take my notebook from my hands.

“Its not a girl crush!” I said, “You’re so mean! You have no idea what I do!”

“Oh yes I do! ha… ha… you write about your little lovers in your book and daydream about being them. You’re a freak!” She stooped down and got me, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell, your secret’s safe with me!”

“Have you been smoking?” I said, “You smell terrible!” She stood up quickly as if moving fast would protect her from my knowledge.

“Come on twerp!” tapping my knee with her foot gently, “You heard Momma wants us home?” Anne gave me a look of grief as she helped me fold my blanket and stuff it in my tote.

“Ya, Mrs. O’Connell got ahold of you too?” I said, as we began walking up to the pool gate to let us out.

While at the gate, I saw Lilly walking toward us then she began to wave, her shadows weren’t with her.

“Hey there.” she said. I turned to look behind me as if there was not way she could be talking to me.

“Hi, I’m Lilly” she was two feet in front of me, “I notice you sitting all alone every day by the tree and I thought how sad to be alone all the time. I thought I’d extend an invite, maybe you would like to join me and my friends next Saturday?” she smiled. It seemed like she smiled for such a long time because I couldn’t muster up the ability to say yes, or hello, or anything.

Anne put her had on my shoulder, “She would love too, wouldn’t you Marla?”

“Oh, Marla is your name? What a pretty name.”

“Yes” I said.

“Yes, your name is Marla or Yes You’ll join me next Saturday?” she was giggling but still remaining sweet.

“Well both” I giggled with awkwardness, “I would like to hang out Saturday with you, and Yes my name is Lilly….I mean Marla!” I quickly corrected myself. I was so embarrassed.

“Great Marla, I’m bringing snacks and cokes. Can’t wait for everyone to meet you” she started walking away,

“Next Saturday then….” I said.

Anne put her hand on my neck and steered me in the direction of home.

“How are you the smart one?” she said and laughed out loud.

While we walked home I couldn’t help but picture what it would be like sitting at the table with Lilly, being a friend, and meeting Johnny! Oh no! I don’t have a bathing suit, I thought, I’ll have to talk to Momma about that. Maybe she will buy me a new towel too. I was so excited about next Saturday nothing Momma could say could make me more excited. Anne could tell I was in my own world, though we had exchanged a few words on the way, she let me daydream until we got home.

Surprisingly, Momma was home when we opened the door.

“Girls! You are never gonna believe what happened today!” Momma ran up and hugged us both. “Look at this! Just look at it! These are three plane tickets to Boise Idaho!” she grabbed our hands and rushed us to our rooms.

“Momma what? wait!” both Anne and I were confused.

“I know! I Know! I haven’t even told you the best part.” Momma was bouncing off the walls, she could barely sit still “I won $20,000.00 on the radio station this morning! And I thought, this is it, yep! there is nothing keeping us here! We can start over in Boise, so I bought us tickets …first class tickets at that!”

“No Momma no!” I said, “Momma, I met new friends. Its just starting to feel like home…Why Momma why!” I was so upset. I looked at Anne, but she had the same look she always had. It was somewhere between disappointment and disgust.

It was that day, and that moment, I realized Momma’s surprises aren’t priceless! They always have some sort of price tag on them.