Minni Mae

minni mae

"OH MY God, it’s Laurie!”

The woman, around 60 or 65 came waddling over to me from the other side of the cul-de-sac, the house on to the right of Rachel’s.

I had just walked into Rain Street after the bus had dropped me off. Besides having the chance to talk to Kate, the bus ride was torture. The two kids sitting in front of me were making out the whole time, and it made me feel more awkward than I had all day, which was saying something. On top of this, a weird boy with long hair and a guitar was staring at me throughout the bus ride. When it was finally my stop, I could still feel his eyes on me as I practically tripped getting out of the bus, trying to go as fast as I could. Tomorrow, I’d rather walk those 5 miles. Coming towards me, Minni Mae was wearing a blazer with both sleeves rolled up, and hot pink capri’s. Her flip flops were worn and pale yellow, and she was so thin I could almost see through her.

She embraced me, and it felt like hugging a twig; I thought I’d snap her in half.

    “I haven’t seen you in eons! Come, come!” She grabbed me by the arms with her bony fingers, and wobbled me to her house. It was a smaller house, and by far the most cluttered of all five houses by the looks of the exterior. There were around ten chairs on the porch that I had counted, all of which were different, and more plants that I had time to take inventory.

Leading me up to the porch, I noticed a large scar right near her thumb on the hand that was leading me.

    “Sit, sit!” She motioned toward a puce green rocking chair with two bears stenciled on the back. Feeling it would be against my better judgement to refuse, I sat. She, however, sat in a long cushioned chair, and sipped some iced tea.

    “I knew you since you were in diapers, if you can believe it.” Her voice was rusty, and at the end of each sentence it sounded as if she needed another sip of her iced tea. “You’d run around my garden until your mother would call you to go back to Rachel’s. You were adorable! And you still are!”

The lines on her face moved from the corner of her eye down to her jowls, and her li[s were pointed and wrinkled. The hair on her head, fashioned in a loose bun, was so grey it was a light shade of blue, and I couldn’t help but notice her scar again as she picked up her iced tea.

    “Do you remember me, Laurie?” She asked.

    “Well-”

    “Oh, of course you don’t! You were so small! Listen to me, rambling on and on and you don’t even know who I am. I’m-”

    “Minni Mae, I remember.”

Her face turned from pale pink to a pink glow to match her outfit, and she put the iced tea down.

    “Well doesn’t that just make my day? A sweet, young girl like you remembering an old broad like me? You can call me Mae, dear.” Mae laughed, and a tried a bit too. “Well then again, what’s not to remember about me? I’m very memorable. That’s what I am requesting on my gravestone. Minni Mae Oliver: A Very Memorable Woman. How do you like it?”

    “It sounds like a good plan to me.” I said. I began to feel more comfortable with Mae, even though she was part of this awful neighborhood. She was the only one so far who know what I’ve been through that’s treating me like she’d treat everyone else.

    “I know you’re new in the neighborhod, Laurie, so I should fill you in, if you’ve got the time. Everything that happens in this neighborhood means nothing unless you know who they are. Even my children get updates every once in a while about these people. They used to live on that street over there,” She pointed out of the cul-de-sac and down a street I could barely see. “On Box Street. They moved a little while ago.” She cleared her throat, sipped her tea, and began again.

    “You see the house on the right? Mary Jenson. I tell you, damn fine cook. I’d like to believe I cook better than most people in this whole tri-state area, but I can’t even compete with this god forsaken neighborhood! This woman is Sandra Lee on steroids.” She threw her hands up in the air and spoke to the sky. “But, she cannot compete with my legendary chicken parmesan, God will tell you. I should make it for you one day, honey. I tell you, you’d love it. Everyone does. I force fed my chicken parm to a vegetarian once, and BAM!” She slapped her hands together. “She went poultry, just like that! Anyway, she’s a very nice woman. She’s around Rachel’s age, I believe, possibly a little older. She has a daughter, Jaqueline. Little Jacky. She grew up too fast. She’s around ten now, and almost cooks as good as her mother, if you can believe it!

Anywho, that house over there-” She jumped two houses to the left, painted a deep red and brown shingles. There was a large cage in the back where I could see dozens of chickens pecking around, along with a dog that was chained to his dog house.

    “Earl.” She said and frowned. “Now that... Is a strange man. He doesn’t talk much, only to his chickens, and his dog, Rupert. He names his chickens after endangered animals, like he’s trying to pretend if he named his chickens these animals the endangered ones would just start mass breeding or something.” She paused again, and looked to his backyard and chuckled a little bit.

    “This is a very chatty neighborhood, and this odd man is sitting out with his tigers and … pigs... Never one for animal awareness, I am. I remember once, he actually showed at our annual Christmas party, which we hold here, at my house. Oh boy, he stood by the eggnog all night, and when he did talk, it would be either to himself, or he attempted to shout over to his god.” she waved him off and continued to the last house. “Now there is an interesting couple. Chelsea and Jaimie. Always traveling together and bringing back expensive things from Europe, Asia, Africa... anywhere you can imagine. A part of me is so jealous of them for what they’ve seen and what they’ve done, but another part says shame on them for neglecting their own son. I think you’re going to school with him now, dear. Jaimie junior. Young Jaimie Maxwell. I know it’s your first day, but you might see him around. Good kid, good kid. Though, every once and a while he throws some wild parties down there, and if I was still the woman of good health and stamina that I was in the 60’s, I tell you I’d take my shot gun and-”

    “Mae!”

A woman with blonde hair was waving up at Mae. She had on a red sweater and blue jeans, which seemed to be stained by flour. She got out of her car which was parked on the curb, and started walking to her house. It was Mary Jenson, I guessed.

    “Good afternoon, Mary! Care to come up and have iced tea with Laurie and I?”

Mary squinted her eyes to see me, and then her eyes got wide again.

    “Laurie! Wow, I barely recognized you!” She walked in the opposite direction from her house, and made her way up Mae’s porch steps.

    “You’re so big! And beautiful! How old are you now, 18?”

    “No, I turned 17 about four months ago.”

Mary had this kind face, and it seemed like the smile was permanently plastered on her face like a Barbie doll’s.

    “Have a seat, Mary.” Mae insisted, and Mary took one adjacent to me.

I glanced nervously at Rachel’s house. I thought this day was over, but I keep gettin gsucked into things that I could really do without. I suddenly felt a headache coming on, and this cloud swept over me even though the sun shone brightly and warm on us.

    “Laurie just finished her first day of high school at Kingsford.”

Mary smiled and nodded at me approvingly, and I hoped to God that his wasn’t going to be one of those conversations where they just talk about me the whole time as if I weren’t sitting there.

    “How do you like it so far?” Mary asked, rocking in her chair a little.

I didn’t want to lie, but what else could I say? “It’s fine. Big school.”

    “I know.” Mary began. “I still don’t know why they’d decide to mush our students with Monroe’s. Their town is much larger than ours, and together we make this... supertown.”

    “Supertown.” Mae repeated and laughed.

I tried to laugh a little, but it sounded lame and forced.

The type of conversation I dreaded started up and seemed to last forever. They talked about how schooling is so important, blah blah blah, and how much I was going to love it here, blah blah blah. They even started reminiscing about when I used to visit and the memories they had o me. It couldn’t have been very many, but somehow they came up with around seven. And for some reason, I just sat there. I could have told them I had a ton of homework to do, or that I had something important to do in a short amount of time, but I just sat there in that teeny rocking chair, saying nothing.

    “Laurie,” Mae said, and jerked me out of my thoughts. “I thin I’ve kept you here a bit too long, dear. You too, Mary. I bet you have some baking to do?”

Mary got up from her rocking chair, pulling her purse over her shoulder.

    “Yes, actually. Jacky’s school is having a bake sale tomorrow. I’m making lemon tarts.”

Mae got up as well, and I mimicked.

    “Well, if those 10 year olds have stomachs similar to a bird’s, make sure to bring me some, doll.”

Mary nodded to Mae, and said to me, “Nice to see you again, Laurie. You’ll like it here.” ANd headed down the porch steps and to her own house.

    “Bye bye for now, Laurie.” Mae gave me another hug, and I tried not to hug her back so much.

I grabbed my bag and started towards Rachel’s before another word could be said.

Entering the house, I felt that pressing down on my lungs, the feeling you get when you know you’re about to cry. The house, though familiar was so alien, not a home. Not a home to come home to after a terrible day at school, not a bed to cuddle into and close your eyes and nap, and no mother to stroke my hair and tell me it’ll be alright. Then I remembered Rachel, and the way she does that. I wondered how she could remain so happy when a few months earlier, her sister, the girl she few up with, had died.

Then there she came, out of the hallway leading into the kitchen and into the foye.

    “Oh! I thought you would have come home a bit earlier? Did you get caught up or something?”

I glanced over to Mae’s house, and then saw a look on Rachel’s face that I haven’t really familiarized myself with yet.

    “Oh, honey. I’m sorry. I totally forgot she was looking for you after school! I should have been there to pull you out of that situation. I know you’re not ready for all that stuff just yet.”

I nodded, and started to head upstairs, but then she asked me, “How was your first day? Make any new friends?”

I thought, just wanting to be in my room, and said, “Not sure yet. We’ll see tomorrow.”

As I entered my room, I shoved my bag under my desk and pulled open the blinds. I was going to talk to Rachel about seeing my friends one weekend, but I was just so exhausted, and not alert or with enough energy to make a good argument for myself.

It was pretty clear what she thought about me going back to my hometown, though. The day before, we had a conversation about my father, and what it meant when he got ‘better’, whatever that means.

    “Laurie,” she had said. “For now, this is the best thing for you. Nobody knows when your father will be in a better condition to take care of you, but when that time comes, you will be the one to make the decision of if you go back or not. Don’t get me wrong, that decision is far from now, and you’ll have a lot of time to think about it. But you need to find a place to call your home. Not your house, your home. And I need for you to understand the difference.”

I was thinking that this conversation was totally unneeded, that I knew all of this and of course I would have to make a decision.

She continued. “And... also, Laurie... I think it’s also best for you if you don’t return to Richmond for a while. I know how your father will get. He loves you sweetheart, and if he sees you, he’s not going to want to let you go again... and he wont be ready.”

Even when I tell Rachel that I’ll only be going to Richmond to see my friends, I know she’ll be skeptical and not accepting of it. I’m not sure if she understands or not, how much I had left behind all of these unsaid things and then everything changed and I didn’t get a real chance to make better of it. But then, I remembered- she has. She was just telling me about her mother, and she died before she could tell her something. I should figure if she understands that feeling, she would understand the reason why I have to go back, just for a little while that is.

There was a knock at the door, and Rachel peeked her head though it.

    “I hope I’m not interrupting anything. I was just wondering what you wanted for dinner.”

I didn’t feel like eating, but I took this opportunity.

    “Rachel? Can I asked you something?”

She looked completely stunned. I haven’t exactly made a lot of effort to talk to her in the past few days I’ve been here, so this probably sounded weird.

    “Of course.”

I took my time to sit down on the bed, and quickly started to formulate my thoughts.

    “My best friend Kate from back home called me yesterday, and I... kind of realized how much I missed her.”

Rachel nodded slowly, like she was already accepting what I was asking.

    “And,” I continued. “I just feel like there are a lot of unsaid things that I left there with my friends... and I would really like to go see them.”

    “In Richmond?” She asked immediately.

    “Yes.”

Rachel then shook her head. “Laurie, you know how I feel about you going back.”

    “But he doesn’t even have to know! All I want to do is go over her house, which is nearly ten miles from ours- his.”

The sun shifted behind clouds, and the room sank in shadows for a few seconds, then it emerged again.

    “I’d feel a lot better if you wouldn’t.” She said at last.

Before I could feel dismayed at her unsatisfactory answer, she said, “But you know, they are all  more than welcome to come over here. I don’t have a problem with that, honey. I know you miss your friends. I would too.”

It wasn’t completely the same. I wanted to meet in Kate’s basement where we spent countless hours of our childhood playing dress up, and where I’d practically live on weekends in high school to sleepover and watch back to back of our favorite movies. I missed it, and my heart ached to be with my friends. But as I looked up at Rachel, I saw a look in her eyes I knew all too well in my mother. It was one of those that I knew that her mind was made up, and I’d just have to deal.

    “Okay.”

Honestly, I didn’t want my friends up here, but it was better than nothing. As Aunt Rachel left the room I imagined them here, being talked to death by Mae and forced to listen to awful pop music by Rachel.

I tried not to think too much about it, but then another unpleasant thought popped in my head.

I had another appointment with Joe the next day.