It was one of those rare weekends where each one of the girls weren't able to do something with eachother. Chaz, for instance, was helping her mother clean the entire house and map out their backyard remodeling she planned to do. Allie was hanging out with her dad because he actually wasn't working for a change. Trisha was busy doing schoolwork, house chores and preparing for church duties. Mae, on the other hand, was the only one who had absolutely nothing to do and, as a result, had to stay home because nobody else was available. These weekends didn't come around often, but when they did they sure were a bummer.
Mae was laying upside down on the couch in the living room, watching cartoons, when her mother stepped in front of her and looked down. "What are you still doing here?" she asked, "Aren't you and the girls getting together?" "Everyone is busy," Mae said, shoving a handful of crackers in her mouth and chewing, "gotta be alone." "Oh, well, that's a shame, I'm sorry," Juliet replied, sitting down on the couch next to her daughter and adding, "but you know, being alone isn't a bad thing. I mean, you of all people don't need to be told this, you're an introvert as it is. You could find lots of stuff to do by yourself other than watching TV." "I like TV," Mae said. "We all like TV, but surely there's something more constructive to spend your time doing," Juliet said. "I could watch TV in your bedroom," Mae said. "A change of location doesn't mean the activity suddenly gets better," Juliet said, chuckling, "um...what about coloring? We could do some coloring pages together? I could print some stuff out and we could sit on the floor and just color for a while?" Mae thought about this for a bit, then shrugged and said okay. Juliet patted her on the shoulder, then went to the home office to print some stuff out while Mae went and gathered her coloring utensils. When they both finally met back up in the living room and spread everything out on the floor, Mae realized how lucky she was to have a mom who genuinely wanted to spend time with her. Not every kid gets that, she knew, and she was thankful for it. Unlike Trisha. *** Trisha was sitting at her desk in her bedroom upstairs, trying to finish her homework, when her mother entered the room, carrying a laundry basket. Trisha turned to look at her, and her mother smiled at her then started taking the clothes from the basket, hanging them and putting them in the nearby closet while Trisha went back to work. "Have you decided what you're going to read during scripture class tomorrow?" her mother asked, and Trisha sighed. "No. I haven't. I'm kind of focused on homework right now," she replied. "Okay, well when you get a chance-" "I will." "...is something upsetting you?" Alice asked, looking at her daughter. Trisha set her pencil down and turned in her chair, adjusting her hair band and sighing. "I just...I know it's important, and I know homework is important, but this homework isn't due until next week and I can find something to read for class tomorrow morning, it isn't hard. I just don't like not getting to do things on the weekends. Every other kid gets to have fun, but I always feel like I'm stuck working on something and it isn't fair." "Well, that's life." "Yeah, when you're an adult! I'm not an adult!" Trisha remarked, sounding angry, surprising both herself and her mother with her tone as she continued, "I deserve to have things be easy and fun once in a while! Otherwise, maybe, I don't know...I'll grow up and not have any good memories of childhood. Do you have any good memories of your childhood?" Alice stopped, seated herself on the bed and thought. It dawned on her that, no, in fact she didn't. Her mother had done the same to her, and she'd hated her for it. Now here she was, doing the same thing to her own daughter, and her daughter was hating her for it. Alice sighed and shook her head. "You're right. You're absolutely right and I can't deny it," Alice said, "I've worked so hard to do the opposite of everything my mother did to me, and yet I feel like I'm just replaying her greatest hits. I try to let you have your own friends, I try to let you have your own interests and hobbies. The only thing I really ask of you is that you go to church with us because faith is so important to me. Faith was there to comfort me when my mother wasn't, and I guess I hope it could be the same thing for you. But I don't wanna be her. I don't want you to grow up to hate me." "I don't hate you mom, at all," Trisha said, "I'm sorry." "No, I'm sorry, you're...you're right, you're right. Go outside, go play with your sister for a bit. You can finish this stuff before bed or tomorrow or something," Alice said, "childhood is short, adulthood is too long. Make memories worth having while you can." Trisha stood up and walked to the bed, then sat down and hugged her mom, who happily hugged her back before watching Trisha go downstairs to gather her sister and go outside to play. Watching from the bedroom window as she continued to put away laundry, Alice felt like in some small way, she'd proven her own mother wrong, and that was more than enough of a win for her today. *** "How did you learn so much about remodeling?" Chaz asked her mother as they sat in the backyard, sipping tea and looking at the plans she'd come up with. "Well," Karen started, wiping her mouth on her sweater sleeve, "in college, I used to spend a lot of time with grandpa and he taught me how to build things. You know how grandpa is, very hands on, very do it yourself kind of guy. He built a ton of stuff when I was a kid. So I learned a lot of skills from him, but then..." She hesitated, then continued. "...when I met your father, he and I had the same interests," she said, "so for a while, we'd do the same things together, and one of those things was, surprisingly gardening and landscaping. He loved being able to create something out of nothing, a yard out of a pile of dirt. So between grandpa and him, I learned everything one needs to know in order to do this sort of project." Chaz smiled at this story. Her mother rarely spoke of her father, for good reason, but it was nice when she spoke of him well. She looked back at the plans her mother had drawn up and sighed. "Is this gonna be hard?" she asked. "Well, that's why I had kids, free labor," Karen said. "Hey!" Chaz said, the both of them laughing. "Is there anything you'd like to add to the yard?" Karen asked, and this surprised Chaz. She thought about it for a moment. They already had a hammock, a little playground set, what more could she ask for? The yard wasn't big enough for a pool, and that'd be too expensive and difficult anyway. Then a light went off in her head. "Bees!" she said, "I wanna raise bees!" "You wanna raise bees?" Karen asked, sounding shocked, "I can't even get you to clean your room and now suddenly you think you can look after an entire hive?" "Bees are cool, and they'll make honey for you!" "Sweetheart, I appreciate the earnest interest, but I don't think either one of us is capable of handling bees. Plus you need a bunch of equipment, and that's gonna cost a lot. I like the idea, I really do, and if we could genuinely do it I would, but...I just don't think its feasible, mostly financially more than anything else. This remodel is already costing me quite a bit." Chaz was, admittedly, disappointed, but she understood her mother was right. Bee keeping was an expensive hobby. She sighed and looked back at the plans. "Can we get a dog?" she asked. "That's a lot more feasible, yes," Karen said, laughing. *** Allie and her dad were sitting in the living room that evening, eating dinner that they'd cooked together. Homemade Mexican food, their favorite besides BBQ, and they were watching a game show of some kind. Her father sipped his beer, then leaned forward and took a bite from his burrito. "Do you think you could win on a game show?" Allie asked. "I'd never try." "Why not? You allergic to money or something?" Allie asked, making her dad laugh. "No, it's because the money you win on a game show is taxable, meaning a good percentage of your earnings go directly to the government. The only money that isn't really taxable is inheritances, but trust me, they'll find a way to get that too one of these days," he replied, "as fun as the idea is, it just isn't worth the financial headache that comes with the glory of winning Wheel of Fortune." Allie nodded. Her dad knew so much, and she was always learning something new from him. "What about me? I'm a kid, they can't tax a child," Allie said, genuinely believing she'd found a loophole. "Oh, you'd think that," her father replied, "but no, the money doesn't go to the child, it goes to the parent, you know, the one with the bank account who can cash it? Trust me Al, these things ain't worth the time and effort." "Well, what about the prizes they give away? They can tax money but they can't take half a jeep, right?" Allie asked, "someone from the government doesn't come and cut your new car in half and tow their part away, do they?" Her father lost it and started straight up cackling. Allie smiled and blushed. She loved that her father found her this funny, and she loved making him laugh. "No, I...I don't think they can do that," he finally said, holding back laughter, "jesus, Allie." Allie finished her dinner, then cuddled up to her dad and he stroked her hair until she fell asleep. After she was asleep, he carried her to her bed and tucked her in, then stood in the doorway of her bedroom and looked at her, tears in his eyes. He didn't have much. He'd lost most of what he'd ever had. But he had his daughter, and goddammit if that wasn't enough for him. *** "What'd you do this weekend?" Trisha asked Mae as they walked to school on Monday. "Colored with my mom and watched TV," Mae replied, "...I don't like the weekends where we can't hang out." "Yeah, they're weird," Trisha said, "Is that a bee in that jar?" Mae looked over to see Chaz, who had run up behind them, joining them and in fact holding a mason jar with a bee inside of it. "I'm gonna let him go, don't worry, I just think bees are cool," Chaz said. "Bees ARE cool actually," Mae said, "they have great colors. Black and yellow. Who'd have thought those would go so well together? Much better than Halloween's orange and black scheme." "Did you guys know the money you win on a game show is taxable?" Allie asked, now joining them as they approached the school. "Really?" Mae asked. "She's right," Trisha said, "My dad won money on a game show once and they took the majority of it. It's really not worth the effort." Each girl had had a different weekend, and each girl had come away with a different sense of appreciation for something they didn't have before. But being back together like this, Monday morning, was when they really knew just how much they meant to one another. Friendship was their biggest bond, and it would carry them throughout their school life, entangling them to one another until the end. Each girl was so very different, and yet those differences made up the whole of who they were as a group and why they liked eachother so much. You know what they say. It takes all kinds.
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FANNYPACK follows 4 girls - Chaz, Allie, Trisha and Mae - in the 90s as they deal with adolescence and friendship. Archives
December 2022
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