The wind blew hard as we sat in the car waiting for the
Junior High school bell to ring. Josephine and Maddy chit chatted about this and that in the backseat.
“So what do you like to eat for dinner?” I asked Josephine
“Spaghetti, um, I like…we went out for dinner last night.”
she said unenthusiastically.
“Oh? Where did you go?”
“To Mimi’s”
“Oh, that’s right that is your mothers favorite one isn’t
it”
She nodded plainly, as if in her head it wasn’t, she is
just forced to go.
“When I open the fridge there isn’t anything in it at
all.” She said it as if that is what she deals with every day. Like she was used to it. The thing is, it is what she
has to deal with every day. Along with
50% of the United States of America. Flashes of the film “A Place at The Table”
ran through my mind, Rosie happy to get sugary candy bars for their food box.
Gnawing tiny bites like a rabbit on the baby carrot stick
Maddy gave her, I watched her and wondered if she was milking the carrot
because she didn’t have anything to eat in the house and she was savoring every
tiny nibble of it so she could save the memory when she gets home.
“Look! I made a carrot toothbrush.” Holding the core of the baby carrot sticks
one on top of the other steadily, smiling, an empty smile.
She played with the cores; pretended they were
braces.
“Look, I have braces” she held it with both hands smiling with the core flat across her top front teeth.
“Look, I have braces” she held it with both hands smiling with the core flat across her top front teeth.
Smiling back, I wondered if she wanted braces because it was
a sign that her mother had money to afford them, if she could afford braces she’d
be eating too.
I heard the bell ring in the distance, wind still blowing
I wished I knew where she lived so I could driver her and her brother
home.
“I like your coat. Is it new?”
“It’s leather, we got it at..the thrift store. At a
department store it would have been fifty dollars and we got it for twenty.”
She went along saying “I got a purse with lots of pockets if we bought that in
a store it would have been twenty dollars but we got it for half off for ten.” Glancing out of the window, snow flew past
horizontal.
“Then great thing about leather is it is a great wind
breaker.”
She nodded hard.
The large buttons on the coat reminded me of my own
leather coat I have and NEVER wear.
Knowing when she will get out of the car she won’t bother to button it
up.
“Let’s play the touch game.” Grabbing the blanket and
Maddy tries to touch her as she shields herself with it. Squealing. I let them play as annoying squealing in the
car is, I sit watching the snow whiz by.
“Oh, there is my brother” struggling to untangle the blanket
wrapped underneath her shoes, Josephine adjusted the book bag strap and tugging on the
door, “bye!” Setting out and slamming the door with help of the wind she pushed
herself against the wind with her coat flapping wildly. She never bothered to stop to button the
nuisance large buttons. She endures the cold wind as she walks against it.
Turning around allowing the wind to push
her back as she leans into it, her arms out flapping, laughing. I hope she eats tonight, I thought.
