*Tuscaloosa*
Fifteen missed calls and three texts away, Ava started her journey back home.
It was a Friday and school session had ended at 12pm, but she had been out shopping for her impetus because the cough syrup she prepared for her father was gone. Of course being allowed to go shopping alone hadn't come off easy. She had had to get her 'Papa' to beg her mother, swearing on her life that she wouldn't be out later than 6pm.
Exploring the new local seeds and herbs store on their street had taken so much of her time, and so she got home forty five minutes late. Of course it had also been an amazing experience for her.
However, It was not totally perfect because she struggled for hours on end to pick just three herbs that she needed, but every seed and oil and honey had caught her fancy, she had to resort to picking six varieties of each, three of which she knew might not even need. The sun was already down in the clouds when she arrived home, and it did not surprise her when she was met by a worried mom at their doorstep.
"Cherry" her voice was unusually small. "Welcome back. Did you find what you wanted?"
"Yes, thank you mam" Emma hugged her daughter from the back as they both wobbled in, with Emma locking the door firmly behind them.
Something was definitely off. The fact that she didn't ask what took her so long- it was odd.
"What took you so long, cherry?" That was Papa talking and when she turned sharply around, her eyes settled on his figure resting in his chair in a corner of the room and sipping his tea- the one Mam made for him every evening.
"Papa" Ava walked towards him swiftly to sit on his thighs, and she tripped, but for Emma's timely intervention, she would have poured his coffee all over herself.
"Careful, careful" he belched. Emma went inside and left them there.
"Come, sit on my thigh now. Walk slowly, okay? I am not running away" he said, sipping at his mug. Ava half laughed. That was a dark humor which he hadn't even intended to make. She knew he wasn't 'running' away yet oddly, she felt him slipping from her hands as the days rolled by.
"I'm just surprised you're here in the living room. Did mam help you down here?" She quizzed even though she knew what his answer would be.
"The heavens helped her roll me down here. I needed fresh air, you know" he smiled and Ava noticed his teeth looked better but she refrained from asking if he could brush his teeth by himself now or it was his wife who helped him.
Not every question is to be asked, especially when you have the answer right in your purse.
"How did shopping go?" He asked, looking deeply into his only daughter's eyes. He looked fine, well, still young but just not agile because he was confined to a wheelchair. She remembered how he usually woke up first everyday, dressed before anyone else woke up, and shouted that he was off to work, and Emma would tease him saying he should wait for breakfast to get ready and that he was getting lean because he forgot to eat breakfast all the time, and he would yell back saying that a time would come that he wouldn't be able to work.
"Let me work now, because a time will come when I'll be so old and frail and unable to do anything on my own. I can eat later" he would say to his wife.
Ava looked away quickly because the tears were starting to gather in her eyes. Emma was in the hallway, she could tell, and it seemed that she was getting emotional in there too.
"Are you okay, cherry?" He asked, cutting through her thoughts.
Ava stared intently at the hallway expecting her mother to appear so that she wouldn't have to answer the question he asked.
"Are you worried about your mom getting mad at you? Trust me, she's not mad at you. She's just so worried, I can tell" he followed her eyes, smiling. Ava was forced to return his smile, and thankfully, her mother appeared in the living room again that minute, this time carrying a glass of water which she handed over to her.
She waited to be chastised for spending 45 minutes extra outside, but Emma was quiet.
Something was either off or up.
"Ava," she began. Whenever Emma called her first name, then she was either disappointed in her or very upset. "I'm not against you keeping friends neither am I training you to be a loner. It's not a good thing to be a loner" her voice was serene but it gave Ava the shivers instead of relaxing her.
Weirdly and for no reason, she prefered her mother who yelled all the time.
"I want you to be safe, with or without friends. We, your parents are enough friends for you. If you want to play, we can take you to your cousins or grandparents or talk to your teachers at school or maybe a few innocent girls"
Ava already knew where the conversation was going.
"Edith is no good for you" Emma dropped the bombshell and she was caught between either correcting her mom that his name was 'Ethan' or telling her that she was too exhausted to be interested in that kind of conversation. None of that made sense at that moment. So, she kept quiet and just listened.
"You are too young to know what love is. Besides, there's nothing called love here. It only lives in this family and in our hearts. It's rarely anywhere on this street" she affirmed.
"Edith won't do you any good. You have to drop your friendship with him and think about life after graduation"
"He could be anything you don't know- A serial killer, a rapist, or simply a bad egg never mind that he looks so young. You know how boys of Tuscaloosa are. I don't want you near him anymore" the tempo of her voice was starting to quadruple.
Ava was not having it anymore. She wanted to tell her mother for the umpteenth time that her boyfriend was not from Tuscaloosa and that he growing up on the streets had not been his fault, and it didn't mean that he was a bad boy. But it was better to shut up when you're being scolded by a disciplinarian.
"I've heard you, mam" she said and got up quickly. "Goodnight papa" she said, kissing him on the face and then she walked out on both of them without waiting to see their reaction.
She made sure the lock was firmly secured behind her as soon as she entered her room. Then, she sat on her bed and held her head in her hands.
How can any of you understand what I feel? I might be young but I do know what love is. Love is caring about someone and wanting to protect him from harm, even if it means touching fire to get that done. Love is going out of your way for someone. Love is being there to hug someone when they are sad and dejected. Love is praying for another person selflessly . It is giving the only piece of your heart left to someone else and It is what I feel towards Ethan. And we are not wasting time doing this. We both are planning to stick to each other forever.
Didn't mam and papa meet in high school like us?
She thought. All that was in her head was punching Benita on her large forehead, the woman next-door who did no other thing than gossip about young girls' whereabouts with their mothers. She was sure this was her handiwork. She stopped to hear her mother's voice downstairs. She was ranting about not raising a rude child, and giving threats about grounding her one more time.
She was going to apologize tomorrow, against her wish but for now, she had to rest and feel better. She needed a phone call that would make her feel better, and fortunately, her phone buzzed twenty minutes later, but it was only a text -from him.
A fucking beautiful text.
"Would you mind a date tomorrow? Just me and you at the beach discussing life" (✷‿✷)｡◕‿◕｡(◕ᴗ◕✿). He surely had no idea how timely his text was.
Her face lit up in a smile and she typed back quickly.
"No, love. I really won't mind"
*********************************
I have always known that I am not a regular girl.
She was surprised to find that on the top of her doorpost the next morning. She was trying to kill a roach that had managed to scurry past her and that was when she found those words faintly written on the wall on her doorpost.
It must have been there for years , probably written by a girl from the first family that lived in that house, and Ava wondered what made her not notice it at all. Not even once!
Perhaps because it was too high and too faint to read while standing on the floor.
"Well, that makes two of us" she bit her tongue and shook her head. She wished she could find whoever wrote that and ask her what she meant by those words, and especially because she felt the same way as well.
'Woah, I'm not regular at all. Let'see" She packed her hair into a ponytail and stared at the mirror on her dresser. "I see a guy often in my dream who might not even exist in real life at all. I can picture his face right now. Pointed nose, little brown eyes, dark hair, chiseled jaw...hmmm" Ava shut her eyes remembering his touch on her shoulders and how he cleaned her tears.
"Well, I also trip and fall sometimes because my legs are awkward, you wouldn't know..Look how fine they are" Ava giggled, stretching her fine legs in the air. The glimpse of the shining sun permeated the tiny space between her curtains and drew a pole on the floor of her room. It was not sunny outside. You wouldn't call it sunny because the sun was just very mild and pretty.
"I lose people I clinge to. Now that sounds too easy. It's not a good thing at all. I must avoid clinging to anyone I love so much now. What other irregularities do I have? Phew!" Ava sat on her bed soliloquizing and sighing in betweens.
"That girl probably could turn day into night by flicking her fingers" she thought. "Or maybe mine is worse, I don't know"
Her head was banging hard but when she realized it was not going to be a boring Saturday afterall, her cheeks turned pink. She was going on a date with Ethan, and it was going to be at the beach- one of her favorite places. She remembered sleeping so peacefully well last night despite her quarrel with Emma.
All of a sudden, a frown appeared on her face again. She remembered last night like it was a dream- her parents hadn't been too happy with her, and since she would need their permission to go out on a Saturday, she had to make peace with them, and soon as possible.
She was sure to get Ethan's call in less than an hour's time. So, she plugged her phone into her pockets and hurriedly ran to the bathroom to wash her face and mouth. It wouldn't be too nice appearing unkempt before her parents in the morning.
Still in her pajamas and without pre-planning a manner of approach, she opened her door slowly.
She was going to fake an apology to them, even if it meant shedding crocodile tears and kneeling before them. Not on her nelly would she allow anyone stop her from going to that date with her boyfriend.