Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I’m Pink Lady Apple Yeggs and my friend, and brother-in-law, Deviled Yeggs suggested that I record each project that I set up in the hopes of reforming the people who continue to work for Lily the Pink Enterprises.  If for no other reason, it would show how God is at work.

Blaise Yeggs has been in my office for counseling.  He has been in Rev. Joseph Jones’ counseling sessions a lot more often.  Blaise’s girlfriend, Marguerite Justice, says she is afraid of me, but I don’t mind them preferring Joseph to me.  But he was put in a strange situation when a friend confided in him.  And after he did all he could do, he guided them to Rev. Joseph and myself.  I think Blaise is going to be an okay kid.  His Aunt Tensie would be proud.

This is a first-person Blaise report.  The details may not be accurate because he never thought this would end up with therapy sessions.

I (Blaise Yeggs) was teamed with Todd Kingsley for the first Physics lab after Spring Break.  And to make things clear, we are seniors in high school.  He just turned eighteen a few weeks ago and I won’t be fifteen until October.  But we are both seniors in high school, and he came to me for advice and a tale that sounded like a college Spring Break that went wrong or fantastically right, depending on your point of view.

Todd asked, “Are you ready for this experiment?  I mean, this covers what we studied before the break.”

I shrugged, “I was in my lab and Marguerite and I were talking about what the lab experiment might be, and we dreamed up what the teacher has assigned, almost exactly.  So, yeah, we can breeze through this.”

Todd said, “I knew you were some kind of a boy genius, but I did not know that you had a lab of your own.  What do you do?  Are you like the labs in the movies, designing your personal dream girl?”

I snarled, “No, Margie is my dream girl.  I’m too young to pop the question, but she is my one and only.”

Todd suggested, “You said ‘only’ so you must have done the deed.”

I huffed, “Listen, Todd, she is my one and only for the future.  We have the hots for each other.  Occasionally, we have to both take cold showers, but we refrain.”

Todd asked, “What if you don’t refrain?”

I replied, “We cross that bridge with a lot of prayer.  But what is eating you, and why all these questions?”

Todd whispered, “What have you heard about me?”

I shrugged, “I think you are an okay guy, but social media has you labeled as gay or gender confused.  I personally don’t think so, but I have no data to swing my opinion one way or the other.”

Todd said, “Well, I am not gay.  I guess having four girlfriends should change the tune of the cyber bullies.  But having four girlfriends is at least three too many.”

I asked, “Four girls that you are interested in?”

Todd said, “The other way around.  And they were all over me for the past two weeks.”

I sighed, “Sounds like a bad dream.  Are you sure they like you?”

Todd sneered, “Just because you have the star pitcher on the undefeated softball team, a loser like me cannot have four girls who have the hots for me?  And I slept with all four?  Okay, I did the deed with all four, but I actually slept with only three of them, so far.”

I asked, “And where were your parents all this time?”

Todd said, “Can we talk in a more private place?”

I asked Mr. Kellogg if we could go outside to discuss how we were going to set up the experiment.  He nodded.  Todd and I were both solidly in the top ten, not just the top ten percent.  We went to the grove area outside the classroom.  Mr. Kellogg could see us talking, but no one would hear what we were saying.

I asked, “Where are your parents and how did you go from zero girlfriends and practically no chance at getting one to having four?”

Todd said, “My Dad got a job in Oregon.  Really, it was a downgrade due to the Tracy facility being closed down, but he still has a job at a sister plant.  Mom went with him.  She has family out there and an old maiden aunt is letting them live with her, knowing that Dad’s cut in pay and the higher cost of living would mean they would not have a chance at buying a house.”

Todd continued, “They wanted me to finish school here.  I moved in with my Grandma when I left at lunchtime the Friday before Spring Break.  My Grandma has an old house west of here, still in Tracy, but in an old neighborhood, old houses.  It’s called Pawnee Heights.  Grandma let me move into an apartment that she had attached to the back of her house.  One door that I could lock or she could lock if we wanted privacy.  I thought that was nice.  I knew I would have to look for a job, and maybe I could take classes at night.  Maybe I could get some scholarship money, but all the paperwork for those things is based on what Dad made last year, when he had a better job.  His income last year would make me unqualified for all the hardship scholarships and grants.”

I did not say anything, but Aunt Pink might be able to give him a better loan than the college could.

I asked, “So, when did the girls show up?”

Todd said, “That Friday night.  Grandma set the entire thing up.  One girl had told her years ago that she had a crush on me and that I did not know she existed.”

I asked, “Who is that?”

Todd said, “Patty McCormick.”

I asked, “Snaggletooth McCormick with the coke bottle glasses?”

Todd nodded.  “People have not noticed.  Patty has been using those invisible plastic things you snap onto your teeth to straighten them out.  She has two jobs since an employer cannot give someone under eighteen more than 20 hours per week.  She works 32 hours a week counting the two jobs, and she is still on the honor role.  She says that she wants to have perfect teeth by the prom and she’ll go blind if she can’t get contacts.  But take the glasses off, and she is beautiful, just a couple of teeth not perfect yet.  No snaggletooth anymore.  And since she just has a mother, Patty has worked for the money to get her teeth fixed entirely on her own.  But time is running out for her to make the money for the contacts.  No money for the prom dress either.  I have no money to help her, but she is only one of the four.”

I asked, “Yeah, how do you go from having one girl with a crush to four girls?”

Todd said, “Pawnee Heights is kind of run down.  On Grandma’s block there are four girls, three seniors and one junior at Flintheart.  All of them, like me, have been bullied on social media.  They have called themselves the Forlorn Four.  They have collaborated with an idea for a comic book superhero team.  But all the girls want to be the fly on the wall, the invisible person that no one notices.  Mainly because that is how all four girls have felt.  All four have told their story to Grandma.  Grandma is the friendliest woman I know, very welcoming, and each of the girls opened up to her.  When I moved in, Grandma said that she had four visitors coming over.  I thought they were coming to see her.  I shrugged and thought she was going to lock the adjoining door, but she said the visitors were coming to welcome me to the block.  Now there were five high school students on the block.”

I asked, “Who are the other three?  They must have a story if there is fodder for the social media trolls out there.”

Todd nodded, “Yeah, Anna Voss is the chubby German girl.  She isn’t fat, well not obese.  But I can see how she has fuller hips and waste and large hooters.  But to be honest, you would have to look for something wrong with her.  Her father was transferred here a few years ago from Germany and he works for one of those engineering companies that lays you off when there is no work.  Every time he is about to lose the green card, they hire him back for a while.  But then there is the volleyball player, Marika Lazarus.”

I asked, “I heard she was possibly not even a girl?”

Todd said, “Those are vicious lies.  She is extremely dark, which is off-putting.  She has a long torso, but Rihanna has a long torso, and Rihanna’s hot.  Marika had a skin problem, and she shaved her head.  But Marika is a refugee from western Africa.  She is a Christian who escaped persecution.  But the rumors that have been started are that she is a futanari or a shemale.”

I asked, “What does that mean?”

Todd said, “I don’t know what you believe to be the case, but a Futanari is someone with full male and full female body parts.  You can find it in Japanese anime, the naughty stuff.  Thus, the name.  That is fantasy.  But usually shemale is a derogatory name for someone transitioning from male to female, a person with a Y-chromosome and enough female hormones to have breasts.  But the volleyball team has seen her take a shower and that does not change the rumors.”

I sighed, “Okay, I know nothing about what you just said, but there’s one more.”

Todd nodded, “The junior in the Forlorn Four.  Susana Pequeño.  Susana came here with her parents a couple of years ago.  Like Anna, her father has struggled to keep a job, and Susana was held back due to not knowing the language.  Then, she didn’t know the culture.  She had never lived in a big town, much less the outskirts of Tracy, and Flintheart is not forgiving in that regard.  She had the option of going to the smaller high school on County Line Road, but her parents wanted the best for her.  It worked.  She is really smart, but the dummy label stuck with the cyber bullies.  She should be a senior, but as a junior, she is nearly a straight ‘A’ student.  And she is the artist.  The comic book is mostly written by Patty and Anna, but the artist is Susana.  Marika has the best penmanship, so she does all the printing.”

I nodded, “So, four misunderstood and abused girls, at least on social media, now how did you get to bed with any of them.”

Todd said, “I need to tell you something about Grandma that I did not know until the six of us were all in my apartment, with plenty of refreshments for a welcome party.  No drugs, no wacky weed, no alcohol.  But plenty of sweets, plenty of salty stuff, a relish tray and plenty of soft drinks.  Grandma may have never told my Dad, but she had been a Hippie.  She thumbed her way across the country.  She slept with any guy she could if he would take her to some place or got her something she needed.  When she was in a commune, she went from one guy to another.  Then she and this guy became Christians in California, and they decided to get married.  Just like that.  Sleeping around to monogamous overnight.  Soon Dad came along and they bought the house where she and I now live.  The apartment was built for Dad to start his family.  He got a good job and moved to the house where I grew up before I was born, and I was all they ever had.  And one reason they left me behind was that they thought I was gay.  So, Grandma knew I was shy and a wallflower.  I didn’t party hardly at all.  A bookworm.  She knew Patty liked me, and besides thinking weird things about Marika, the other three are portrayed as lesbians on social media.  The four hang out because all they have are each other.  She had already talked to the girls, and all five of them felt that doing the deed was what they had to do to convince themselves that the cyber bullies weren’t right and they had not noticed.”

I asked, “So, did you sleep with one at a time, all four together?  Whatever you did, it had to get messy.”

Todd sighed, “One at a time, but the other girls watched.  They did not join in.  They did not kiss each other.  None of them joined us in bed.  Grandma watched and made suggestions, since there were five virgins in the room and Grandma.  Patty was first.  Then when I felt like going again, Anna.  Then, I was spent.  Marika slept next to me and the other three slept in the adjoining bedroom.  When I woke up the next morning, Marika was ready.  Then Susana before lunch.”

I let out a deep breath that I did not know I was holding.  “Other than each of you are social pariah at school, any guy would have a fantasy like that and love it.  Four girls in less than 24 hours.  But how do I know all this is not fantasy?”

That’s when he showed me the pictures on his phone.  Then I noticed that the dates of the pictures were from that Friday night until the night before he showed me the pictures.

I asked, “How could you keep this up?  Didn’t the girls go home?”

Todd said, “The parents were told that they were all at Patty’s house and they were working on their comic book.  They did not want to be disturbed.  Patty’s Mom knew where they really were and she would cover for them.  And I think all the parents, except Patty’s Mom, think that the girls are lesbians too.  They spend all their waking hours together.  Maybe the parents loved the idea that the girls were not getting into trouble.  And before you ask, they have protection.  Their parents paid for it, hoping the girls would find a boy.  But Blaise, Patty is crazy about me.  The other girls just use me to feel like a normal girl, someone that is loved and treated like a woman.  I think I have a great chance with Patty, but if I don’t keep up with the other three, Patty will be upset.  They are a team, but when do teammates start getting jealous?”

I nodded, “That’s the first thing that you have said that makes sense.  This has got to end, but only if the other three girls have some alternative.  They are not going to find it at Flintheart.  The lies have been believed by too many people for too long.  I have an idea.  Can you go to Lily the Pink with me after school?  Get on the Pink bus.  I’ll have the driver save you a seat.  I will arrange for someone to take you home after we meet with my brother and sister-in-law.”

Todd cleared it with his Grandma and Patty.  Two of the girls would be in his apartment, working on their comic book.  The other two would be working.  All they knew was that Todd had to work with me on a Physics lab.

We found Jemima in the apartment, playing with Stormie.  She called Easter and he came up to the apartment.

Easy came in the door asking, “Should I have gotten flavored popcorn?”

Jemi shook her head.  “Look around you.  Other than Stormie and me, the guys outnumber the girls.  This is not a girl talk with you interrupting with popcorn.  In fact, your brother and his friend want to ask you a favor.”

I got Todd to give the backstory.  Then, I asked, “He wants to decide on just one.  He thinks that should be Patty, since she has had a crush on him ever since he was a toddler, playing in his Grandma’s yard.  But after they have become familiar with each other, she may not like him that much now.  There is the story of Amnon and Absalom’s sister Tamar.  Amnon was infatuated with Tamar until he raped her.  Now, with her no longer being a virgin, he hated her.  But barring something like that, we need to find substitutes for Anna, Marika, and Susana without it looking like we are setting them up on blind dates.  If they get wind that Todd is dumping them, then they will be hurt.  Then her soulmates being hurt would hurt Patty.  But regardless, Todd has to slow down the bedroom gymnastics.  Especially starting tonight since two of the ladies work, Patty having two jobs and Anna working tonight.  If the ones who are left at home have their way with Todd, he might be too tired when the next one in the rotation gets home.  And that is just one of hundreds of ways for jealousy to creep into the fivesome.”

Jemi was nearly laughing before I finished.  She asked, “Easy, Sweetie, do you know anyone?”

Easy shrugged, “These girls are high school seniors and one junior.  I guess university freshmen would be okay.  They would not be tainted by cyber bullying, but I am about to graduate.  I don’t know anyone that is looking for romance that is a college freshman.  I take no classes with any freshmen.”

Jemi huffed, “Easter Yeggs, child of God, you have three that are here at Lily the Pink two or three days a week, working on the Turtle, all day Saturday if the Turtle is out on a storm chase during the week.”

Easy shrugged, “The only freshmen that meet that description are the grease monkeys, but I have no idea if they are looking for romance.”

Jemi groaned, “All these engineers!  You know them extremely well because you know their skills at taking the Turtle apart and putting it back together.  You know which ones are qualified to weld.  You know what their GPA is and who their professors are, but you are clueless about what really matters.  I know what their passions are, what turns them on.”

Easy asked, “Have you turned them on?!”

“No!!” Jemi said, seeming a little hurt, “Let’s take the German girl who is overweight.  Bubba the body builder wants a girl with some curves he can hold onto.  He does not want the runway model who is underweight or the Miss America who is beautiful.  But if they desire to lose weight, and they do what he suggests, then he knows they can take action in the things that interest them.  So, they will be passionate in loving him when the time comes, and loving the children after that, and maybe getting back into shape quicker.”

Jemi held up two fingers, “Marika, the black girl who came to the states escaping persecution and maybe death due to converting to Christianity.  Luke is perfect.  He used to play with little black children when he was five or six.  When his family had to escape for their lives, he missed out on those friends that he thought were his best friends ever.  He might like that commonality with Marika.”

Jemi held up three fingers, but since there were only three grease monkeys, it had to be Trey, “Susana was held back due to having a hard time learning English.  Trey is a geography buff, and being a car buff, he has been obsessed with the Pan-American highway.  He is always talking about a waterfall along the route or a good fishing spot.  And he speaks fluent Spanish.  He might never have been there, but he probably knows something about the area from where Susana is from.  To make it casual, all three will be here Saturday working on the Turtle.  I guarantee you that if Todd comes in only holding Patty’s hand, those three guys will be attracted to the girl they have something passionate to talk about.  Now to create an innocent way of them meeting.”

Easy suggested, “We suggest to Aunt Pink that we have a little water slide day on Saturday afternoon.  The grease monkeys…  Please don’t call them that.  They came up with the name, but it is usually a derogatory name.  But the freshmen have to be on the dean’s list the first semester to be selected and meet other criteria.  So, they worked hard to become part of the grease monkey team.  They could be ready for the water slide after they are finished.  But for the meeting, Blaise can take them on a tour.  Do you think we can get Jos to give them the safety briefing and have them climb the Crystal Mountain?”

Todd asked, “Crystal Mountain?”

Easy said, “Bro!  When someone comes here, you at least show them the Crystal Mountain.  Oh, wait, he’s your lab partner in Physics, so you showed him your lab.  Okay, look at the Crystal Mountain before taking him back home.  Who is taking him?”

I said, “I asked Marguerite to drive us to his house.  There are hundreds of seniors at Flintheart, so we aren’t sure who he is talking about.  Marika and Susana will be at Grandma’s house when he gets there.  We will drop him off and say, ‘Hi’ to them.  But Todd has to figure out how to say he is getting run down and they need to slow down some.  This is just too weird.”

Jemi said, “I texted Aunt Pink and it is a go.  Jos is on board to give them the safety briefing, and she’ll go up with them to the top of the mountain.

Todd asked, “Again, what is the Crystal Mountain?”

Easy said, “There are four buildings connected by covered walkways.  There is an area within this huge trapezoidal, nope no two sides are parallel, but this huge shape is filled with a jungle underneath a glass roof, a giant greenhouse.  Water sluices and pipes growing hydroponic fruits and vegetables for the employees and residents.  It is called the Crystal Mountain because the roof is made of glass and from the shipping and receiving area of the cider house to the top is ten stories these days.  We have experienced weather events inside the Crystal Mountain.  There is a waterfall, and two water slides.  All the trees are water tanks covered in bark to form fake banyan trees.  And at the very top, they grow African exotic plants for pharmaceutical research.  Just outside the Crystal Mountain is a wastewater treatment plant, a brooder house for turkeys and chickens, and a huge rabbit hutch, a lot of bunnies for the fertilizer.”

Jemi laughed, “You didn’t say what the four buildings are and what is in the Crystal mountain on the floor.  The four buildings are this apartment building, the Big House next door which is Aunt Pink’s family residence and the Lily the Pink offices.  The cider house is huge.  It started with vats to make cider, but now it has expanded for large production from receiving tons of apples and cinnamon and lily roots and the other ingredients to bottling and shipping alcoholic and non-alcoholic cider. And the far end of shipping and receiving is the official maintenance bay called the Turtle Bay.  So the tour can start with the apartment main floor, Blaise’s lab, the nursery and pre-school and Rev. Joseph’s counseling office, then a donut or something at the bakery, maybe go out and see the chickens, turkeys, and bunnies.  Then into the Crystal Mountain, up to the top, and maybe if you are lucky, they might have people in the Olympic size pool on one side and beach volleyball on the other side.  A walk by the waterfall at some point.  Then maybe the den at the Big House where my Sunday school class is held.  Then we can see if Aunt Pink is free to say hello, then a tour of cider operations ending at the Turtle Bay.”

I suggested, “It depends when Jos is available for the safety briefing, but if you wait until after they have met the guys, then the safety briefing can include them, more time for the guys and girls to talk.  Once we change into swimsuits and start going down the slides, there is not much talking.”

Jemi, working her fingers to text Amazon, “Great idea Blaise.  And Todd, I will text Blaise a special code to give to you, since I don’t know your phone number.  I’m giving you a one-month free trial for the Storm Chasing streaming service.  That way, when you get to the Turtle on Saturday, you know what you are seeing.  Watch the blooper reels.  The birth of Frank Lynn and Amazon and Skinny’s honeymoon are some of the big viewed segments.  But see a recent one so you know everyone on the A Team and B Team.  I’m Stinker, and Easy is Easy.  You might see most of the A Team here Saturday.  Shoot, we can have a Turtle Party and that can be why you are here to join in the fun.  B.B. is pregnant and not going down the slides, but she will be there.  And a party will draw in the professors.”

Todd said, “I’m totally confused.  If we can go into this jungle so that I can take a few pictures with my phone.  That might sell the party to everyone.”

Jemi said, “Aunt Pink just confirmed no weddings on Saturday.  We are all set!”

We walked around the ground level.  Todd took pictures of the waterfall, volleyball court, swimming pool, and the chairs were being set up for Vespers.

Marguerite was waiting in the lab when we got back.  She drove us in her Mom’s car, and we got to meet Susana and Marika.  We had seen Marika with the volleyball team, but we had never met Susana.

Todd told me the next day that he told Susana and Marika that all the oysters in the world could not help him keep up with their appetites, and both of them were relieved.  They developed some misgivings.  Marika was brought up in a Christian home.  The bullying had made her feel desperate, but she knew she had done wrong.  She would never be able to claim virginity once she found the boy of her dreams, if that was even possible.  Susana was Catholic and she had gone to confession.  At this rate, she would never keep up with her penance, and to be honest, if she simply laid down next to Todd, she would not be able to control herself.  She needed to sleep in a different bed.  It was Marika’s turn, but she said that she and Susana would go to the queen-sized bed in the other room.  Then Patty and Anna could decide who slept with Todd when they got off from work.  Todd told Patty and she was also relieved.  She wanted him and him alone and sharing him made her feel good for her friends, but uncomfortable.

By Saturday morning early, he had the Forlorn Four hyped.  Marika got into an animated conversation with Jochebed.  Jochebed was from a country in central Africa, and Marika was from Burkina Faso.  But Marika’s faint memories were somewhat similar to Jochebed’s childhood. Marika talked about how her most vivid memory was playing in the mud with a missionary boy.  She thought he was cute and they made mud pies together.

I led the tour, but Jemima and Mary came along after we passed Rev. Joseph’s new office, the efficiency apartment between their apartment and the nursery.  It was tight, but they gave him a tiny office with a desk in the corner.  The waiting room doubled as a group session room, but it had the bathroom available in the corner at any time.  But since the ladies were used to going into the Jones’ apartment, Blake Williams set up a buzzer system so that Joseph could signal for them to come to the new office, if they preferred waiting with Mary.

When we reached the bakery, Jemima and Mary told Otto that they wanted the calorie free donuts, and Otto gave them some donut holes.  Think about it.  If a donut is full of calories, obviously what is left over has no calories at all.  Right?  Mabel showed us the Turtle cake that we would be slicing at the party later on, a turtle with wheels instead of legs.

We toured through the Crystal Mountain.  Anna and Patty asked, a little frightened, “We are going up there?”  But the waterfall took their breath away.  I had the colors turned on: Purple, Pink, and Red.  Some churches adhere to those colors for Lent.  Susana asked if that was why the color of the water was those colors.

When we arrived at the Turtle Bay, a few unexpected things happened.  Mitzi, Fred and Wilma were there doing a report with the Turtle on the hydraulic lift as a background.  Mitzi worked the camera, and Wilma was in front of the camera, interviewing Fred.  Underneath the Turtle were the grease monkeys.

Jemima said, “Everybody, come over.  Todd has invited his girlfriend and the other girls from Pawnee Heights to join us for the Turtle party.  We need to make introductions.”  Jemima introduced everyone, but she avoided the name of grease monkeys.

Trey added that, “They call us ‘grease monkeys.’  That is Bubba, Luke, and me.  We get to inspect and fix the Turtle.  Sometimes, Easy and Fred are a little rough on her, that is the Turtle, but we worked hard last semester just to have this opportunity.  This vehicle is amazing.  Then, without any prompting, he took Susana by the hand and repeated what he had said in Spanish.  There was a twinkle in her eyes.

Then Bubba went to Anna and asked, “Did I hear Stinker say that you are from Germany?”  Then Bubba started talking in German.  We found out later that he learned German in high school, and he was taking Russian at the university.  He wanted to be able to research technical articles in the reference library at the university.

Marika looked at Luke with interest.  Luke did the same with Marika.  They started to talk.  Then we heard Marika squeal.  She threw her arms around Luke and they kissed.

I said, “Woah!  No kissing and hugging in the Turtle Bay.”

Marika said, “But you do not understand.  Luke’s parents are the missionaries that brought my parents to Jesus, and then we moved in with Luke’s parents.  Luke is the boy that I made mud pies with when we were small children.”

Luke shook his head, “They didn’t taste very good, but at five years old, you have to taste it.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Todd wiping tears from Patty’s eyes.  Now they all had boyfriends.

Jos (Amazon) and Kevin (Skinny) walked in to lead the group to the volleyball court near where the entrance to the catwalks was located.  There was a changing room under the stands.  Gwen Quinn had already sized everyone up.  Marika wore the same size as Amazon, but she did not fill it out as much.  Gwen had been forewarned about Bubba, the bodybuilder.  Amazon gave the briefing, and everyone went all the way to the top.  Arabella and Emmett were there and showed them the different African plants. Emmett matched the plants with the various ailments for which they might be used.

We went back to the changing rooms and Aunt Gwen had swimsuits for all the guests.  By now, Emmett and Arabella had joined us.  And Dr. Ben and Dr. Ellie joined us, along with Michael Rowe Casey.  Marguerite was already in the pool, swimming laps.  We confirmed that everyone could swim before we went to the water slides.

When we got to the conference center, there was cake and cider waiting.  Anna declined when the cake was offered.  She was already listening to Bubba’s advice.

When Aunt Pink came in, she went to the table where the grease monkeys and the Forlorn Four were talking amongst each other.  Aunt Pink said that she would set up a bus route in the evenings so that if the ladies came with us to Lily the Pink, they would have a ride back to Pawnee Heights.  She also said that if they had problems integrating socially or they’ve had some trauma in their lives, she and Joseph were available for counselling.

But oddly, the Forlorn Four no longer seemed forlorn.

This ends Blaise’s first-person report.  All I can add is that counselors usually have them talk about their troubles and suggest how they can work it out.  Blaise went a step beyond.  He seems to be not much for the counseling, but he did a great job as a fixer.

Credits

When I was in middle school, I created a fictional, post-apocalyptic group of do-gooders.  Since I was a very late bloomer, I had no thoughts of the physical aspects of a relationship, but I had one man and four women: Patty, Anna, Mary, and Suzannah.  A little change in names and ethnicities and the Forlorn Four is born.  But I even created a couple of pages of a comic book that others in middle school loved.  Who knows what might have happened with a little more encouragement.

I introduced Mr. Kellogg last week.

And the high school where I attended is now the town’s middle school, and it has a few trees between the classrooms and the main street through town.  But as for the “Grove,” you can go down the road to the University of Mississippi.  “The Grove” is a tree covered area on the east side of the campus.  The band warms up in the grove before marching to the football stadium.  The grove is mostly filled with tailgate parties on game day.  If you want to see a party tent with a crystal chandelier and other such things, the Grove is where it is at.  But the area where the band warms up will get your spirits warmed up also.

And I have tried to describe homes like MawMaw and PawPaw’s house.  It started off with two rooms (probably a bedroom and a living room).  The bathroom was detached at first.  The kitchen was also detached, for different reasons.  No indoor plumbing for one and a fire hazard for the other.  But then, when they got indoor plumbing, they added a bedroom behind the other bedroom, a pantry for canned goods (not tin cans, mason jars with cooked vegetables from the garden) and the restroom was added next to the second bedroom.  Then another bedroom was added and the first bedroom was turned into a den.  None of these rooms, except the first two rooms had level floors, some floors drastically sloped.  But next to the third bedroom (now the second bedroom), was the kitchen, L-shaped to wrap around the bathroom, and the dining room was next to the kitchen and behind the living room.

But my reason for adding this description is that beyond the back bedrooms (no hallways anywhere, one room opened into the next) there was a door that led to a full apartment.  A living room with two beds in it, and another room with two beds and a bathroom with a shower.  And off the first room was a kitchen, very small, but it had everything you needed.  I think that is where my mother stayed with my sister and brother when Dad was deployed to Europe during World War II, with my Dad staying to help build the Tempelhof airdrome.