Cherry Icee 'hello'
The top of the ice cold cherry mountain froze the contours of my face. Yep, just me and a cup of cherry icee, slurping away on paradise. I'd always sit down at the corner store(which was not really a corner store at all, people just like the thought of having a corner store) and watch the girls come in and out. The store's name read PJs after the original owner, it used to be PJ's but the apostrophe had worn off. He had died in some war with the Germans, said he was involved in the Normandy Invasion for the Civil War or somethin' like that. Anyways the owner now was a big ole feller named Thalmus Peters. Everybody feared Thalmus, and for good reason. Thalmus stood about 6'5" and had big hands and feet. He had dark hair and dark skin and he never wore a smile, but he did seem to wear a lot of tight shirts. Everybody says Thalmus was "mean as a snake and twice as ugly." He sure enough was mean as a snake, I don't know about the twice as ugly, 'cause I don't judge men, but his wife sure was pretty. Everybody was scared of Thalmus, it was said that somebody once tried to rob him, and sure enough as I'm standing here today if he didn't come across that table and beat the tar out of that guy. The feller tried to take off and run, but Thalmus caught him outside and continued to pummel his face. It took a nun, a cop, and a liquor store owner to get Thalmus off of him. Poor guy robbed the wrong store. As I said, Thalmus had a beautiful wife, everyone said she used to be some kind of playboy bunny or somethin' of the sort. She was a lot nicer than Thalmus and she always would talk to me. I'd come in and slurp on my icee, she'd come over and say howdee doo. I'd just kinda turn as red as my cherry icee and say "Hello, Mrs. Peters." She always go into, "How you doing in school?" "How'se your mom?" and so on, I'd always just say fine. Every boy in town had a crush on Mrs. Peters, who had to be reaching the age of 40, if she had not already, but she could have passed for not a day pass 25. When she'd get finished interrogating me, she'd say, "Be good now." "Yes'm, you know I will be." "I know. " Then she'd head off toward the back. I'd watch her till the door closed. Then my other love interest would walk in. She didn't come to the store but once a day. Everyday she'd come in and get one snickers bar. Marla Jameson, oh, oh, oh, Marla Jameson, she was the most beautifulest 10 year old in all of Sanduskegee County. Mrs. Peters knew I liked her, and whenever she came in Mrs. Peters would whisper somethin' another to her and they'd look at me, Marla would giggle and walk away. I'd look back up to Mrs. Peters and she would give me this big grin, like when a baby takes a poop in his diaper. I'd turn redder than my icee again. The two women I love, giggling over me. PJs was the hangout for all the kids who lived in the apartments, while the kids who had houses just kinda kept to themselves. We was kinda like gangs. The Apt. kids and the House kids. Most of them had both there parents, while most of us had a mother. 'Cept some of the apartment kids had both, just one of them was a deadbeat. We didn't have a sandlot or nothin' like that too play at, so we'd sit around and play at Pjs. Thalmus didn't mind us playin' in front of his store, one of his few good attributes. I think Mrs. Peters told him to let us. So let me get back to what I was sayin'. As always I was sittin' in the back corner of PJs with my cup of cherry icee. Seemed like a normal day, birds chirpin', radio humming, Mrs. Peters had already come out and talked to me. So I was sittin' over in my corner with my friend Rudy. He usually didn't sit with me too long, but today it was too hot to go outside. So we sat and watched mosquitoes fight for the blood of Thalmus. The two mosquitoes where attacking each other, well actually all it looked like was two black floating dots that looked to be moving on and off the arm of Thalmus, in any case it was about the most entertaining thing to do that day. I checked the clock on the wall, one o' clock, hmmm, Marla usually came in 'round this time. Rudy wanted to get into some indepth discussion about mosquitoes causing cancer, but I wasn't in the mood for any philosphical, my belly was aching for my love. "Down when Roosevelt was building the Suez canal, they had er' mosquito problem, half the troops caught cancer and died within in the month." It was 15 after one and no sign of Marla, I decided to oblige him and go into conversation. "Was that Theodore or Frankln?" "I think it was the other one. I forgit his name." "Elanore?" I always thought that was a weird name for a man. "I think that was Theodore's wife. Or Franklin's." Oh, that's why it was such a strange name. Time was passing like fat men through a buffet line. Slowly. Marla was bound to show up any second. I sat twiddling my thumbs listening to Rudy spout off about how he should have learned more of this in school, and how the teacher was too caught up in trying to teach him to read. And those multiplication tables, I hated them too. "It's ridiculous, who cares that 5 times 6 equals 28." I looked at him at chuckled. "What?" "It equals 25 you goof." "Shaddup!! Hey lookie, lookie lover boy......Marla." My eyes grew as big as a chocolate moon pie. Marla was wearing a bikini. A red bikini. "She's wearing a red bikini....Isn't that illegal or something." "If it isn't it should be." Thalmus came out with an ugly look on his face. I knew he was going to say something, he always said what was on his mind, it was a character flaw, one of his many. "He's going to embarass her." Thalmus gazed at the girl with those glazed eyes, the ones you know that when your mom gets you better run or there is going to be a red mark from that switch she slaps across your butt. "Ms. Jameson, What do you think....." Mrs. Peters came out gave Thalmus one of those, "You better shut your mouth or else" looks and he understood. He limped back to the back room with a whip mark on his heel. Mrs. Peters just smiled pleasantly. Oh, she was beautiful when she smiled. I wish Marla and Mrs. Peters were in red bikinis. "What do you need Marla?" "A snickers." She snickered. Why was she laughing and why was Mrs. Peters smiling, "WOMEN" i just don't get it. Mrs. Peters ran back and got her a king size snickers bar. A king size? Marla didn't look like she could finish half of a regular size one. The bikini clung to Marla's body like a wet rag on a clothesline(that is not a compliment), but still, she looked beautiful. This was it. This was time to make my move. So I got up and walked over to Marla and stood right by her at the counter. She was standing there talking to Mrs. Peters and when I waddled that way she kinda gave me a strange look. Mrs. Peters winked and left. We sat there and looked at one another, deep into each other eyes, like our line of vision was going puncture our brains and cause us to seizure. Maybe that was not the best way to put it, but its the way it felt to me. Who was going to say "Hello"? "Hello." I guess she was. I stammered. Marla Jameson is standing in front of me in a bikini and all I can do is sit and look at her, she then says hello and what do I say next. "Hello." Nice choice of words if I may say so myself. Marla turned and walked of the store. I looked at her amble out of the store, and the only joy I had is that her bikini was drawn up her rear just a little bit. I went back down and sat next to Rudy. "Way to go stud." Rudy was not one to talk like that, that sounded like what my sixteen year old brother used to say whenever I made a goof. "You are as smooth as my dad's butt." "Your dad's real hairy." "I know, that's my point." Oh yeah that did make sense. I had just blown my chances with Marla Jameson. And she was wearing a bikini. Could this day be any worse? "Yeah, but it probably won't be." Reassuring friend. "About this time Mrs. Peters came out of the back and adjourned(I think that's what she did) me. So I walked over there. I had a tear running down my cheek. I was crying. Oh, God this was embarassing. I was crying in front of Mrs. Peters, God, and the whole world. Okay maybe just Mrs. Peters and my friend, Rudy, but I might as well had cried in front of the whole world. She patted my shoulder. "It's okay sweety, there will be other chances, other girls. There's other fish in the sea." Fish in the sea, what the heck was she talking about, there wasn't an ocean around us for miles. Maybe it was a figure of speech, I didn't ask.
Copyright © 2000 Tyler Mason |