The WT On: Dreams
I stopped by Aunt Donna’s trailer to return my cousin’s pink bottle of Love’s Baby Soft perfume. In case you didn’t know, WT preteens splash on the Love’s Baby Soft. For teens it’s Charlie, and for adults, Jean Nate. (Now you can smell like one of us!)
Aunt Donna sat on the couch, absent-mindedly folding laundry while peering intently at the television set. The Price is Right was on, her favorite show. My baby cousin, Britnee, whimpered in her playpen but Aunt Donna didn’t seem to notice.
“Is Amber here? I have her perfume.”
“No,” Aunt Donna mumbled, still staring at the TV. “She’s at the movies with Misty.” She ground out a half-smoked cigarette into the scarred ashtray beside her on the sagging couch. She shook out another from the pack and lit it.
Everything about Aunt Donna was faded: her hair, a thin flyaway blond, her worn-thin shirts, the gauzy blue cigarette smoke that always enveloped her.
“Look at that.” Aunt Donna shook her head. “A new living room set, just for guessing prices.” On screen, a contestant in a bright red shirt jumped up and down in joy. The audience cheered. “I’m so good at guessing prices. I’m going to get on that show one day, Rooster. And I’ll win everything. A new car, the grand prize. Everything.”
“That would be neat. Is Britnee hungry?”
“She knows to wait until after the show.” Aunt Donna squinted at the screen. “Bob Barker is handsome for an older man, don’t you think?”
I went to the refrigerator and pulled out a baby bottle half-filled with apple juice. I gave it to Britnee, who gulped hungrily. I smoothed the sweaty brown curls back from her forehead.
“Well…I have to go. Tell Amber I stopped by.”
“Mmm-hmm.” The laundry slipped from Aunt Donna’s hands as she stared, entranced, at a washer and dryer set the contestants were bidding on.
I left and closed the door behind me. The game show noise increased as Aunt Donna turned the volume up. I slowly started walking home. Behind me, the audience cheered.
Instant Del.icio.us Bookmark This - 
|
| RSS for this post's categories: ">Primitive Rubbish People
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, October 11th, 2005 at 10:12 am and is filed under .
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response.
Trackback:
