chalk dust

She's in her Dad's office. It's dusty. There are lots of books and neat piles of bland looking magazines everywhere. Daddy's raincoat is on the teetering coat rack and there is chalk dust in the air. Sometimes she draws pictures on the blackboard but not now. Now she and her sister are playing the funnest game, "Princess". It involves a large handkerchief and a stranded maiden. They take turns waving the large cloth square out othe window like someone imitating a gay man, as they sing "Help me! SAVE me!" in falsetto. There are imaginary crocodiles just below.
It's Saturday, the necessary piano lessons are over and she's excited by the freedom that starts precisely now every week. The adults will be in a good mood tonight and mostly ignore the kids. Her Mom will put on a silk Moo-moo with an apron over it and heat frozen eggrolls in the little oven. Her dad will make martinis with shiny silver tools and clear liquid and olives.
Right now her Dad does not share her pleasure in the princess game. With obvious effort he extracts his mind from this work and calmly tells her that she can't wave that out the window anymore. However, she may, if she likes, pretend that this coat hanger is a window and wave through it. She and her sister stare at him. She's mortified by the suggestion but he's asked so nicely that she can't say no. She pretends to do it momentarily, embarrassed and feeling sorry for her Dad.

"Winchester Cathedral"

I'm in the bathroom playing around. I have perfume from Avon and I can't believe how good it smells. "Winchester Cathedral" is playing on the beige clock radio in my parents bedroom down the hall. I love that song.
I have this headscarf that's pink with yellow flowers on one side and yellow with pink on the other. It's cotton and kind of sturdy and the right size for a kid. I think it's elegant. I spray it with the delicious perfume until it's wet. It's reeking. I think it smells heavenly but everybody in my family complains and teases me. My Dad call it "stinky". It's fun, this teasing, I know they don't really mind. For weeks I wear that scarf as often as I can get away with it.

Sunday Night Chinese

I love The Mandarin, it's so warm and luxurious, plus I get to be alone with Daddy for the whole ride here and back. I'm a little afraid here though, it's dark and adult feeling. There is a bar made of what looks like leather, fake leather I guess, and it's too tall for me to see over. I look at the front of it where there are designs made with upholstery tacks. The design in front of me is a martini glass.

Daddy talks amiably with the owner who brings our food in crisp brown paper bags, neatly folded over with the check stapled on. I'm so hungry, I almost can't stand the 40 minute drive home before we can eat. The egg rolls are not like the pale cabbage filled things you get today, but fat and crispy with whole shrimp inside.

Now I understand that we chose a restaurant so far away so that my Dad could be away from the house longer, but I still don't understand exactly why.

Little Story

This little story is from a killer writing workshop I was lucky enough to take with Lynda Barry this fall:

I am at Caroline's house after school. We watched Speed Racer and now we're looking at the fish tank. We both think the shark is the coolest with his red tail. I want one. There are also neon tetras which glow. Everything is glowing, the tetras, the TV, the aquarium itself. Mrs. Sommers is in the kitchen behind us. It glows too. It's so cozy in this house I love it. I love this time of year and this time of day and somehow Caroline and I can't stop laughing. She has the coolest clothes and hair, granny glasses and long straight California hair. She actually is from California so that's even cooler. This is while we're still friends, before she quit talking to me and started hanging out with Suzanne. She has two dachshunds, Max and Michelle. Michelle i s a miniature and smaller but we like them both. It's ok for Max to be bigger and quiet because he's a boy dog. There is plush wall to wall carpeting in all the bedrooms here. Mrs. Sommers does her butt exercise, inching her way across the pale green soft carpet on her seat. She drives a yellow 4-4-2. Beautiful pale yellow. All Caroline has is amazing.