I was cleaning out my computer the other day and I found this little gem that I wrote forever ago!
This story is written from the point of view of a little girl and her voice isn't meant to be mocking of any person's speech pattern/dialect/language/whatever else it could be called! I based her speech on how my younger siblings/cousins spoke when they were little. Hope y'all like it!
For Ari and Livi
Uncle Dean's Wallet
Ya know how daddies always carry pictures of their kids around in their wallet? Well, my Uncle Dean likes to keep pictures in his wallet too, even though he don't have no kids. My daddy likes to change the pictures in his wallet all the time. He says he wants to have a couple old ones an a couple new ones for "balance". Daddy likes change, but Uncle Dean don't, no, he don't like change one bit. I think that's why he keeps the same old pictures in his wallet.
The pictures aren't pretty either - they's all wrinkled an crusty, like somethin peed on 'em or somethin. Even the people in the pictures don't look good, but Uncle Dean says that it don't matter what the people look like, the memory's all that matters. I don't really know what that means, but I like lookin at the pictures anyway. The first picture, the one that's always in the front, is one of him an Sammy, that's my daddy's name. They was real young. I think my daddy was 17. They was leaning against the back of Uncle Dean's car an Uncle Dean had one arm slung round Daddy's shoulders an the other arm was holding a big gun. I dunno what kind; my big brother, Ollie, prolly knows (although Ollie, he's not that much older, only two years, so he's not smarter plus also he's a boy an everybody knows that girls is smarter than boys). Daddy was laughin real hard, like somebody'd said somethin real funny, an Uncle Dean was doing one of those little smiles, the one where he only smiles with half his mouth. Uncle Dean does a lot of those smiles - I think they's his favorite.
The second picture is the oldest, like, the very oldest. It's in pretty good condition though, I guess. Uncle Dean said the picture used to belong to his daddy. The picture is of my gramma. Her name was Mary an she was real beautiful. Daddy says I look like her, but I dunno. I think I look more like my momma, but I'd like to look like her. Uncle Dean is in the picture too, so is my daddy an my Granpa John. Daddy was real little - he hadn't even turned one yet, an Uncle Dean was about four. They was all laughin an smilin in front of a pretty house. I think it was the house where Gramma died, but I dunno. I don't like to talk about people who died cause it makes everybody too sad, an I don't want nobody to be sad.
The third picture is of my brother, me an Uncle Dean. My brother is probably three, maybe four, an I'm one. We're sittin on a picnic blanket in the middle of a big park. Ollie's stanin an holdin on to Uncle Dean's shoulder cause he was still real little an couldn't walk real good. Ollie has a great big grin on his face that makes him look just like my daddy. I'm sittin on Uncle Dean's lap. My hair is in piggy tails that stan up off of my head in little points an I'm smiling too, an drooling a little, but that's okay cause babies do that. Uncle Dean has another one of his little half smiles an it kinda looks like he's laughin.
Picture number four is a funny picture. I remember when it was taken. Uncle Dean an Daddy took me an Ollie to this place that had lots of sunflowers. My daddy loves sunflowers cause they's the only flower that's taller than he is. Momma was gonna go too, but she had the flu so she had to stay home in bed. Anyway, Ollie an I found this sunflower that was real low to the ground, only a little bit shorter than me, an I was real short then. I was four years old an plus also I was missing one of my front teeth cause Ollie knocked it out with a basketball. Now I'm six an I'm REAL tall. I'm tallest in my class! Daddy told us to smile while he took our picture, but Ollie an I didn't want to, so we stuck our tongues out instead! Daddy scolded us (although he was smilin) an Uncle Dean laughed real, real hard an daddy said, "They get that from you, Dean." Then Uncle Dean came over an he picked up Ollie an swung him so he was up sittin on Uncle Dean's shoulder. Then he picked me up an held me on his hip while he sorta danced around in the flowers. We was all kickin an laughin an havin lots of fun. Even Daddy was laughin! That was one of my favorite days an I think it's one of Uncle Dean's favorite days too. That's prolly why he keeps that picture.
I always thought that Uncle Dean only kept four pictures in his wallet, but Uncle Dean left his wallet on the table last week an Ollie an I was bored outta our skulls an Daddy always lets us go through his wallet so we decided to look at the pictures Uncle Dean keeps in the back of his wallet. We saw the usual four, the ones Uncle Dean pulls out sometimes to remind us a how cute we used to be, but then we found one, one we'd never seen before.
The picture is of a girl that Ollie an I didn't recognize. I could tell the picture was old, not as old as the picture of Daddy an Uncle Dean, but it's the most worn out outta all the pictures. I think that's because Uncle Dean looks at it the most. I don't know why he does that. He never talked about the girl before. We turned the picture over, cause on the back of all the other pictures there's names an dates an where the picture was taken. Somebody always writes those down so the person with the picture'll never forget, which is real smart if you ask me. On the back of the girl's picture, there was nothin written, nothin at all. Wasn't Uncle Dean worried he'd forget the girl in the picture?
We didn't get to look at the picture real good cause we heard Uncle Dean's footsteps comin down the stairs a couple seconds later so we put the picture back where we found it an ran into the TV room to watch a movie or somethin so Uncle Dean wouldn't know we was lookin at his private personal business.
Ollie an I kept real quiet about the picture. We felt kinda bad after we found it because Uncle Dean hadn't showed it to us before so we thought maybe there was a reason why he was keepin it secret. Also, Ollie said Uncle Dean wouldn't 'appreciate' us showing all his secrets (I hate it when Ollie uses big words to make his-self sound more smarter). I tried to keep the secret in, promise I did, but yesterday I just couldn't keep the secret in any longer.
Me, Ollie an Uncle Dean was lyin on the floor of our TV room watchin Aladdin cause that's my favorite movie. I even wore my Princess Jasmine tee shirt! "Will anybody ever love me as much as Aladdin loves Jasmine?" I asked.
"No, cause you've got stinky feet!" Ollie yelled, but I punched him in the arm to shut him up an then I turned back to Uncle Dean.
"Will they?"
"Yes, baby, of course someone will love you that much! They'll sweep you up in their magic carpet an fly you away," Uncle Dean teased. Then he poked my sides, which always makes me laugh. After I stopped laughin, I asked Uncle Dean if he ever loved anyone, like REALLY loved 'em.
"Yeah, I have," Uncle Dean replied, "her name is Cecelia Katherine Winchester." He started smiling then cause that's my name, so I punched him too to make him be serious.
"But for serious though, have you ever loved anybody?"
Uncle Dean got real serious then an I could tell he was thinkin bout what I just asked. "Yeah, I think I have."
"You think?" Ollie asked (cause he's stupid).
"Yeah, I think."
"What was she like?" I asked.
"She was funny, and tough, and fierce, and strong, and beautiful…" Uncle Dean said all those words real quiet an soft, like they was real important. Ollie an I looked at each other, both of us wonderin if this girl was the girl in the picture.
"Is she the picture you have hidin in your wallet?" I whispered cause I was a little afraid to ask.
I thought Uncle Dean was going to be mad, like REAL mad that we was snoopin in his wallet, but he wasn't. Instead he was sad, an I don't know why. He just gave me a little smile an said, "Yeah, that's her." Then he pulled the picture out of his wallet an handed it to me an Ollie. We crowded around it, looking at the picture real close since we didn't get to last time. The girl was standin in front a what Uncle Dean said was called a juicebox. He said it played music. You'd put a coin in an you'd pick whatever song you wanted an it'd play all through the bar. I want a juicebox like that. But anyway, the girl's standin so she's facin the juicebox, but her head's turned an she's laughing at the camera. She's real pretty – she's even prettier than Gramma Mary.
"Where does she live?" Ollie asked.
"She used to live in Nebraska," Uncle Dean said an he folded the picture back up an put it back in the back of his wallet. I think he keeps it in the back to keep it safe. He was real careful with it the whole time he was showin it to us, so I know that picture's real important to him.
I frowned. "Used to?" I asked. Then I got real excited cause I thought maybe we could meet this girl. She looked real nice. So I asked, "Where does she live now? Can we meet her?"
Uncle Dean looked extra sad then. "Actually she, uh, she died a long time ago," Uncle Dean said. His voice sounded real funny, like he was about to sneeze or somethin. I looked up at Uncle Dean an his eyes was bright an glossy, like they was full a water. Ollie an I got real sad then too, so we crawled over so we could give him big hugs to make him feel better. Uncle Dean gave us kisses on the tops of our heads an we sat like that for a while, just me an Ollie sittin on Uncle Dean's lap.
After a couple a minutes I asked, "What was her name?"
Uncle Dean smiled real sad again an he said, "Jo. Her name was Jo."