Chapter 6 – Pastime Paradise
Two bases were loaded as the heavy April sun beat down on that asphalt-laden cul-de-sac. This spring season just couldn't seem to make up its mind; cold the one day, warm the next. A balmy feeling was in the air on this Saturday as the cul-de-sac gang decided to drag out their door-mats and wooden bats for a lovely seven-inning game of baseball. On the one team was Swingin' Eddy McGee, Rattlin' Rolf, and Jumpin' Jonny 2x4. Representing the other team was Dippin' Double D, Easy Ed, and Natural Nazz. Sarah and Jimmy stood in as rambunctious spectators, laid out picnic-style on a blanket with tea and sandwiches. Eddy's team was up at bat, with Easy Ed on the pitcher's mound (represented in this instant by a trash can lid). Rattlin' Rolf was feeling jumpy on third base, with Jumpin' Jonny feeling pretty itchy himself on second. Plank was short-stop for both teams, naturally. None of the adults in the neighborhood really seemed to question why their teenage kids were out playing streetball but blowing off a little steam was good for them. The catcher of this game was a trashcan (in fact, the very one that the pitcher's mound lid originated from) and the referee was of course, also Plank.
"Come on you sissies and show us a real ball game!" Sarah screamed out from her cozy retreat, hands cupped over her mouth.
"Yeah, make 'em weep!" Jimmy shouted in return, his iconic head-gear now no longer present, which was quite an odd thing for many of them to see on a daily basis.
"Hey, no hecklin' from the stands…!" Swingin' Eddy shouted out as he stepped up to the home plate, represented by Double D's family welcome mat. It was the bottom of the seventh, and Eddy's team was tied with Double D's. Rattlin' Rolf's long legs bent to and fro as he jabbered around on the third base, Jonny's welcome mat from home. Ed quickly shot a glance back to him, Rolf steadying his pace. Ed's backwards facing baseball cap was about two sizes too small, just barely covering the prickles of his buzz cut. He whirled his arms a few times in order to confuse his poor friend at bat.
"Just hurry the hell up and pitch that pea Lumpy!" Swingin' Eddy called out as he got into his proper batting position, wagging the wooden bat back and forth.
Easy Ed focused his complete attention, sweat beading on his powerful unibrow as the sun continued to produce the spring swelter. His eyes lasered in, squinting ever so carefully. He wound up his arm and cocked his leg back in the air like a flamingo…
"Skip to the loo my darling!" he cried out.
Ed launched his right-hand forward as the ball exited, flying at enormous speed towards Eddy. Everyone watched as Swingin' Eddy, as if in slow motion, lived up to his given name and swung his bat so hard in the forward direction that it caused him to spin wildly. The ball however, blazed right past him and directly into the great metal trashcan, creating a great, echoing THUD.
"That's strike one, Eddy…" Nazz said in her typical gentle voice, manning second base and eagerly monitoring both Jumpin' Jonny and Rattlin' Rolf.
"Yeah yeah big deal, Ed threw a bad one…" Swingin' Eddy said as he tossed the ball back to Ed, who decided it was fitting to catch it with his foot.
"Not bad there, Lumpy. Not bad at all…" Eddy said as he did a few practice swings over the home plate.
"And merry Christmas to you too, Eddy!" Ed called out as he tossed the ball up and down briefly. In the flash of an eye, however, a tall figure went moving in the background.
"Ha ha, ha ha! Rolf has been taken with the speed of great Nano's stewed beets! Watch as Rolf steals base with the same force as the first four great Turnip wars of the old country…!"
"Ed, Ed I'm open! I'm open!" cried Dipin' Double D as he stood by third base, ready to chase Rolf down.
"Comin' at ya, Double D!" Ed said as he wound his pitch and threw the ball directly through the shrubs next to Eddy's house, bouncing off the wooden fence, and smacking Jimmy right in the back of the head.
"Oww Sarah, it burns, it burns!" Jimmy cried out with his face buried in the grass.
"Ed, look what you did now! I'm telling mom!"
"Sarah, please! If mom finds out she'll-"
Ed was cut off short by victorious cries by Rolf:
"Rolf has vanquished the head-in-sock Ed boy team in this game of ball-meets-stick! Now you must prepare for the consuming of Rolf's fish stew, your punishment is just!" Rolf cried out.
"See that Double D!" Eddy cried out, cupping his hands around his mouth, "told you we'd win! Now you owe me that three dollars!"
"Ed, you could have thrown the ball to Plank, he was right there!" Jonny said as he pointed to Plank, who had been propped up by a stick. But then a gust blew by and knocked Plank straight to the ground, generating a rough cracking sound as the wood hit the pavement.
"Man down, man down!" Jonny cried out as he ran to help his best friend.
"Here you are, Eddy…" Double D said in an annoyed tone as he pulled out his wallet and handed Eddy the three dollar bills that had been bet on the game before hand.
"Mmm, look at this sweet moolah!" Eddy said as he caressed his three dollars, gently tucking them in his pocket for safe keeping.
It was at this point that everyone began packing up and heading home. Place mats were restored to their rightful positions in front of doors, and trashcans were tipped back up. Both Jimmy and Plank were properly tended to and bandaged, and Sarah carefully walked Jimmy back to his home. Eddy took his bat and ball and threw them over on the side of his house, causing some feral cat to jump and hiss loudly. Ed and Double D dusted themselves off before Eddy walked over towards them.
"So boys, you fancy a trip to the junkyard? Ole' Eddy here needs to find some good scrap metal to sell. With a couple more dollars I can finally afford that hubcap I've had my eye on." Eddy said as he placed his arms around his two friends.
"You mean the car that you don't even have yet, Eddy..?" Ed asked with his silly grin on his face.
"Shut up Ed…" Eddy replied, "How about we talk about that brain that you don't even own yet? Huh Ed, wanna talk about that?"
"Ed does have a point, Eddy…" Double D retorted "It is awfully strange to be buying assembly and decorative parts for an automobile that does not exist. Not to mention that any hubcap worthy of purchase would cost far more than the measly pocket change that you-"
"Shut up Double D… so are you guys comin' or not?" Eddy asked.
"Ed is here and ready for duty!" Ed cried out, saluting Eddy.
"I could possibly find a few intricate treasures in the old scrapyard; and finding recyclables to place in the proper locations is indeed a hobby of mine!" Double D replied.
"Sweet!" Eddy said, smacking his hands together. "Let's roll boys…"
A buzz rang out and vibrated against the trailer walls as Marie was busy sweeping the yellow linoleum floor of the kitchen. The washing machine, as ancient and unreliable as it was, was signaling to her that the load was done and ready for her immediate attention. Over years of wear and tear, the washing machine had malfunctioned to where the buzzing wouldn't stop until it was opened, leading to a lot of annoyance on the part of the Kanker girls.
"Better get that laundry then…" Marie thought to herself as she placed the broom to the side and hurried back to the laundry room.
Lee, meanwhile, sat on the living room couch, her bare feet propped up on the coffee table as that static-consumed television set displayed a terribly corrupted and black-and-white image of the QVC network. Lee eagerly watched as a luxury purse was advertised with vigor, and it was only five easy payments of $35.99! She fantasized and dreamed, but it never did any good. Money simply slipped through the fingers of the Kanker family, and every year it continued to get worse and worse. Every day brought new surprises as something would break, stop working, or explode. It was almost a fun game to guess what would break down next. Lee had it pinned that any day the TV would just explode and take out half the trailer; that is, if the bottom of the trailer didn't rust out first. Ms. Kanker's trusty automobile was on borrowed time, with a new part needing work basically every week. Money simply evaporated from this family, it was just how life operated.
Lee had gotten a job some months ago at the candy shop just up the street from the cul-de-sac, where she earned a whopping five bucks an hour, every day after school and every-other Saturday. Her job mostly consisted of cleaning and stock-rotation, as it was really only little kids that stopped in in the twinkling afternoon hours. Summers on the other hand was a different story; during the summer the shop also sold ice cream of all types, and usually stayed packed with sticky-fingered customers.
Marie came walking through with her laundry basket in hand, pausing briefly at the junction where the kitchen met the living room. Lee was shaking up her toe-nail polish just as Marie stepped into the living room.
"Hey Lee, " Marie said, setting the basket down, its contents far too heavy for holding any significant amount of time, "you wanna come hang this laundry up with me? I could sure use the help…"
"Sure sis, I got nuttin' else better to do. The TV is on the fritz and I'm pretty sure it'll be blowin' up soon and killin' us all…" she chuckled to her self as she stood up from the sofa and walked over to the front door, holding it open long enough for her basket-toting sister to come through. Marie threw the basket down on the ground as the two began to hand the clothes together.
"So, how'd that study session with your little love bug go yesterday, huh?" Lee asked as she clipped two wooden clothes-pins on a shirt and pinched it to the weathered clothes-line.
"Oh shush Lee, he's not my love bug…" Marie replied in a mocking tone, "…he's just my tutor at the moment, and if you must know, he was very helpful for me in my studies!"
"Yeah but I bet you was staring at him the whole time, weren't ya?" she asked, chuckling towards the end.
"Well…he was kinda hard to miss. He just explains that stuff so well, it's like he just talked and I understood it. It really shocked me Lee, but he's good! Like, really good!". Marie said as she folded a towel over the line.
"Yeah well just be sure he keeps his hands to himself, or he'll have me to talk to!" Lee replied, pointing her thumb into her chest.
"Oh calm down Lee, you know he's not like that…" Marie said, now looking directly at her sister.
"Yeah, I know…" Lee responded, hanging some panties on the line, "…he's harmless. But you never know that shit for certain, so don't you forget that!" she pointed her finger directly at Marie.
"You just have massive trust issues, you don't trust anybody Lee!"
"Damn right, because you can't. Have you seen all the men that have lied to mom, mistreated her, broke her poor heart! That could be us too Marie! Men are out there, and they will hurt you if you let 'em. I don't plan on lettin' 'em hurt me, I got too much on my mind as it is…"
She wasn't wrong, either. Lee had taken on a great deal of responsibility as she matured. She was only a few months shy of her eighteenth birthday, though her entrance to adulthood occurred much earlier. Lee had an incredibly special bond with her mother that neither Marie or May truly had. Lee, the first born, was attached to her mother at the hip, and they talked more like sisters sometimes than mother and daughter. May was really close with her dad, the one she visited every weekend, leaving her sisters behind to do all the housework in her absence. Teenage-Marie resented May in a certain way, because she wanted a dad too! Marie was close to her mom as well, but not in the same way as Lee. Lee hated that their mom was forced to work so much to make up the difference, so she did what ever she could to pick up around the house, especially helping with bill money or gas money for the car.
"One day you'll take all that dumb shit back, Lee. You'll meet that right guy one day, and he'll make you forget all about that Miss Independent talk you do all the time…" Marie replied, the laundry basket getting close to half empty.
"So do you think old Double D might be "The One" then, for you?" Lee asked, hanging a pair of pants.
"I don't know Lee, I barely know him. I just know about him, but we're not close enough yet to make that kind of call. But yes, I do like him, a lot. But I don't know if he feels the same way, he's so…nice. He just doesn't show that kind of side to me, or probably anyone. And besides, I'd feel too embarrassed to ever bring something like that up…"
"Just keep cracking at that shell, Marie. Eventually you'll get to who he is on the inside. Men are complicated anyway, and he is a man after all. You've spent all these years chasin' after him, to only now really start gettin' to know him. Just don't get too wrapped up, because it'll hurt too bad if, you know-"
"I know Lee, trust me. I'm just hoping something will come from this, but I'm not sure. I guess I'll just have to wait and see…" Marie was now putting a few of her bras on the line.
"That's the best way to go, Marie. See what he does, how he acts. If you push this thing, it'll just backfire and you'll scare the shit outta that boy. You gotta play it with those subtleties, ya know? Men get itchy if you just fire all your guns at 'em. But just remember what I told ya, your studyin' comes first Marie, and never forget that. All the men in this world can try to break you down, but they can never take your brains."
"What brains Lee, obviously I haven't got much of those, considering the chemistry situation I'm in." Marie responded, her face turning into a stressed frown.
"Oh you got brains little sis, you just don't realize it. You slip up sometimes, but you're for sure the smartest of the three of us. You just gotta figure out how to get that brain of yours to work for ya, and it looks like Double D is workin' for you in that area…" Lee said, now smiling a warm smile at her sister.
"Thanks Lee, that really means a lot…" Marie said, holding a hand over her heart and feeling the gentle pull of tears welling up in her eye.
"Aw don't get mushy on me, sis!" Lee playfully teased. "So, did you tell Ma about the chemistry thing…?"
"Yeah, I told her last night when I got home." Marie answered.
"How'd she react?" Lee asked, turning towards Marie.
"Well, I did fib a little on exactly what happened…" Marie replied.
"You're picking up real good there, young sis. Sometimes you just hafta play this shit by ear, and wait for it to pan out. But just realize that Ma is always three steps ahead of you. Don't be surprised if you come home one day and she's waitin' for an explanation about those grades."
"I guess I'll run that risk…" Marie said, pinning up the final garment in the basket and letting out a big sigh, the bright sun burning much hotter than it'd suggest, considering the chilly temperatures that occurred the day before. Lee also let out a big sigh and dusted off her deep-blue jeans with her hands. A stiff breeze blew through the park, causing the freshly-hung clothes to sway back and forth, the screen door clattering in the foreground.
"How's about we head inside and watch a little QVC, huh Marie?" Lee asked, picking up the now very light laundry basket. "Have a little sister-sister bonding, and nothing says that better than QVC…"
Marie's face sported a lovely new smile at the sounds of the suggestion: "Sure Lee, that sounds like a plan. Hopefully that damn TV will hold up till Mom gets home…"
"I wouldn't put any money on it…" Lee said, as the two sisters climbed into the trailer, the screen door hissing closed behind them. They escaped the hot sunlight and left it for the clothes instead, swaying ever so in that stiff breeze that engulfed the entire cul-de-sac in a mid-afternoon gust.