Trailer Park Blues
Marie Kanker was trudging through the forest back to the Park and Flush, the sun casting its long shadow upon the twisted oaks and pale sycamores and shrouding the ground with shades of purple and dark blue, rays of orange piercing through the gaps of the canopy. Normally, if she were on her own, she would be skipping through the woods after a love making session with her Oven Mitt, but right now she was feeling rather disgusted with herself, her eyes blazing with anger and her fists shaking. 'Great job back there you idiot, you had him right where you wanted him, you were finally making an effort to have a platonic conversation with him and what do you? Revert to type and forcefully smother him against a tree! Amazing, absolutely amazing! An opportunity to better yourself and you freakin' blew it!' Enraged, she kicked a nearby rock and watched as it shot through the air and bounced off two trees before landing in a small grotto. She leaned back and rested against a nearby maple tree, taking deep breaths as she tried to calm herself. She looked up through a gap in the trees and say the moon, half formed as it hung in the blue predusk sky, its soft glow pushed back to the powerful blaze of the slowly setting sun. She looked back down and sighed, her hand brushing through her hair as she dragged it across her face, temporarily exposing her right eye before her blue locks fell back over it like a wave.
She would be lying if she said that she hated chasing the Ed's, she enjoyed it, heck there were times where she loved it. There was just something about the rush of adrenaline flowing through her as she ran over every hill and dale, the glee of the chase as she inched closer and closer to her prize, the excitement when her target was finally caught and at her mercy, the look of fear that appeared on his face that made her feel like she had complete control, the feel of his skin as it shivered beneath her touch and the rush of passion as she leaned in for the prize that was intoxicating to her. She shivered, waves of pleasure surging through her just by thinking about it. A small smile appeared on her face at the tingling sensation that flowed through her body, her toes curling and her hands clutching her arms as she sighed in extacy. However, as the feeling dissipated, she frowned and then groaned as she grasped her head in both of her hands. 'Damn it is that why I did it? Because I'm getting an erotic kink out of it? Jesus what is wrong with me?' Muttering under her breath at how messed up she might be, she put her hands in her pockets and slowly walked towards the tree line, eventually emerging from the trees and looking out on the trailer park where she lived.
The Park and Flush wasn't one of those modern parks that had a sense of respectful communal living that just happened to be a trailer park, it was a rundown, grubby and even dangerous park that was the primary reason local Cul-de-Sac property values were so low. The grass was completely dead here, as most of the ground was worn down dirt with the occasional mud pit that never seemed to go away no matter how dry it's been. Broken generators and clothes lines shared the ground with empty beer cans, syringes and open garbage bags, spilling their filth out between what could be laughably called paths and yards of the various residents. The trailers themselves weren't much better. Most of them were starting to rust and had cracked windows, their paint peeling off the metal exteriors. Some of them still showed flood damage from the time Double-D, in a sleep deprived state of consciousness, accidently dammed the Peach Creek River, causing it to overflow its banks and flood the region. Marie walked down the familiar route home, walking around the occasional broken down car and pile of busted furniture until she arrived at her trailer. It was really unremarkable, a standard two story blue trailer with a small porch light that was once stolen from a street lamp and hotwired over the doorway. Each floor was shaded a different color of blue, dark blue for the first floor, normal blue for the second floor. It was a standard if rather uninteresting trailer and as such was the best looking trailer in the whole park.
As Marie opened the two doors that led inside she looked in and saw a normal, if boring sight. Her sisters were sitting on the old pea green couch watching basic cable from their 1984 Magnavox Color TV, the soft glow of the screen helping the sun to light up the teal living room and orange shag carpeting. Even though the Kankers weren't the most well off and more often than not had to deal with only two meals a day, broken air conditioning units, cold showers and cheap food, the fact that they were able to live somewhat comfortably was a minor miracle. They had shelves and cabinets, they had indoor plumbing that lead directly to the sewerage line, plenty of space to move around in and they were able to consistently pay the electric bill, something that not even a quarter of the rest of the trailer park could say they could do. Marie was even convinced that they were the only trailer to have a book, let alone a small library. While it wasn't much compared to the kids that lived in the Cul-de-Sac next door (something that she couldn't help but be jealous about after the one time she snuck into her Oven Mitts house to spy on him, only to leave after five minutes after seeing the contents of his fridge, slightly bitter as she did and stealing a bunch of strawberries), it was still HER home and she was glad that it was her home, even if she did have to share a bed with her siblings.
Marie closed the door behind her, making sure to slam it so that her sisters would know that she was home. She went to the kitchen and got herself a glass of water, pretty much the only drink that was in the house besides her mom's crates of beer and the strange orange liquid mom keeps in a cooler that she won't let any of them touch and that she only brings out every Halloween, November 3rd, Christmas, July 31st and … her birthday. Marie shot up slightly and quickly turned off the faucet before turning and looking at the calendar that hung from the refrigerator door. She peared closely at a white square that was filled with a single red circle. ^August 6th, my birthday^. Marie stepped back and groaned a bit, how could she forget? She was turning eleven tomorrow, that meant that Mom was going to be home tonight so that she could spend all day with them. A huge grin came over her face as she sprinted into the living room, her glass of water forgotten on the counter top. "Hey Lee, May!" Lee, aggravated by the sudden shout, turned and shot a small glare at Marie, May joining in with a more annoyed look that crossed her face. "What is it Marie, can't you see that I'm busy trying to watch my soaps?" "Yeah Marie," May concurred with her elder sister. "Vivian's about to bury Dr. Manning alive!" "I just wanted to ask you if you know what day it is?" Marie asked, a look of mischievous glee shining from her face as she rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. Lee look just got more annoyed for a moment, May on the other hand quickly got the hidden meaning behind Marie's words. "Oh right, your birthday's tomorrow isn't it." Lee, catching on, smiled a sardonic grin that showed the blue cap that covered one of her front teeth. "Yeah, that's right, you're becoming a little lady tomorrow, the big number 11. The day when a young girl wakes up, puts on her best work dress and walks outside saying 'Watch out world, for I am a woman!'" May snorted piggishly at that before quickly covering her hand to stifle her laughter, just in case Marie took offense to it. Marie however, just rolled her eyes while smirking at Lee, who had no qualms about laughing at her own joke in front of her little sister, as she knew that was just her way of saying that she was happy for her. "So, do you know when Mom's going to get home?" Lee, who had calmed down to chuckling a little, cleared her throat by before responding. "Yeah, she told me this morning that she had to work a late shift today so that she didn't have to make up lost time after your birthday so she said that she'll be home by around 8:00, she also told me that we should have dinner before had and just leave something for her when she gets here." Marie frowned at bit at this. She had hoped that they might have been able to have dinner together as a family tonight, but she also knew that her mom couldn't help it. Due to her multiple jobs and the hectic work hours she needed to do in order to get food on the table, she tended to work fifteen hours per day on the reg. As such, most of the time she spent at home was spent sleeping and even then she had gotten used to working on only five hours of rest. Due to constantly working to night shift at Lemon Brook Hospital, they couldn't see her much during the day either, as that was when she slept. It was worse during the school year, as she would be in bed before they left and had gone to work by the time they came home, so every bit of time they could get with her was precious to them. Ms Kanker knew this as well, so every Christmas and on each of her children's birthdays she would spend the entire day with them, talking to them about school, about their hobbies, how they were doing and about what adventures they've gotten into. So for her not to have dinner the day before one of their birthdays was a little concerning. Marie looked and checked the time. ^5:15^.
The hours seemed to tick away at the speed of molasses for Marie. She and her sisters spent their time watching their evening soaps, fighting over the remote afterward to see what they would watch next (Marie wanted to watch the WWE, Lee wanted to watch the horse races and May wanted to watch 'The Golden Girls'), and making and eating their specialty brand Kanker meatloaf, but every five minutes Marie would look up at the clock and try to will it to go faster. But the seconds just ticked slowly on, each tick feeling like a drop of cold water was being poured on the base of her neck. By 7:30, Marie was just doing things in a futile attempt to distract herself from having an anxious breakdown. She was trying to read an art book about the Baroque Era of Art. Key word being tried, as she had been reading the same line about Caravaggio's 'The Blinding of ' for the past ten minutes. Frustrated, she slammed the book shut on the kitchen table. Rubbing her eyes, she turned towards the small digital clock resting nearby. ^7:52^. She glared at the clock, grabbed it in her hand and shock it. She stopped and looked at it again. ^7:53^. "Argh, useless piece of junk!" she shouted before hurling the clock against the fridge, denting it. She sighed in an attempt to get her nerves under control, picked up her book and walked back into the living room. Lee was back on the couch, now watching 'Fish Bowl II' for the 207th time ('How is that constantly on the air?') and May was laying down on her chest on the white rug in front of the tv, reading some comic books she 'liberated' from the garbage. Marie put the book back on the shelf and sat next to her sister on the couch. Lee looked over at her and spoke in a quiet and comforting tone, "Hey, you don't have to be so nervous, it's just mom after all, you know she wouldn't stay late on a day like this unless there was something really important going on." Maire sighed, nodded and pinched the bridge of her nose in weariness. "I know, I'm just being stupid. It's just that she told me that she was going to tell me something important tomorrow." "Really," Lee asked quizzically, "about what?" Marie looked down at her hands, which rested rigidly between her legs. "About my Dad." Lee stared back, stone faced and subdued. "Oh." The two sisters sat there awkwardly, neither of them able to look at each other.
If there was one wedge between the Kanker Sisters, it was their fathers. While all three of them had the same mother they all had different fathers and each of their father's had a different relationship with their mother. Back even before Ms Kanker had Lee she was struggling financially. She hadn't been able to go to college after graduating high school and struggled keeping a stable job so for some extra money she had done some work as a 'companion' to pay the bills. One of her clients and her had gotten a little frisky one night and by the time she realized she was pregnant, her client had been promoted and transferred halfway across the country. Angry, she ended up giving birth to Lee at a homeless shelter and raising her on her own. As for May's conception, well let's just say there's a reason she doesn't go out drinking alone any more. However, Marie's father was the one that got close to her enough for there to be pictures of him, the few of them that there were, to be in the house. In mom's room there were pictures of a black long haired man with gray eyes, a black goatee/mustache combo and a smile that shone as if he were always laughing. One picture had him holding Marie and Lee in each of his arms while smiling at the camera, another had him carrying Lee on his shoulders, both of them laughing in delight and yet another showed him smiling sheepishly, covered in mashed carrots that had been thrown at him by May. But there were no images of him beyond Marie's second Christmas, as he left her mother while Marie was only a year old, never to return. So far all that her mother ever said on the matter was that he had a good reason to leave and that he promised to return one day. Whenever her mother was home she would always set aside time to talk to Marie about her father, about his jokes and the little pranks he used to pull, about his love of dogs and deer, about his hatred for his mother and the quiet sorrow he had with his estranged relationship with his brother. Even though she hadn't seen him in nearly ten years and has never had an actual conversation with him, she knew nearly everything about him, his favorite food (smoked salmon with a mango glaze), his favorite band (Black Sabbath), what he liked to wear on his days off (a black leather jacket, worn khakis and a fire red t-shirt), even the pet names they'd call each other (Babs and Pads respectively). Every scrap of information she could pick up about her father she treasured and she always looked forward to the moment where her mother would take her to her room and tell her more stories about her father. And both Lee and May, who never knew their fathers, resented that special connection that Marie had with their mother because of it. There was an intimacy that they lacked, another level that they felt that they would never be able to reach, to the point that when they were particularly angry with each other Lee and May would scornfully call Marie 'the favorite'. So in order to keep the peace Marie would try not to bring it up, but this year was different as her mother promised to tell her why her father left them when she turned eleven, so she was particularly excited and nervous about tomorrow. It's the main reason why she had been looking at the clock all night. But now that she mentioned it to Lee she was worried that the family time they would spend together would turn bitter.
Luckily for them a tired yet firm voice came from the doorway. "I'm home girls." The sisters turned towards the door where Ms Barbra Kanker was just entering. "Sorry I'm late, Susie's husband Calvin's father was in a bike accident and had to be taken to the hospital so she asked me to cover for her while they went to the emergency room to see him." If one looked at the Kanker sisters actions one would assume that their mother was just as aggressive, brash and impulsive as her daughters but that couldn't be further from the truth. Barbra was a kind and compassionate, if sorrowful woman. Her strawberry blonde cascaded down to the middle of her back, framing an aged yet beautiful face of a woman in her late thirties. Hazel eyes glistened in a ring of crows feet and purple bags while a small, if insincere smile appeared on her face, as if she was trying to hide her pain and exhaustion. A pair of brown khaki's fit comfortably around her muscular thighs and wide hips while a short sleeved collared black shirt barely covered her D-sized breasts and muffin top. She was like the figurehead of a ship that had slowly been beaten down by time and age, with the beauty of the craftsman's carving shining through despite the best efforts of even the most tumultuous storm.
Marie quickly got up off the coach and tried to guide her mother over to the coach, but she kindly rebuffed her. "Honey I know you mean well but I'm not so tired that I can't walk across a room." As she sat down she kicked off a pair of black two inch heels and let out a small sigh before slumping down into the cushion, a wave of exhaustion crashing into her with the force of a twenty foot tsunami. May quickly went to the kitchen and returned with a plate of leftover meatloaf. "We saved this for you, I hope you like it." May said as she gave her mother the plate. Ms Kanker looked over at her youngest and let a sly grin crossed her face. "Why, did you make dinner tonight." The blush that crossed May's face was all the answer she needed. She chortled a little before giving her a smile. "Oh May, you know that I like whatever you make for me. You don't have to worry about my opinion on things like this." "I know, I just didn't want to give you food poisoning again." Ms Kanker frowned a bit at this. "May you were only seven and it was your first time cooking, you've improved so much since then, you need to stop being so critical of yourself." May blushed again, this time in embarrassment and nodded. As Ms Kanker ate she and her daughters talked about their summer so far, about what the neighbors were doing, about miss so-and-so's affair and mr yadayada's drug problem, about some of the more amusing events that happened to Ms Kanker at work and her frustration with her boss at the restaurant, about what classes they were looking forward to later this month and about the possibility of getting a new air conditioning unit as the old one was on its last legs. The night went on her the next few hours, dishes were put in the sink and mugs of hot chocolate was brought out, the sounds of the television screen drowned out by their bonding. The shadows grew across the walls and the floor until it consumed the golden light of the sun, leaving only the pale, sickly glow of the tv to light the room. Eventually the conversation turned towards what they had been doing that very day. "So after I finished cleaning up the grease trap, my boss was about to let me go when one of the new busboys broke five of the wine bottles, so he me go to the liquor store so that we could get new ones. I swear I was this close to strangling the kid I was so mad." growled Ms Kanker, gesturing with fingers barely touching each other, showing just how close she was to snapping. "You have better control than me ma, the cooks would've been spending three hours scrapping him off the ceiling." said Lee, shaking her head and chuckling slightly. "And you wonder why I worry about your temper." Ms Kanker responded, sipping her mug afterward. "And that's really it, so what did you do today?" The Kanker sisters froze slightly, as if they had been dunked in cold water. There was a silent agreement among them that they would never mention any of the more 'questionable' aspects of their relationship with the Ed's or at least paint themselves in a more positive light. They would mention somethings, like when the time they stopped Eddy from hypnotizing the neighborhood and made them act like dogs afterward and the time they attacked Eddy's river cruise, saying that they were playing with them, and the time Marie won the neighborhood wrestling competition, but things like when they kidnapped the Ed's for a fake wedding, or when they helped Jimmy frame the Ed's for ruining friendship day or when they destroyed the Cul-de-Sac searching for their ship in a bottle were never discussed or brought up on family day. As far as Ms Kanker knew, the Ed's were just neighborhood trouble makers that they hung out with sometimes and other times stopped from conducting their more nefarious scams. Lee and May subtly looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes and a wave of agreement passed between them. "Oh the Ed's were conducting one of their scams again, we disagreed with what they were doing, Eddy rebuffed our concerns, we broke up the operation and then chased them for a bit before coming home, nothing much." Lee said dismissively. "Really?" Ms Kanker quired, an eyebrow raised in doubt. "What were they doing this time?" May responded to her, her eyebrows creased in anger and her teeth grinding like sandpaper. "They were doing a fortune telling scamming, using tarot cards, a glass ball and other tricks to take the other kids quarters to buy jawbreakers." A dark look came across Ms Kanker's face. "You were too gentle with them." Marie winced at this, a wave of guilt hitting her suddenly, something that her mother saw. "Marie, did something else happen?" Lee and May also looked over at her, as they were curious to know what happened after they left. Marie wanted to look at them, but her eyes refused to leave her feet. "Marie, what did you do?" Ms Kanker's accusatory tone was something her the Kankers swore had to come from some mystical sources because no matter how hard they tried to hide something, they always come clean whenever she spoke to them in that tone, and it didn't fail at this time either. "I didn't do it to him, but while we were chasing after them, one of the Ed's tripped on a tree root and he dislocated his shoulder while falling down the hill." A look of shock appeared on May's and Lee's face, while a look of concern appeared on her mother's. "Was he alright?" "Yeah, after I set his shoulder back in, but." "But?" Marie finally looked up at her mother and into eyes glowing with understanding, eyes that seemed to say that she would be understanding no matter what she said so she continued. "We said some mean things to each other, but he came over to apologize, when...when." Silently, Barbra urged her daughter to go on. "I felt this urge, it was domineering, it was forceful, it was...erotic. I wanted him to submit, I wanted to feel this controlling power over him, I wanted him to feel...helpless." Ms Kanker stared stonely at her before speaking, almost in a whisper. "Lee, May, I want you to go to bed, your sister will be along in a few minutes, I just want to have a private talk." Lee and May didn't need telling twice as they quickly spirited out of the room and up the stairs.
Now that they were alone, Barbra could only sigh. 'How did it come to this.' she thought. 'Well, time for this game to end.' "Marie, how do you feel when you chase the Ed boys?" Marie had returned to looking down at her feet, shame oozing from her oil paint from a tube. "I feel delighted, strong, powerful. And when I catch them I feel triumphant. When they look at me with fear I feel hot, as if my whole body constantly being touched in every sensitive part of my nerves. When I touch him I feel tense and I just want to release it as forcefully as possible." Is that why I have to keep buying lipstick and Krankshaft perfume?" Marie froze and looked to her mother in shock and winced as she saw her eyes blazing in disappointment and anger. "You think I didn't know about your escapades with them? I've known ever since Mrs. Mactavish called to shout at me for Lee accosting her son in the shower last summer. It took everything I had to convince her not to call the cops on her." Marie now stared at her mother in fear. She had told her sisters that breaking into their boyfriends house was too far and that they shouldn't do it. She knew that they were getting lucky and that the only reason they hadn't been reported was because the other kids were too scared of them. But her sisters, cocky and arrogant, did it anyway. 'Least I know why mom had Lee do the laundry and dishwashing for three months afterward now.' Marie thought as her mother started to speak again. "And I know about the one you go after, Eddward Vincent isn't it?" "Ye, Yes." Marie stuttered, now wishing that the floor would open up beneath her and swallow her whole. "Believe it or not one of my friends at the hospital is Dr. Alice Vincent, Eddward's mother and while she also struggles to see her son when she can, she does love him and she does see him every night. And for the past year she's been getting concerned about the number of bruises he's been getting, particularly those at the base of his neck." Marie winced again, as she recently started giving Double-D hickeys along with the standard lipstick kisses, as she wanted to leave something more permanent on him, now that had come back to bite her in the rear. "Marie, I understand that because I'm not here that often and that you didn't know better, but you and the others can't go on doing this. I know that you're responsible young ladies, it's why I kept such a free hand on this rather than snipping it in the bud last year, but I'm worried that sense you feel this whenever you encounter him that it might be getting worse, and I don't want to see one of my daughter's end up in a juvenile hall." Marie by this point was on the verge of tears, as each word coming from her mother's mouth was like rocks being thrown at her head. "I'm sorry, at first it was just some bullying, they were scam artists and nobody really complained if we went after them but as time went on I...I" "Fell in love with your victim." Marie nodded, a few tears trailing down her face. "It's not like I didn't feel bad afterwards, I felt a little disgusted with myself that I couldn't even have a conversation with him without trying to have control of him." Barbra moved closer to her daughter and gave her a hug to comfort her. "And that is a good thing, because you realize that what you have with each other isn't healthy. It means that you can start to fix this. But not tomorrow, I have something important I need to tell you and your sisters tomorrow that is going to affect all of us." Marie, drying her tears from her eyes, looked up curiously at her mother. "Why, what is it?" Instead of a response, Ms Kanker just smiled, winked and poked Marie on the nose. "Ah, ah, can't spoil the surprise too early. Now go up to bed, we have a big day tomorrow." Marie, now smiling, nodded and went up the stairs to her sisters room.
Barbra watched her daughter go with a smile on her face, but once she heard the tell tale sound of a door closing the smile left her face. She got up and picked up the disused mugs from the floor and put them in the sink. She then turned off the tv and went upstairs to her room. It was a rather barren space, a single twin sized mattress on a wire frame bed, a night stand with a lamp on top of it and a small desk were the only pieces of furniture in the room, a murky glow from the lamp bouncing off the purple walls giving it a rather lonely feeling to it. Barbra sat on the bed before reaching into the nightstand drawer and pulling out a small picture. It was a picture of her and Marie's father at Niagara Falls, enjoying a date together. But the interesting thing about the picture was that the occupants of the photo were moving. Marie's father was laughing and constantly messing up her hair, while she was mocking beating him off. She watched as her photographic self drew him into a loving kiss, a sad smile appearing on her face as a tear rolled down her face. "Oh Pads, I'm so worried about our little girls." She fell back on the bed and drew the photo to her chest, caressing it in a loving embrace. "I'm trying so hard, but I don't know what to do with this one."
