FEBRUARY 10, 2006
Saturday mornings meant Saturday cartoons for Crysta. She poured herself a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and a mug of blonde roast coffee. When the weather was not cooperative with her like today's snowfall, she would wear black pajamas with red skulls on them and cover her body with a warm purple blanket. Pokémon was her favorite program to watch (especially during the winter or when sick). Unfortunately, Crysta was an hour early, so she asked Quinton if he needed any help around the house. He called his brother-in-law over to restock bottled wine at the winery, so Crysta went to her mother to ask the same question; the latter was working on taxes. She returned to her room to work on her math homework and listen to Mariah Carey's songs for a half-hour; when it was almost 8:00 AM, Crysta headed to the living room to watch Pokémon. She was no stranger to having childhood crushes such as Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny from said franchise. Whenever either one showed up on the screen, she would get dilated pupils, a faster heartbeat, and an aroused special area in most occurrences.
An hour later, Angelica welcomed her 68-year-old mother Judy into the house. The latter was wheelchair-bound and diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Because of her condition, Dr. Taylor recommended Judy on moving to a nursing home. Her appearance was nothing special with her gray hair, wrinkled pale skin with moles, round bifocals, ruby lipstick, dried wings, a cyan cardigan, a long navy skirt, and a pair of indigo fuzzy slippers. She liked to watch soap operas and eat lukewarm, homemade chicken noodle soup with unsalted crackers. The recipe was passed on to Angelica as a reminder of her life as a soup kitchen worker, an entrepreneur, and a loving mother of four children (except Bart because he was always a troublemaker). To Crysta, Judy was a loving grandmother with a caveat: the latter needed to take over the television.
Angelica gave Crysta some local news, "Sweetie, there's a yard sale run by a group of children. You should go there with this flyer our neighbors handed us!"
Crysta obtained and analyzed the flyer, "That looks like it's run at Knotty's place…and they are serving hot cocoa, maple bacon chicken sliders, and Cajun potato wedges—all homemade!"
"That sounds delicious!" Angelica proclaimed, "I would appreciate it if you could bring one of each for me."
"Are you not coming with me?"
"Sorry, hon'. I have to take care of my mother while the nurses find her a new home," Angelica said as she wrapped a light purple blanket over her mother's shoulders, "And your father is holding a tour around the winery, so you are on your own. I recommend you fly sparingly and low because it is snowy and windy but not extreme outside.
Crysta layered herself in a red-and-purple heavy coat, a yellow Ravens knit cap with a matching scarf, a black long-sleeved shirt, long underwear, navy jeans that hug her curves more, red winter gloves, and long gray socks. Her dark brown boots heeled at four inches made her butt more pronounced and she felt embarrassed.
"Mom, my butt's huge!" Crysta firmly grabbed herself.
Angelica giggled, "Oh, please don't feel bad about yourself! When I was pregnant with you, that was the biggest my butt grew! My sister even asked me if my butt itself was pregnant!" She placed her hand on Crysta's shoulder and whispered a tease in the ear, "As you get older, Crysta, it will grow to the size of your favorite Pixar character's butt if not bigger, and everyone will be looking at you! They will be begging on their knees for you—and I do not care how badly skinned their knees are and neither should you—to be their wife for days if not weeks! Imagine yourself going to a 76ers game with that whole bakery of yours…all alone. Why the fuck would you go there alone? You should be with someone you fully trust!... But I digress. Each pair of eyes will glue to your ample figure as you sashay through the crowded concourse. One foot in front of the other without hesitation on the cold gray floor. You get shy and embarrassed as you hide your face in your coat—that only makes everybody more interested in you! Women will envy you for months!"
Crysta was already whimpering at that point. Angelica massaged the daughter's silky black hair with her painted nails, took a deep breath, and continued whispering, "You will see smiles grow on the Pizza Hut employees' faces as you grab a large pizza and a regular Pepsi with black-eyed Susans and orioles on a vined branch hand drawn with colored fine-tip markers for you to collect. Yes, regular Pepsi because fuck diet! You get to one of the best seats in the arena and flutter your red come-hither lips, wondering, 'How am I supposed to fit my ass in it?' A very generous hunk from Philly will bravely solve your dilemma by placing an extra-wide deluxe seat on a step for you to sit in and you offer him the seat you paid for. You hand him a slice of pizza, but he is not eating it because he ate dinner at home. He wants all of the pizza to go straight to your butt! You two will then watch the 76ers win the game—or lose, but that will not matter anyway. The man will not ask you but rather take you to his place and…"
Crysta raced her heart as her mother fluttered her lips, "Lord knows what you two bodacious babes will be up to over there. Your future children will thank you for bringing them to this world. More importantly, you will thank Mommy for the bountiful gift!"
Crysta's straight face turned a bright red. She ran out the door, balled up her scarf, and screamed into it with her eyes shut, "MOM…!"
Angelica chuckled as she sipped her peppermint tea, "I just love teasing my daughter! Don't you agree, Mom?"
Judy replied, staring blankly into a weather channel, "I wonder if my refrigerator will run for Congress."
AT KNOTTY'S HOUSE, 9:20 AM
On day two of the boys' yard sale, they sold twenty-five percent of their merchandise. Many adults and children browsed through the lines of clothes, toys, jewelry, and handy tools. The boys earned $734 throughout the last night, including the $370 and $90 Root made from selling photographic magazines and rocket ships, respectively. One of his customers who bought two magazines advised him to seal the remaining printed material in the clasp envelopes from the harsh weather. Not only did Root buy one hundred of them from an Office Depot with his earnings from shoveling snow off an old man's driveway, but he also supplied the boys with the grocery bags his family stored for future use such as garbage and rain. Knotty's family prepared dark roast coffee, smooth hot cocoa with pink marshmallows, spicy maple bacon chicken sliders, Cajun potato wedges, bowls of hearty jambalaya, and semi-sweet chocolate zucchini muffins in their heated garage.
Crysta's arrival, with its precise movements and timing, surprised Pips. "Hi, Crysta! Beautiful weather we are having, huh?"
"Yeah, Pips," Crysta sarcastically replied, "It will be even better by tomorrow."
"So, what brings you here?" Stump asked as he sipped his coffee.
"Mom suggested I should come here to meet people. I assume she wanted me out of the house as I have the habit of watching too much TV on Saturdays, but I knew it was coming when Grandma Judy arrived," Crysta said as she kicked the snow with her boot.
Knotty approached her with a chicken slider and potato wedges in a paper bowl. "Crysta, you should try this food my parents made! These are really good!"
Crysta removed her right glove and grabbed the warm slider with her cool hand. She sunk her teeth into what appeared to be one of the best foods she had ever eaten. Its buttery biscuit, salty bacon, grilled Louisiana-rubbed chicken fillet, and sweet maple butter made her realize. "What the fuck have I been eating for breakfast this entire time?" she whispered. She wolfed the slider and wedges. The orgasmic combination of flavors was too overwhelming for Crysta, so she washed it down with water and coffee in a particular order before returning to the sale table.
"Okay, ma'am," Stump said, "Now that you had your breakfast, I figure you can spend some time browsing our merchandise around the yard. Maybe you could pick up something you get interested in."
Crysta noticed the box next to Stump, "'Photographic magazines?'"
"Diez dólares para una revista, Señorita Merlot. Sólo quedan dieciséis revistas."
Crysta reached in her pocket for a ten-dollar bill and handed it to Stump in exchange for one magazine sealed in a clasp envelope.
"Thank you for doing business with us," Stump said, "I will see you later at school…or here if you are interested in coming back."
"I will! Also, I am packing some of that food for Mom," Crysta said as she requested Knotty's parents a paper bag for takeout.
AT CRYSTA'S HOME, 8:00 PM
After a day indoors making Valentine's cards, putting a puzzle together, and eating dinner with her family, Crysta got ready to play Guitar Hero. Angelica instantly stopped and told her that Judy needed to sleep in the guest room. Since that room was directly below her bedroom, Crysta decided to play on her Nintendo DS instead. She pulled two games from her shelf and wondered: Mario Kart DS or Sonic Rush? One of the toughest decisions in life.
"There you go, Mom. Right where you need to be," Angelica said as she gently tucked her old mother into the soft bed, "Can I get you some water before you go to sleep?"
"She already had two glasses of water over dinner," Quinton said.
"I did? I…can't seem to remember if I did," Judy said. Her Alzheimer's was still making Angelica sad. Tears started to leak from her eyes.
"Hon',...I can't see my mother like this," Angelica began to sob.
Quinton hugged her, "I'm sorry you have to go through this, my dear. At times, life becomes unfair to many of us. I had to go through the same emotional pain by watching my Grandpap spend the rest of his life with pancreatic cancer…in a grim cold room with doctors around…separated from his loved ones including me and my father." He turned to Judy and asked, "Do you need anything else, Mrs. Blanc?" She chose to lie down and sleep instead. The two Merlots dimmed the lights, left the room, and closed the door behind them. They went outside to sit in the backyard patio chairs and listen to crickets.
Quinton continued, "Back in Australia, my grandfather would take us down to the fishing lake to catch some bass and Murray cod. We showed our catches to each other, but that was it. Whenever we had a bonfire, Grandpap would cook us some great steaks—huge, smoky, and juicy to the nth degree! Grannan gathered every one of us biters in a circle and told us a story about how fairies and humans lived together in harmony within a much larger world."
Angelica poured two glasses of Viognier and handed one to Quinton. He sipped and continued, "One day, this balance of nature was disturbed by this giant cloudy spirit named Hexxus. The evil menace rained this acid rain on the forest and the humans evacuated their homes."
"What about the fairies?" Angelica sipped her glass.
"With the fairies' magical powers of nature, this queenly figure Magi Lune was able to trap Hexxus inside an enchanted tree. Since then, the prison remained undisturbed and the rainforest pristine," Quinton gulped the rest of his wine.
Angelica inquired, "Has Crysta heard about the story yet?"
"No,...I have not," Quinton replied, "I would say it may not be too late to tell her that,...but part of me says otherwise."