Wednesday
Jun292005
U-Turns
June 29, 2005 Momma was an introvert, not given to being the center of attention. Her personality also did not lend itself to the idea of confrontation (unless she was out to save a library full of books). She would much rather “ignore” in the hopes of somehow passively deflecting the attention directed at her. Momma tried her best to avoid thinking about her secret admirer on the day his fleece was first so publicly laid out; but, her usual tactic would not serve Momma well in this situation.
Momma left work on that fateful “first” day, hoping to lay low for the rest of the evening. As she turned her car out onto the main highway, her eyes glimpsed something, attached to a telephone pole flapping in the wind. Her stomach immediately began to churn…surely it’s not another sign for me…surely this one is just advertising a yard sale for the weekend…
As she neared the pole, Momma knew. There could be no mistaking her name, “Evelyn.” What was worse was that several people had pulled over and appeared to be inspecting the sign. Like as not, they were actually waiting for Momma to show up and hoping she would stop so they could talk to her. Momma didn’t know what to do. Of course, she felt she had to read the sign, but she didn’t want to pull over and face the stares and even worse, have to have a conversation with people about the whole mess. What Momma wanted to do was hide, or have a strong wind suddenly blow the sign down so no one else would see it…or maybe even have the wind blow her away…
Momma made one pass by the sign,
“Evelyn…”
She drove to the next intersection, made a u-turn and, went to the next intersection made another u-turn, and passed the pole again.
“Green eyes, bright”
Momma repeated the u-turn process…
“fixed in my heart”
U-turn process…
“I want to hold her tight”
U-turn process…
“That we may never part”
Momma had only one line left to read. By now, people were starting to line up on the side of the road to watch Evelyn pass. Many called out and shouted her name, “Evelyn…who is this?” “What gives, Evelyn?” “Got a secret admirer eh?” “Thatta girl!” Momma ignored them all and drove on, ready for the last line,
“Evelyn, show me the light.”
Momma sucked in her breath and drove past the crowd of people “her” sign had now attracted. The local newspaper’s photographer and feature story reporter had now arrived and was taking pictures. Obviously, not much happened of note in this little town. Momma began to wonder if she might have to move in order to escape the scrutiny of her fellow townsfolk. Once at home, Momma turned on the teakettle, sat down at her kitchen table, stared at the pattern of daisies trailing up and down the table cloth and began to cry.
Reader Comments (6)
I also thought it would be neat, once this was completed and all smoothed out, to record me reading this story. There is a sort of "voice" I hear telling it to me (sounds spooky, doesn't it). I don't know if I could capture it...but it would be fun to try.
Her Barbness' blog: http://churchofthemasses.blogspot.com/
Her Barbness' website: http://barbaranicolosi.com/
She and FMG are pals as well. A particularly good glimpse into Barb can be found in this post:
http://churchofthemasses.blogspot.com/2005/06/tales-from-writers-life-chapter-4653.html
Live it. Love it. Bookmark it. :)
I'll check out her blog...I'll even book mark it.
But, I don't think I'll send her my little story...not sure it's up to a "real" Hollywood kind of caliber.