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Authors: JeanNicole Rivers
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From one end of the room to the next, Lola had strung clothesline, and used clothespins to attach Polaroids evenly along the lines. Regina admired the photographs that had hung on thatclothesline unmoved for years. Some of them were beginning to fade into a yellow fog, distorting their doppelganger images, threatening to choke them out of the pictures altogether. In one photo a younger Lola was leaning over her mother, who sat in a chair on the front porch, Lola was smiling wildly in her usual excited, cheerleading personality.
How was it possible to be so happy?
Regina wondered.
Another was a picture of Lola, Regina, Nikki, and Natalie, taken one Sunday afternoon at the lake when they were just girls. They looked jovial but their faces were drawn in subtle expressions, tiresome and wilted. Regina could still smell the summer flowers. The sun was fiery that day, but a cool breeze brushed over the land a couple of times every hour making the afternoon bearable.
Lola’s father was at the barbecue pit giving instructions to Regina’s father on how wonderfully tender he was able to make the ribs. At a picnic table, the wives sat chattering. Gloria Rusher was handing out paper plates and napkins. In the glow of the July sun, she looked vibrant; she wore a brightly colored scarf around her head to keep her gleaming black hair from tumbling down into her jovial face. As a young bride she had begun having her children early and was a few years younger than the other mothers at the table, but she fit in so well it was seldom that anyone remembered the age gap. The other women hardly noticed the difference in Gloria’s age, but the girls did. Mrs. Rusher was cooler than their mothers, not better or more loving, but more exciting. The Rushers had a trampoline and they would let the girls jump off the roof onto the trampoline, causing them to flare with exhilaration. Lola’s mom and dad did things that the other girls’ parents would not have given second thought to and the girls loved every second.
Natalie’s father was absent and had been for a long time. He went to work one day and never came home. Later Natalie’s mother, Carla Weston, discovered that he had not gone to work at all that day, and that their bank account was suddenly empty. Natalie and her mother, Carla, had to move back to Black Water where Carla could depend on the help of her own mother who was ailing, but still more help than a phantom of a husband. Mrs. Weston lovedher daughter, but was never able to relate to her, which created a wedge between them that grew over the years until her mother could barely find words to say to Natalie that would not send her into an uproar. Recently, Carla Weston had been sick and looked a bit haggard in the summer heat as she gripped a Kleenex in her hand, coughing often.
Nikki’s mother, Fayleen, was beautiful, with brown shoulder-length hair. The year before she had been their cheerleading coach, but had given the position to a younger and much more eager replacement. Over the years, sadness had crept up on her, seeping in through the emotional cracks. She did her best to hide it and was actually quite successful in front of others, but not in the mornings or at full night. In the evenings when the sun began to set the feeling that came with the draining of light and the onset of the dark was more than she could bear and the shadows would take over. At the table she laughed and smiled occasionally, but had insisted that the barbecue be early in the day, for she knew what would come as the sun disappeared behind the hills.
Finally, Regina came to her own mother, funny but serious, stern but approachable. Everyone loved her mother, despite her reputation for being almost mean. Mrs. Dean was a delight to be around, she was the woman that the other women went to when they had a problem to which they needed solution. She would listen while drinking her coffee, staring into the cup intently, and then she would think
From one end of the room to the next, Lola had strung clothesline, and used clothespins to attach Polaroids evenly along the lines. Regina admired the photographs that had hung on thatclothesline unmoved for years. Some of them were beginning to fade into a yellow fog, distorting their doppelganger images, threatening to choke them out of the pictures altogether. In one photo a younger Lola was leaning over her mother, who sat in a chair on the front porch, Lola was smiling wildly in her usual excited, cheerleading personality.
How was it possible to be so happy?
Regina wondered.
Another was a picture of Lola, Regina, Nikki, and Natalie, taken one Sunday afternoon at the lake when they were just girls. They looked jovial but their faces were drawn in subtle expressions, tiresome and wilted. Regina could still smell the summer flowers. The sun was fiery that day, but a cool breeze brushed over the land a couple of times every hour making the afternoon bearable.
Lola’s father was at the barbecue pit giving instructions to Regina’s father on how wonderfully tender he was able to make the ribs. At a picnic table, the wives sat chattering. Gloria Rusher was handing out paper plates and napkins. In the glow of the July sun, she looked vibrant; she wore a brightly colored scarf around her head to keep her gleaming black hair from tumbling down into her jovial face. As a young bride she had begun having her children early and was a few years younger than the other mothers at the table, but she fit in so well it was seldom that anyone remembered the age gap. The other women hardly noticed the difference in Gloria’s age, but the girls did. Mrs. Rusher was cooler than their mothers, not better or more loving, but more exciting. The Rushers had a trampoline and they would let the girls jump off the roof onto the trampoline, causing them to flare with exhilaration. Lola’s mom and dad did things that the other girls’ parents would not have given second thought to and the girls loved every second.
Natalie’s father was absent and had been for a long time. He went to work one day and never came home. Later Natalie’s mother, Carla Weston, discovered that he had not gone to work at all that day, and that their bank account was suddenly empty. Natalie and her mother, Carla, had to move back to Black Water where Carla could depend on the help of her own mother who was ailing, but still more help than a phantom of a husband. Mrs. Weston lovedher daughter, but was never able to relate to her, which created a wedge between them that grew over the years until her mother could barely find words to say to Natalie that would not send her into an uproar. Recently, Carla Weston had been sick and looked a bit haggard in the summer heat as she gripped a Kleenex in her hand, coughing often.
Nikki’s mother, Fayleen, was beautiful, with brown shoulder-length hair. The year before she had been their cheerleading coach, but had given the position to a younger and much more eager replacement. Over the years, sadness had crept up on her, seeping in through the emotional cracks. She did her best to hide it and was actually quite successful in front of others, but not in the mornings or at full night. In the evenings when the sun began to set the feeling that came with the draining of light and the onset of the dark was more than she could bear and the shadows would take over. At the table she laughed and smiled occasionally, but had insisted that the barbecue be early in the day, for she knew what would come as the sun disappeared behind the hills.
Finally, Regina came to her own mother, funny but serious, stern but approachable. Everyone loved her mother, despite her reputation for being almost mean. Mrs. Dean was a delight to be around, she was the woman that the other women went to when they had a problem to which they needed solution. She would listen while drinking her coffee, staring into the cup intently, and then she would think
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