Kool-Aid Smiles

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Gullivor
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Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 3:51 pm

Kool-Aid Smiles

Post by Gullivor »

Kool-Aid Smiles


The police car turned down a dimly lit dead-end street, slowly passing by poverty neglected houses. The drive was dragging on and on as they came to a crawl along a long 15-foot-tall cement wall, painted tan with three strung lines of barbed wire slanting out along the top of it. The car stopped at a big double door on a structure the cement wall was connected to. It looked like the shape of a stucco house, but with no windows.


Rusty barbed wire safe house
Home free from drunken beatings
Cockroaches boldly crossing the pealing laminate floor
Everyone’s safe here to look for a stale meal


“How long are we going to be here, mommy”?
“I don’t know,” she said, speaking through freshly stitched lips.
Her lips had started to swell now, pressing hard against the reddish-brown stitches holding together the skin. The rawness connecting the flesh glistened along the tear line that the stitches held together. Crookedly stitched, he noticed; like an unevenly buttoned shirt.

“This is the studio unit you two will be staying in,” the intake woman said as she opened a dark heavy door. The door looked like it was painted over many times; with painted over chip marks throughout the door. She had been with them since a policeman drove them to the complex after they were released from the Emergency Room.


As she knocked, slowly opening the door, she loudly spoke in Spanish. A sleepy lady’s voice called "si" from the dark room. A light went on, but the room was still dim. A woman sat up on a twin-size bed. Two little children were looking up at their new roommates through scared, sleepy eyes, clinging to their mother. The boy and girl looked about his age; seven or eight. An empty bed was on the other side of the room with a small kitchenette along the open wall. The walls looked worn with years of movement; like a busy old hotel hallway. There was a small bathroom to the side. The porcelain from the sink, toilet and bathtub were stained rusty with time.


“This is Julio and Nina”, said the intake lady to the boy and his mother. The children shyly smiled and made brief eye contact before looking down at the floor nervously. Julio and Nina’s mom’s name was Martha. Both her eyes were purple and swollen shut. Moisture could be seen twinkling where her swollen eyelids met.


The boy and his mom quietly laid down on the empty bed. The boy could hear and feel his mom softly crying until she fell asleep. On the other bed across the room Martha was fast asleep breathing heavily through her mouth. Her nose was also swollen shut, like her eyes.


The children took peeks at each other from across the dim room. Julio made a funny face; his nostrils flaring, his eyes opening wide, and his tongue popping out of his mouth. The boy started to giggle. All of them started giggling; it was contagious. The more they tried to be quiet as to not wake their sleeping mothers, the harder they giggled. Their moms didn't wake from the laughter; they were too exhausted. The children finally fell asleep with the comfort of each other. They weren't alone in this situation anymore. Their laughter put them to ease like the sweetest lullaby.


The next morning arrived with a knock on the door. Breakfast was announced in a thick, creole accent. A lady came in with five food trays stacked on top of each other. She placed them on the dining table next to the kitchenette. There were only four chairs. The children were the first ones out of the beds. Martha said something in Spanish and Julio quickly translated that she had said that she was not hungry and would like to sleep longer. The boy and his mother followed Julio and Nina's move for the table. Martha's food tray was placed on a small available space next to the kitchen sink. The four of them sat down looking at their trays. Scrambled eggs, some greasy greenish sausage patties and a scoop of grits. Nina retrieved four small cartons of milk from the mini fridge and placed them in front of each tray. Julio and Nina quickly started with the scrambled eggs. The boy took their lead and scooped up a bite of his eggs. His mother just sat there, slowly moving her food around with her plastic spork. She was somewhere else; deep in thought.


"I karate kicked him in the stomach twice" Brave Julio announced. "He was hitting her pinned on the ground and I HI-YA, HI-YA," Julio said as he jumped out of his chair and made Kung Fu kicks in the air. "He ran. I chased him away" he said. Nina spoke up and stuttered that she had called the police on her mom’s boyfriend. Her eyes glancing uncomfortably at the floor.


The boy just listened. He didn't have anything to say. He felt like a coward. His stepfather was big and strong. He was always coming home late drunk and arguing with his mother. He could only watch while he kicked his mother in the gut, then upper cut punched her in her mouth when she bellowed over from the kick to the stomach. He remembered she flew up in the air and landed flat on her back. Then his stepfather left. He ran to his mother; she was knocked out and bleeding from her mouth. All he could think to do was grab the kitchen washcloth and run cold water on it to place on her mouth. She quickly came to with a jolt that startled and relieved him at the same time. He didn't remember anything after that; just driving to the shelter in the police car with her.


Thanksgiving feast
Pumpkin pie thrown around
Kick to the gut
Followed by an uppercut
Knock out
In the first round


A few hours after breakfast the intake lady came in with a pitcher of Kool-aid and three disposable cups. “I want you kids to stay here and play while your moms go to the group meeting,” she announced. The ladies gathered their purses and hugged and kissed the children as they left. The boy noticed the stitches on her lips felt prickly against his own. How odd that felt after years of soft, tender kisses from his mother. It didn't feel familiar and comforting now.


The children drank their Kool-Aid fast. They all had the cup-shaped, Kool-aid stained smiles on their faces. Julio said " Hey, I saw someone drop off presents for Christmas yesterday. They hid them in the closet in the intake office.” The boy's eyes opened wide and he asked if they could go see them. Julio said he’d take him and Nina, but they had to be careful not to get caught. Nina just looked all wild eyed as she shook her head "yes". They opened the dark door of the studio just a crack and peeked out. “All clear!” the boy announced. Julio went first; with Nina behind, then the boy. They crawled along close to the outside wall, pretending to be invisible if anyone was around. The adults were all in group, and they were in the clear.

Julio slightly opened the door to the intake office, pressed his right eye against the slim opening and looked inside. Nina impatiently shoved him through the door, flinging in open. The children rushed inside, with Julio in the lead, and headed to the closet door. He opened it wide and the three children pushed each other, stuffing themselves in the doorway at the same time. Nina grabbed a stuffed teddy bear holding a heart and hugged it. The boys, after digging through the pile of toys, found a box of Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. They assembled it and started playing. Nina held her teddy bear in the corner, leafing through a picture book she had found. The boy pulled his trigger and hit Julio's robot on the chin, causing its head to pop up out of its spring-loaded neck. "Got ya," the boy said. Julio shouted "rematch, rematch" as he pushed his robots head back down to secure it into its neck.


The children pulled more toys out of the closet and played for what seemed like forever. Time seemed to stop for them in their excitement. Everything seemed to stop, even their worried minds. It was just the three of them. Sitting on the floor, playing, laughing and wearing their silly Kool-aid smiles. Everything felt good at that moment and time. Everything was okay. They had each other.


Displaced little kids
Sneaking around
Find
Donated Christmas presents
They play
Everything is okay
Kool-aid smiles
Continue
To this day



A few weeks later it was Christmas Eve. In the middle of the night the boy’s mother woke him. “It’s time to go” she whispered. "I talked to him and he is sorry. He said he will never do it again. We are going to work it out. Now let's go." She took off his pajamas and dressed him. He looked to his friends across the room in their bed. He couldn’t tell if they were sleeping. He felt sad. It all happened so quick, and he couldn’t say goodbye to Nina and Julio. His mother grabbed a bag, took him by the hand and led him out of the shelter to the dark street. They walked past the old neglected houses he had seen from the police car on the way to the shelter. They looked different now, with people hanging out on the porches whistling and calling out to him and his mother. “Just ignore them”, she said to him as they continued down the street. Once they made it to the Main Street a car horn blew, and he could see his stepfather’s car in the distance. The headlights blinked and his mom pulled him towards the car. They got in and drove away.



“I got us a new place to live,” the stepfather announced, as they pulled into an unfamiliar apartment complex. “You guys are going to love it,” he said as he opened the door to the apartment. A puppy jumped at the boy’s legs as the door opened. “That’s your new puppy,” the stepfather said. The boy picked up the puppy and it licked his face. “It was the cutest pup ever,” he thought. “Come look in the living room,” said the stepfather. They could see down the hallway that the room looked very bright. They walked down the short hallway into the room to see a big, brightly lit Christmas tree. “The biggest Christmas tree the boy ever had,” he thought. It had a bunch of wrapped presents under it. It even had a train around it. “Come,” the stepfather said to the boy, “I will show you how to work the train.”


They all sat around the tree that Christmas Eve night. Opening Christmas presents early and playing with the puppy. Laughing and hugging each other with the smell of pine needles in the air mingled with whiskey as the Christmas tree train went around and around.


Goodbyes are hard
Better unsaid
A toast to new beginnings
New beginnings
Always new beginnings
Whiskey shots
To auld lang syne



27 August 2020
~~~~Gully~~~~
We’ve all come to
This moment
To find out
Who we are.
Painted colors
Scribed words
Sweetly found.
~Gully~
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