“Cash, hold onto your
glass with both hands or you will spill it," stated his Mom as she so
often did.
With all the mighty
concentration a five year old can muster, Cash shifted his both of his hands so
they circled the large cup. He peaked over its rim into its purple depths to try
and figure out how far he could tip the cup into his mouth without spilling it
down the front of his shirt. It was something he was really trying to improve
on lately. Mom didn't like him getting his shirts dirty and he didn't like the
sticky feeling on his chest. With the
dignified solemnity of priest kissing the cloth, he lifted the cup of grape
Kool-Aid to his lips and drank in the refreshing sweet coolness.
Nancy Squires pretended
to wipe the kitchen counter but couldn't keep her eyes off Cash. Partly waiting
for the spill to come, partly admiring how handsome her only child was. She noted
Cash’s intense focus holding onto the glass and marveled at how he could
sustain such concentration on one thing but have the attention span of a
goldfish during other activities.
Cash tipped the glass
back carefully. She knew he liked to watch the juice disappear as he drank. It always
resulted in Cash going Squires-eyed once the glass was raised higher than his
nose. She smiled at past memories of her and Chet laughing at Cash's attempts
at self-feeding and caught herself. It was wrong to focus on those few good
times together. She made that mistake too many times in the past and it always
led to her going back. That wasn't going to happen this time. This little boy
in front of her needed a chance to grow up in comfort and safety; adjectives
that weren't available in the cramped townhouse complex they left.
One day he would stop Squiresing
his eyes, and would stop insisting on plastic
cups. One day he would grow older and stop drinking Kool-Aid. One day he would
grow older and leave her. She refused to think of those far away days for any longer
than a moment. It was pointless and the important thing was this moment here
and now. For her to be watching her little
man go Squires-eyed and who always looked surprised when there was no more
Kool-Aid left to drink.
Cash drank and drank and
drank. He knew that soon all the Kool-Aid was going to disappear into his tummy
where it would somehow turn into pee and come out through his penis, although
his pee was never the colour of the Kool-Aid. He didn't understand that and his
mom couldn't explain why. That was a bit confusing and pretty hard to believe.
Kool-Aid tasted good, and to the best of his knowledge, pee doesn’t. Mommy and
Daddy had both been very stern on that point. Pee isn’t for drinking. Kool-Aid
is.[1]
As usual, Cash tried to watch
the last of the contents disappear and when he took the cup from his lips, he
was once again amazed the glass was already emptied. He felt full. Cash decided
in that carefree manner of children that it was now time to go and do something
else.
He wiped his mouth with
the back of his hand and handed the cup back to his mother.
“Thank you, Mommy!” he
smiled, already feeling the magical juice do its work. As he watched his mother
place the cup in the dishwasher he raced through all the possibilities
available to him before he would have to go to his room for his afternoon quiet
time. He came to a decision which mainly involved a pile of dirt and some toy cars.
“I am going outside to
play, okay Mommy?”
Nancy smiled at her only
son. Trailing from each side of his mouth were tiny purple checkmark
moustaches, the usual souvenirs left behind by his enthusiasm for his favourite
drink.
“Take Doggie with you,”
she said.
“Ok! Come on Doggie,
we’re going outside!” shouted Cash to Doggie. Doggie was already ahead of him,
waiting by the screen door. He trotted
past Cash as he held the screen door open.
Cash slammed the door
behind him, leaving Nancy alone in the quiet kitchen. She poured half a glass
of Kool-Aid into her own glass and mixed in a little bit of Merlot left over
from last night. It was impossible to tell one from the other. She lingered by
the kitchen window, watching Cash. A nice ray of sunlight came through the
window and lit up her glass in a most cinematic way.
Cash was having a good
day. The sky was blue and the ditch at the end of the driveway was still the
source of much interest[2]. Up the road there was activity which was
unusual. Cash could see a group of kids on the corner of Puddleton but didn't
know what they were doing. Cash, being of that age where curiosity is the
driving force for any action, decided to leave the interesting bugs in the
ditch for another time. He lifted his bike from where he dropped it and called
for Doggie to come with him.
Doggie was happily eating
grass alongside the ditch when he heard his name called. He bounded after Cash
in the joy of exploring more of this new land so rich with smells. Doggie loved
the country life which was so much better than the sawdust and pee and
staleness of the pet store which was now no more than a fleeting memory, or
what passed as memory in a dog’s life.
Cash pedaled his way
towards the kids on the corner. Although from an adult perspective the distance
was quite short it took Cash a long time to pedal that far. Thankfully, it gave
him time to study them as he got closer just as they were studying him as he
approached. Doggie was definitely going to be the first to arrive. He loved
people.
There was a school desk
set up with two girls sitting behind it. There were three boys around them and
from their sizes Cash could see they were of differing ages. One was really
tall, probably at least seven years old,
Cash thought. There was a fatter boy and a boy smaller than Cash beside him.
They were all holding glasses. Doggie arrived at the group first and where he
made it apparent he wanted attention immediately. As Doggie tried to inefficiently
sniff all of their crotches, their shoes and the top of the desk, Cash arrived
relatively unnoticed.
He saw on the school desk
in front of the girls there was a pitcher of orange Kool-Aid and a bunch of
plastic cups. Taped to the front of the desk was a sign which Cash was too
young to read although he could point out a few of the letters.
The children ignored him
all trying to either pet Doggie or get away from him much to Doggie's delight.
His tail was wagging so hard it appeared his head was counter-wagging in an
effort to keep his balance. The youngest boy had his cup of juice knocked out
of his hand by Doggie’s tail. The older of the two girls was trying desperately
to keep Doggie’s head away from the pitcher of juice. She kept yelling “No!” at
him, as the other girl sat frozen on her chair. The younger girl squeezed her
eyes shut as Doggie licked her face. The
girls were close to his age. They both had brown hair and green eyes. He could
tell they were girls because their hair was longer and they were both wearing
pink.
Pink and long hair is a sure sign of being a girl, thought Cash.
Doggie’s tail kept
batting away with a mind of its own. It made contact with another cup of juice
sitting on the desk. It spilled and created a large orange puddle on the
desktop. Doggie turned from his slobbering mental scarring he was inflicting on
the smaller girl to clean up the damage caused by his other end. The
after-effect of doing a complete 180 in positioning was his tail was now whacking
the little girl repeatedly. A strange grunt, not really a cry, emitted from her
lips.
“Hi,” said Cash but he
was unable to be heard over the mass confusion centered on his dog.
“Hi,” he said again, a
bit louder, "I'm Cash. That's my dog, Doggie."
“Get him to stop! He’s
making a mess!” said the older girl, brilliant green eyes glaring at him. She
was holding the pitcher of orange Kool-Aid in both hands.
Cash opened his mouth to say
Doggie was only playing but was struck dumb by a feeling that he could not
define. The girl's eyes were so pretty. He played with lots of girls at the playground
but none of them had such green eyes as this one. She was different. Not
different in an “all girls are different because they have cooties” type of way
but… he didn’t know what it was. A feeling. He hoped she wouldn’t start to cry
but he could tell she was a far way off from crying. In fact, she looked mad,
unlike the smaller one who kept getting hit in the head by Doggie’s tail but
was too dumb to move. This girl with the green eyes had the look his Mom would
get whenever she was saying loud words with his Dad.
“What did you say his
name was?” asked the chubbiest of the boys, as he grabbed Doggie’s collar and
pulled him away from licking the face off the smaller girl who still had not
said a word.
“That’s Doggie,” he said,
“he’s only 6 months old.”
He decided to put it that
in perspective for them.
“I just turned five. I
used to be four and a half.”
This news fell on
preoccupied ears as Doggie’s tail knocked the glass out of the tallest boy onto
the dirt road. The Kool-Aid spilled onto the dirt as the cup bounced into the
ditch.
“Hey, your dog just
spilled my Kool-Aid!” yelled the boy.
Ashamed, although he
would never been able to describe it that way, Cash tried to think of something
to say. This girl staring at him was making him confused in some way, like when
he was getting in trouble for something and he didn’t know why.
“Sorry, I just moved
here,” he decided to say, sticking with the facts he could trust.
“We’ve been here all our
lives,” said the smaller boy who was tentatively petting Doggie’s back. He kept
well out of the way of Doggie's tongue and tail, sticking to the safe zone in
the middle.
“Well, if you just moved
here, you have to have some Kool-Aid,” smiled the green-eyed girl. She no longer
appeared mad with Doggie. Doggie had that affect on people. He was just too
happy to be mad at for long. Cash noticed there was something different about
her smile - it didn’t come up at the corners like smiles did and instead turned
down a little. It struck him as quite unusual in a good way.
“Great! Kool-Aid is my
favourite drink in the whole world!”
“But you have to pay 25
cents," she said, "That’s the rules. This is a Kool-Aid stand. We
can’t give away free Kool-Aid, that’s against the rules of business. Our dad
told us so.”
“Can I have another
glass?” said the chubby boy, “his dog dumped mine.”
“You should have been
more careful Adam,” she put the pitcher back on the desk and picked up the cups
from the other girl, “but I tell you what, I will sell you another full glass
for only 10 cents.”
“But it was the dog’s
fault!"
“10 Cents, Adam, that’s a
really good deal.”
“What if I just-”
“What if you just what?”
asked the tallest boy, who threw the stick away for Doggie and was now taking
an official protective stance in front of the girls and the Kool-Aid stand.
“Come on Jarrod,"
said the boy called Adam, "I shouldn’t have to pay for another glass! The
dog did it!”
“You heard my sister. She
is doing you a favour. Pay her or step back so the new kid can buy some.”
Cash understood
immediately what was going on and what he should do thanks to his frequent
viewing of parental approved television.
“I know what to do,” said
Cash, “I will be right back.”
Cash turned his bike
around and pedaled furiously back to his house, with Doggie easily overtaking
him before he reached the driveway. He dropped his bike on the lawn, opened up
the front door and called for his mom.
“Mom! Could I have some
money?”
“Money?” she said,
looking up from her TV show she was watching, “What do you need money
for?”
“There are some kids up
the street selling Kool- “Cash paused a moment, aware his mom never let him
have more than one cup of Kool-Aid at a time and probably wouldn’t like the
idea of him having another one so soon, “-apple juice and Doggie accidentally
knocked over one of the boy’s juice and they are selling it and I want to buy some
juice for me and Doggie and the boy whose juice Doggie knocked over.”
His mom smiled at his poorly
told lie. She should correct him but the bigger point here was Cash met some
friends in the neighbourhood, finally. She was desperate to have him find some
playmates as there was only so much playing her and her parents were willing to
do. Cash tended to wear them out quicker than they wished.
“Well that is very nice
of you.” She rummaged around in her purse. Showing her ignorance in the pricing
of children’s country roadside refreshment stands, she produced a two dollar
coin from within.
“Here you go. That's $2
but it is only for you and your new friend okay? Remember Doggie doesn’t need
any because he is just a dog. Juice is for people.”
“Thanks Mom!”
Cash ran back out the
door and picked up his bike again. Doggie left the pile of shrubbery he was
peeing on and chased after him. Cash once again pedaled up the driveway and
back to the Kool-Aid stand, where the kids still were.
He was almost out of breath
by the time he nearly skidded to a stop in front of the small table. He smiled
at the girl with the green eyes and strange smile and handed her the $2 coin.
“I would like a Kool-Aid
for me and this boy,” he said, indicating the chubby boy. As an afterthought,
he remembered something his mom told him he should say whenever he asked for
something. “Please.”
The smaller girl took the
$2 and looked at it then her older sister suspiciously. The older girl then
took a pencil crayon from somewhere under the desk and wrote some numbers down
on a piece of paper. Cash seen his Mom do something like this on those days
when she thought it would be a good time to 'teach' him something. She called
it Math and said he needed to learn it. He asked why and she said it was so he
could already be smart when he goes into Kindergarten. She explained
Kindergarten was a place where he would go to learn to be smarter. Cash knew
what Kindergarten really was thought. He heard her mom tell a friend on the
phone it was basically a place where children go so parents could get their
housework done and finally have some peace and quiet. Cash's mom was really
looking forward to it so she said.
The girl looked up from
her paper where she was indeed doing math. Cash realized this girl was probably
really smart and a lot older than him, like maybe six years old.
“That’s too much money,”
she declared, “We’ve only sold 3 glasses to these guys so far.”
“But you have lots of
juice left,” said Cash, who pointed to the half full pitcher of juice Doggie
had not been able to tip over.
“But we don’t have enough
money.”
“But I just gave you
money.”
“No stupid, she means
that you gave her too much money.” said the older boy.
“Oh,” said Cash,
pretending to understand but not.
“I can’t give you any
change,” said the girl.
“Oh.”
Cash tried to figure this
out. She said he needed money for Kool-Aid. He gave her money and now she said he
couldn't have any Kool-Aid and she can’t give him his money back. If he knew
what an impasse was, this would be it.
"I don’t want to
change. I just want some Kool-Aid."
“Change is money that she
gives you, dummy,” said the older boy.
Cash tried to consider
the logic behind this and failed miserably.
“She … gives… me… money …
too?”
“Yes, stupid. Can’t you
read?”
The kid pointed to the piece of cardboard taped to
the side of the desk. He read out loud:
KOOL-AID 25 CENTS A
GLASS. NO REFUNDS.
For added emphasis, he
pointed out each word as he read it which made Cash mad.
Cash glared at the older
boy. He didn't like him. He was making him feel as if he was doing something
wrong when he hadn’t been. Reading is what his mom did for him and that’s what
he told him.
“I don’t need to read. My
mom does it for me.”
“Jarrod, leave him
alone,” said the older girl, “it’s not his fault. He’s only five. And new. What
is your name?”
“My real name is Fulton,
but my mommy calls me Cash. I’m going to be going to Kindergarten.”
“Cash? Why does she call
you Cash?”
“I don’t know. Something
to do with remembering my daddy, I guess.”
“Is your daddy dead?”
“No. He just doesn’t live
with us. He lives in The City. She said that was how they met, because she
needed the Cash. I’m the Cash.”
“My name’s Olivia,” said
this strangely fascinating girl. “I’m six. This is my sister Georgia. This is
my brother Jarrod and those two playing with your dog is Adam and Chick."
"Chick?" asked
Cash. He never heard of a boy named Chick before.
"That's his nickname.
His real name is Jarrod too, but that’s too confusing because there is already
one Jarrod so we call him Chick because he's the smallest.”
She pointed down the road
where he had come.
“They live down at the
end of your road and we live down this road.” She turned and pointed down Puddleton
Street, towards what Cash thought was The City.
Adam, the older and
chubbier of the two brothers came over and spoke up.
“Do you live in the
Henderson’s house?” he asked.
“We live in our house.
Over there. We got chickens.”
"Henderson’s lived
in a brown house with white doors. My mom said they moved to the City.”
"That’s where I’m
from! And that’s what colour my house is!”
“You live beside us
then,” he turned to the others, “we should show him the Fort.”
A fort! Cash loved forts. Occasionally a babysitter would help build
one in the living room with couch cushions and blankets. They were so much fun.
The other kids thought
that was a good idea. They weren't selling any Kool-Aid anyways and they had
been out there a long time. Cash was really there only customer.
"But I still have
all this Kool-Aid to sell," said Olivia, "and Dad said we all had to
stick together and bring the desk back after we sold all the Kool-Aid.”
Cash looked again at
Olivia. There was something about her that was making him feel right strange in
the chest, like he hadn’t eaten anything for a long time. But that wasn’t right
because Mom just made him a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. It was something
about her smile. When she smiled, he felt happy. He had an idea.
“Well, let’s drink all
the Kool-Aid and go to your house and then we can go to the fort. Can everybody
have a glass of Kool-Aid with the money I gave you?”
She perked up and smiled.
That made Cash feel really good inside. He was having a great day.
“Uh huh. With your money
you can buy us all Kool-Aid! And still have enough for…” here she did some more
calculating on the paper, “two more!”
So Olivia and Georgia prepared
to pour out eight glasses of orange Kool-Aid. Georgia would pull the plastic
cups apart and put them down on the desktop while Olivia poured. The boys
waited patiently as the girls performed this delicate operation, Olivia making
sure to make all the cups equally full. Even Doggie understood the seriousness
of the situation as he sat back on his haunches quietly, occasionally licking
his chops.
“Why doesn’t your sister
say anything?” Cash asked Olivia as Georgia made some complicated hand
gestures.
“Something happened to her
throat when she was born, Mom says. She has to go to special classes to learn how
to talk with her hands.”
“Can she hear us?” asked
Cash, fascinated by this.
Georgia made some strange
hand gestures and pointed to Cash, who then looked to Olivia for help in
translation.
“She says she can hear
you and she thinks your dog is crazy but thank you for the Kool-Aid.”
Cash was amazed Georgia
said all that with her hands and Olivia knew what she said. It was like a
secret language.
He recalled another
lesson from his Mom in politeness. “Tell her, she’s welcome.”
“She can hear you,
remember. She just can’t talk to you.”
Georgia did some more
complicated hand gestures.
“That is really cool,”
said Cash, displaying the open honesty that had not yet been tainted by social
nuances in being in the same company of somebody handicapped in some aspect.
“She says I should help
teach you how to talk with your hands too. Then you can understand her and we all
could have a secret language.”
“That would be so cool!”
Cash picked out which cup
he thought would be his and tried to remember everyone’s names, while at the same
time trying not to stare at Olivia and the girl who talked with her hands. He
wondered why he felt so thirsty and hungry or whatever he was feeling.
“Here’s to our new friend
Cash and his dog Doggie,” she gave a glass to Adam and then to Chick.
Cash drank the contents
of the cup quickly and noisily. He put the glass down and realized everybody
was watching him. Even Doggie. Nobody had drunk any of their juice yet. He
looked from one face to the other. He had done something wrong. Had he done
something wrong? Had he peed his pants? He looked down, and aside from some
orange spillage on his shirt which he thought was within limits for himself, he
was relatively clean.
Olivia spoke up, smiling
that strange wonderful smile of hers.
“Umm… Cash, you are supposed
to wait until we all have our drinks. Then we raise our glasses up and say
Cheers before we drink them.”
“Why?” he asked.
Adam leaned over
conspiratorially and whispered “Because what Olivia says, goes.”
“I heard that Adam. We
say Cheers because that is what grownups do when they make new friends.”
“It’s what our parents do
whenever people come over to our house,” said Jarrod, who had been pretty quiet
the whole time.
“I didn’t know. My Mom
doesn’t have too many people come over,” replied Cash, “we’re new here.”
“That’s okay. Here, take
one of these extra ones and this one can go to your dog.”
She put a cup down by
Doggie, who looked at it, then to Cash, then back to her.
Cash took the proffered
cup and looked around the circle, remembering everybody’s names. There was
Chick who was really Jarrod, Adam, Jarrod,
Georgia and of course, Olivia. He couldn’t wait to tell his mom about his new
friends. But first, the whole afternoon was ahead of him and Adam said
something about a Fort. He was really going to like the country, he decided.
After quaffing his second
glass, he noticed Georgia giggling at him. She said something with her hands to
Olivia. She in turn looked at him and laughed.
“What?” asked Cash,
confused.
“You got an orange mustache,”
she said, "a Kool-Aid moustache!” And she smiled and although Cash didn't
know it, he was in love with a girl with green eyes and upside down smile.
<<<<<>>>>>
[1] Coincidentally enough, this was the motto
suggestion of an LSD-tripping Mr. Herb Anthrows to the Kool-Aid marketing
committee at one point in the mid-sixties. The suggestion was promptly
dismissed by the marketing group and Mr. Anthrows returned to typing anonymous
lurid footnotes in sensitive company materials at night while on breaks from
his janitorial duties.
[2]
Interesting in the 'let's see what type of bugs might be living or dead in the
ditch' type interesting.
