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May 13, 2008
Batesville Installment One
It’s tough picking out which CD to play. Emily’s always thinking about her life’s soundtrack, so she wants to find the right song to play as she pulls onto the exit off of I-70 East into her new home town, Batesville. Emily looks into her rear-view mirror at the pet carrier holding her most valuable possession, the Ellie Cat, and asks, “What do you think, El? Maybe some post-punk?” El doesn’t reply, so she ends up going with Johnny Hit and Run Paulene by X. It’s a super high energy track, although the lyrics are a bit morbid. Still, she pulls into town tapping her thumb on the steering wheel, singing along, a smile on her face. The smile only lasts a moment though, dropping quickly from her twenty-seven year old face as she pulls around the corner to her new home.
It’s a small town, Batesville. The sign on the exit reads ‘Population 17’. It looks like a nice little housing edition in the middle of a farm. It looks like that because that’s exactly what it is. Emily can’t remember for sure what it was that made her decide to move here from Kansas City, but as soon as she saw the house she knew she had to move there. The town has nothing to do with her current state of consternation, though.
“Son of a bitch! Those cocksuckers!” Emily screams, the angry guitar licks screaming from her speakers definitely serving as a soundtrack to the moment. Her front yard is full of furniture and littered with boxes, several with ‘This Side Up’ arrows pointing at the ground. Son of a bitch, indeed. The movers she’d paid a ton of money to had obviously had something better to do than their jobs and had just left all of her worldly possessions in her new front lawn. She jumps out of her car and starts kicking her couch. “COCK SUCKERS!”
“Uhm, hi there.”
“FUCK!” Emily then realizes someone behind her has spoken and turns around to see a black woman in her early thirties accompanied by a precious little girl, obviously the woman’s daughter. The little girl looks a little uneasy, Emily reckons due to the harsh language spewing from her mouth. “Oh, geez, I’m sorry. It’s just, you know…”
“Yeah, your cocksucking movers…” the woman begins, until her daughter tugs at her pants.
“Mom!”
The woman looks down at her daughter, very seriously. “Now Sarah, you let us talk adult talk, alright?”
“Okay,” the little girl says bashfully, looking down at her pretty pink shoes. Emily finds herself smiling despite the anger she was just experiencing.
“Your movers. They left all of your stuff out here. I came over and asked them if that’s what you wanted and they told me to fuck right off, so I…”
“Mom!” stage whispers the little girl Sarah looking up at her mother again, not liking the words coming out of the matriarch’s mouth.
“…So I go back over across the street and watch your stuff. I called up Oliver, my husband, and I told him to get home early if he can, since it’s going to rain tonight and I didn’t want your things getting left out in the rain. But Sarah and I, we sat out here and watched and made sure nothing happened. Didn’t we, Sarah?” Sarah looks up at her mom smiling a beautiful little smile. The woman extends her hand, “Hi, I’m Jaquie Folsom.”
Emily takes her hand and shakes it. “Emily Hollinger. Thank you so much Jaquie, I really appreciate it.” Emily looks down at the little girl and offers her hand, “It’s nice meeting you too, Sarah.” Sarah shakes her hand and giggles, suddenly becoming shy.
Jaquie leans on the couch in the yard and says, “You need help bringing all of this inside?” to which Emily just laughs. They both pick up the couch and start to move it towards the house.
Emily looks over at Sarah and sees she’s looking around at the boxes in a way that screams I-don’t-want-to-move-this-stuff. “Hey Sarah, my cat Ellie is in my back seat in her carrier. Can you bring her in and keep her company while your mom and I move this stuff?” Without an answer the little girl runs to the car, smiling. Emily looks up at Jaquie and gives her a wink.
Posted by Schamberger at May 13, 2008 06:57 PM