Childhood Crushes

Chapter Twelve - Attack Of The Purple Butterflies

Chapter Twelve - Attack Of The Purple Butterflies

"What do you think?" Momma smiled excitedly as she stood next to me in my new room. Everything was purple with butterflies. The walls were a lilac color with shadows of darker purple butterflies painted on. The bed was bigger than my bed back home, covered in dark and light purple blankets. The dresser was white, like the bed frame, and the floor was hardwood. My closet was pretty big, and filled with pink, purple and green clothes. I even had my own bathroom, which was decorated the same way.
My God, this wasn't anything like my room back home. Back home, nothing matched not even the sheets. I always just put on what was clean. My curtains were red, orange and blue- they were on sale -my carpet was a weird orange color and my bed was lumpy and never made... I was comfortable that way.
This room was nice... For someone else.
I smiled though, Momma looked so proud of herself for decorating this herself and buying these clothes. At least they were my size and would cover me. "I love it." I lied happily.
Momma jumped a little, clapping her hands like a little girl, making me laugh. "Great! Agh, honey, I've been so excited! I got all this done in two days, to be honest. I was just too excited!" She squeeled, grabbing me and giving me a big hug. I had to admit, I was kind of excited to see how life with Momma would be.
We both walked over to my bed and jumped on it, laying back and laughing, looking up at the white ceiling. Even that was different. Mine had a large oil stain on it, shaped like a pizza... From the time Joel and I ordered a pizza, without knowing Daddy ordered chinese food, and we threw it on the ceiling to hide it when he walked into my room. When it fell down - viola! Midnight snack.
Momma kicked off her heels and smiled at me, "What do you want for dinner, cutie?"
Forgetting her question almost as soon as she said it, I just smiled, looking in her brown, sparkling eyes. I missed Momma so much. I was only bitter when she left because I thought she didn't want me. But this showed me she really did, she was only doing what's best for the two of us. We laid acroos the bed, facing each other, on our bellies, laughing for no reason. This was how it's supposed to be.
"Um, I don't know." I shrugged.
"I have a question," She grinned evilly. Oh no, what was she up to?
"Yes?"
"Have you ever had sushi?"
"What's that?"
"Fish. Just not cooked." She smiled.
"What! Are you insane, we could get killed!"
Momma laughed, "No, no, no, they make it so it's not bad for you. It's really good though. I think you would really like California Rolls. They're delicious!"
I bit the inside of my mouth, thinkking this over. Eating raw fish... From California... I shrugged, "Okay, I'll try it." Might as well try something new, right?

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Sushi actually was pretty good, I was glad I listened to Momma. We sat together in a really pretty restaurant. The lights were dimmed, the tables were really shiny wood and the chairs were stools. I kept looking around at the tons of fish tanks they had along the walls. It was so cool.
"So how do you like the city so far, Annabelle?" Momma asked with a smile.
I nodded, looking around excitedly. Everyone dressed the way Momma did. In fact, I felt a little singled out since I was still wearing my jeans, boots, and farmer girl's shirt. Everywhere had lights, there were tall buildings every way you looked, people talked on their cell phones and there were blinking signs on lots of buildings. It was just like the movies.
"I like it! A lot. It's exciting and new!" I smiled.
Momma smiled back and took a bite of her sushi, dipping it in some green stuff. "What's that?" I asked.
"Wasabi sauce. Want to try?" She took her chopsticks and put just a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of wasabi on one of my pieces of sushi.
"Why can't I have more?" I asked.
"You can't. But I think your mouth would catch fire." She laughed, holding out the tiny bit for me to eat. When I ate it, I was so glad she only gave me a little. "That's spicy." I grabbed my water and started gulping it. Just that tiny bit of wasabi sauce made my mouth burn - what would more feel like?!
Momma laughed at me and nodded, "I know! The first time I ever tried it, no one told me it was spicy. Being the country girl I was, I took a big bite of it. My ears were still burning three jugs of water later." This made me laugh; at least she told me how bad it could be.
But then I frowned, "The country girl you were?"
"Well, when you're working in a very important law firm like me, you can't really show up in the office wearing a cowgirl hat, saying, 'Heyyyy y'alllll!'." We both roared in laughter at her ol' country accent. Even though she spoke without it now, she could turn it on the second she wanted to.
The night was full of laughing and talking about the experiences Momma has had in the city when she first moved up here. Like, "One time, I had to give a client a ride to her car because it was freezing out, and she parked far from the building. Well, when we got in the car, I turned it on and the radio started blasting 'Well I'm travelin' down the road and I'm flirtin' with disastor'." She growled in her Molly Hatchet voice. We both laughed so hard at that. "She was so shocked! I turned it to a news station right away and started apologizing. I wanted to laugh so bad though." She giggled.
I forgot how funny Momma was and how good we got along. When we got back home to our apartment - it still felt a bit odd to call it 'our apartment', but I liked it - and watched a movie. We both curled up on the couch and ate hot fudge sundays, giggling and repeating funny lines in the movie.

I missed Daddy, Billy, Jimmy and Joel with all my heart. Including Bale, Billy B. and Michael, and I almost wanted to cry and go home, but I was having so much fun with Momma. I wondered why the boys didn't want to come into the bus station when Daddy and I did. But oh well, I would call them soon and ask how everything was going.
Soon after the movie, Momma and I went to bed. She had to work in the morning and I was going with her! She said since it was so soon till school let out, she didn't want to enroll me yet. She said we'd just wait till fall, giving me an extra long summer. "You could hang out with Hazel, a little girl about your age. She's one of my coworkers daughters. She's very sweet, I think you two would get along great." She smiled. Apparently, Hazel was home schooled, so I could be there with her all day while Momma was at work.
This was going to be so much fun!
"Good night, Annabelle." Momma smiled from the door of my lilac room. I smiled back, wearing pink silk pajamas... yeah, not what I would have chosen, but oh well, they were comfortable. "I'll wake you up pretty early, we're going to leave at 8. Okay, honey?"
I nodded, "Good night, Momma."
"I'm so glad you're here."
"I am too."