Pop Life: Volume 2

Chapter 23

Our tiny group huddled around my mom while she flipped through the pages of our childhood memories we had collected over the years. Most pictures were pre Dez Dickerson and he was so happy to sit with us as she told a short story about each picture.

"So Prince you and Regan have known each other since kindergarten?" Dez asked excited.

"Yeah just about our whole lives!" Prince replied as he grabbed at my fingers.

As we sat on the floor of our now overcrowded living room my mom continued showing them the pictures of me when I was a little girl just learning how to write my name on a small sheet of paper.

"Look at that big grin. My Regan what big teeth you had.....before they fell outcha head!" Morris chuckled as he and Jerome have each other a high five.

I only rolled my eyes and looked away while he made fun of my pictures. When that album was complete my mom pulled the next one from the floor out of the pile and began the stories all over again. When she got to the picture of Prince and I at his 8th birthday party I looked over at him and noticed his face had changed from elated to heartbroken. He knew that those pictures were the last of his happy memories of the only home he knew before his life took a horrible turn for the worst. When his parents had split up he was bouncing from house to house after that day. My moms smile turned into sudden shock when she noticed his face.

"Let's move on from this album guys." She said softly and quickly closed the book and went to the next memory book.

This album was her favorite. It was black and grey with the Jenson family name embroidered on the cover with the picture of my parents and I when I was about two or three years old before he was stationed overseas in Kuwait.

"Hey! It's Mr. Will!" Morris said as he pointed at the cover.

My mom gave him a smile as she closed the book to see the picture of what was then the happy family of three. She then sighed and ran her thumb across my fathers face.

"I miss this man something awful." She said.

"We had so many good times with him taking us down to the creek. He tried to teach us how to fish. That is until Andre got the hook stuck to his shirt." Jerome laughed as he looked over at Andre who was laughing with him.

"Hey remember that time he took us to the movies? I'll never forget that night he took us to go see poltergeist. My mom was pissed that I woke her up for a week and asked if I could sleep in the bed with her." Morris said.

"What about that one summer he took us to the carnival and left us alone in the fun house five minutes before closing. Said that he we didn't go all the way through the people inside would make us live in there forever." Andre said.

"Or that time the roller coaster broke down and we all had to hold hands and walk back down. That was fun!" Prince added.

"What about the day we helped him with the treehouse? That was the best day to me. He let me use the nail gun."

"Regan Michelle!" My mom shrieked.

"What it wasn't like I hurt anybody with it." I whined back.

"No but you almost shot your father in the hand!"

"Oops. Forgot about that part." I said sheepishly.

We all got a nice laugh out of the memories we had with my dad but no memory was more emotional than the story my mom told us about how he had asked for her hand.

"William was quite the charmer. When we went on our fist date it was a snowy valentines evening. Back then we didn't have much money so he asked his mom of she could teach him how to cook."