Authors: June Ahern
Mary squeezed onto the couch next to an older, tough looking girl.
“Hey, what’s happening?” she asked.
The older teen sucked deeply on her cigarette
“Hi, kid,” she said blowing out smoke rings. The other girls resumed their ruckus, laughing and gossiping about boys. The tough teen sat listening, not joining in the conversation.
Carmen O
’Connell, the tough teen, had eyebrows penciled in a black arch and wavy black hair stacked around her long, thin face. She had a bad reputation with a lot of the older girls at Holy Savior. To her face the girls acted friendly, afraid to do anything else. Behind her back they called her a slut and said she hadn’t run away from home the year before. The rumor was that Carmen was at St. Elizabeth’s home for unwed pregnant girls.
June didn
’t like the judgmental gossip. She liked Carmen’s red lipstick mouth with its full lips. She thought the teenager looked like a movie star, but when she looked at Carmen she saw a frightened and lonely person. Maybe it’s because she’s from a broken home, June thought, not truly understanding what that meant.
Her assumption was based on a conversation she had recently overheard her mother having over the backyard fence with a neighbor about the bad kids in the neighborhood. Carmen O
’Connor’s name had been mentioned.
* * *
The neighbor, an amply built Irish woman, rolled her eyes to heaven, clucking her tongue. “Oh sure, it must be hard for that girl, being a half breed and all,” the neighbor had said. “They say her mother’s some kind of Indian and nobody has seen a father in the home. But he must be white because the girl’s skin is as white as milk.”
Both women had stopped their conversation long enough to dip down for a piece of laundry to hang on the line.
“Pssst, Missus,” the neighbor continued, nodding her large head at Cathy, motioning her closer to the fence, Cathy had shooed June away, not wanting her to hear the ugly gossip.
“
Did you hear about that boy, Dave?” the neighbor asked and not waiting for Cathy to answer said, “I hear the police are after him. He’ll be off to the pokey in no time.”
The women shook their heads in disgust at the bad youth. June had been annoyed at her mother
’s behavior, for was it not she who had told the girls gossiping was unkind? June was not aware that her mother’s true purpose for participating in the conversation was to find out more about the boy her daughter was mooning over.
Based on the change in her daug
hter, Cathy had recognized Annie was smitten and she soon figured out the boy’s identity. One day after school Annie had met her so they could shop on Castro Street for groceries. When a tall boy passed them and smiled at Annie, her daughter had become quite flustered. Cathy decided to keep it a secret from Jimmy, since he had forbidden their daughters to have boyfriends until they were eighteen.
“
It’s a true shame for them kids, it ‘tis,” the neighbor continued. “What can you expect, them being from broken homes?” She bent behind the fence with a “humph,” picked up her empty laundry basket in one hand and waved good-bye with the other. Cathy had begun to worry how she could help this boy fit in so Jimmy would accept him.
* * *
June watched Carmen hunched on the couch, sensing the tough teen felt very unloved. The little girl wanted Carmen to feel happy. She projected onto her the color of a summer sun.
Suddenly, the sullen-faced teen shuddered.
“Shit, this cigarette is stale, man!” Carmen said gruffly. She handed the cigarette to Mary, who had never smoked before. She took a drag and sputtered out a series of coughs. Almost everyone in the room, except Annie, laughed.
“
Mary! Put that disgusting thing down! It’s bad for you,” Annie protested.
“
Yeah, okay, Mother Superior. Always telling us what we can and can’t do,” Maggie smirked, crossing her legs.
Annie glowered at her sister for only a second before crossing the short length of the room to grab her arm.
“Let’s go,” she ordered.
Maggie pushed her away. Annie grabbed her sister
’s arm again and jerked it. An intense tango of pushing and pulling began between the two. With faces only inches from each other, Annie shot forward with a hard punch to Maggie’s shoulder. Maggie quickly regained her balance and rolled her hand into a fist and hit back. Their Scottish anger erupted into a volley of punches.
The room burst into a chaos of shrieking and pushing females. Some girls backed away from the dueling sisters, while others rushed into the melee. When Maggie lost her footing and fell against the counter, Loretta pushed her back up into Annie.
Mary stayed put on the couch, moving her feet out of the way when necessary and babbled on to Carmen about how her big sisters were so stupid to fight all the time. The tough teen asked if their dad beat on them. “Yeah, kinda,” Mary mumbled, to which the teen answered, “Well, there ya have it.”
In an effort to quell the madness, Jeannie yelled out in a firm, calm voice,
“Hey guys! Remember the surprise?” Miraculously, she had interrupted the battle long enough for her to move through the group of girls to get between the sisters.
Red faced and panting heavily, both sisters dropped their arms and released the grip they had on each other. Jeannie gently nudged Annie toward the front door. Because of her anger, Annie missed her natural instinct to remove June from the bad influences. Instead, she stormed away from the scene in the bathroom.
June vacillated, not sure whether to follow her or hang on and wait for her other sisters to leave. She had seen the sisters fight before, although it wasn’t as common as when they were younger. Annie always won anyway. Besides, she was very curious about what the other teens in the room would do next.
The room sat silent until the tough teen, searching her large baggy purse, brought out a bottle and held it up over her head.
“What’s the word?”
“
Thunderbird!” the older teens answered. They sang loudly, “You got a nickel. I got a dime. Let’s get together and buy some Thunderbird wine!”
The bottle came around to Mary, who didn
’t take it at first. She hesitantly looked over to Maggie who bit her lower lip and shook her head “no.” But Mary couldn’t resist; she tipped the bottle up to her lips, letting the cheap wine tumble down her throat. June froze in place, shocked her sister drank the alcohol. Why would Mary drink that bad stuff, she wondered. The very thing that caused so much trouble in their home was when their father was “under the influence,” as her mother would put it. Mary grinned foolishly before passing on the bottle, keeping an eye on it as it made its rounds.
Maggie turned to the mirror to brush her hair, letting the bottle pass by her.
June went to Mary’s side. “Here, want some of my candy?” she offered.
“
Go back to the movie,” Mary said, brushing her off.
June saw an image of a dark, low energy circle around Mary
’s head and cover her face. With a shake of her head, June dismissed the vision. She already decided not to have those visions any longer because they caused her too much trouble. Unfortunately, the effort of trying to stop them gave June sharp headaches and nauseating jitters in her belly. Once again the bottle was at her sister’s lips. Not wanting to see any more, June left.
* * * * *
THE SURPRISE
A
S DISAPPOINTED AS JUNE was at having to leave halfway through “Darby O’Gill and the Little People,” she was also very excited about her surprise. The other girls had already left before Annie, June, and Brian emerged from the Castro Theater. Hands securely clasped together, they ran across the street, dodging a honking car. Annie stopped at the door of The Big Jive Coffee Shop and smiled at June. Awed by the prospect of hanging out with the big kids, she asked, “Is this my birthday surprise?”
“
Yep! It’ll be a lot of fun!” said Annie. She bent on one knee to smooth down her little sister’s unruly curls.
Brian chimed in,
“Neat surprise, huh?”
The birt
hday girl was very honored her sisters were finally accepting her as a big kid. Maybe they’d stop bossing her around so much. But looking at Annie, she sighed and knew that wouldn’t happen.
The Big Jive was jumping with teenagers from The Valley (as the neighborhood was called) and friends from nearby districts. June stood sandwiched between Annie and Brian at the entryway of the coffee shop, frozen in place. The sound of boisterous teens shouting above blaring music and the smell of fried foods assaulted June
’s senses. She put her hands up to her ears to stop the sharply deafening noise. Afraid she would look silly, she lowered them and tried to steady herself by mouthing the words of her favorite pop tune, “
Venus
,” playing on the jukebox. Silently she sang, “Venus, Goddess of love that you are.”
Oblivious to her sister
’s situation, Annie stepped into the sea of teens. June saw her stop briefly at the counter to talk to Patti and Mickey. Brian bumped June as he moved past her to follow Annie. After that, bodies closed behind them, hiding them from her view.
Taking one step into the dense crowd, s
he faltered, acutely aware she was so little amongst the tall teens. Determined to get to her sisters, she took a deep breath, lowered her head, and pushed against the crushing restraint of people.
“
Angel, if you can hear me, please help!” she prayed. At that very moment, Jeannie’s hand came between the bodies to clasp her wrist, jerking her along.
Before she knew it, she was in front of her gang
’s table. Everyone was so busy chattering that they took no notice of her. Suddenly, Maggie and Loretta jumped up from the booth. “Surprise, June!” they sang out in unison. Jeannie told June, “Scoot on down there.” The birthday girl slid across the yellow vinyl booth to the far wall. Brian sat across from her. She was handed a large menu just as a waitress arrived to take their orders. It was a usual fare of cheeseburgers, fries, and Cokes.
“
That it, girls?” said the waitress, scooping up the menus in one quick motion.
“
I want a cheese sandwich and milk, please,” a squeaky voice shouted out.
The waitress squinted over her jeweled winged eyeglasses to see a small girl squished in the corner. She cocked her ear to the side to hear past the deafening noise,
“What’d ya say, doll?”
Annie, sitting on the outside of the booth, repeated the birthday girl
’s order. The waitress nodded wearily, confirming it, “Yeah okay, hon. Cheese on white. Milkshake.”
June hadn
’t eaten fried food or meat for the past year. She told her sisters it was bad to eat dead animals. At first her mother fretted her youngest wouldn’t grow properly without meat. But she finally accepted nothing would budge the girl’s decision, especially after June had refused the family’s favorite Friday dinner of fish and chips because it was cooked in lard made of animal fat. Besides June’s food dislikes, she had a list of noises, smells, and other things that adversely affected her senses. Her sisters would just roll their eyes and call her a kook.
Settling down in the booth, June began to enjoy her birthday surprise. She took in the exciting fun around her. Their booth was like a beehive, buzzing with laughter and talking. Teens in booths on either side leaned over the plump stuffed seats, adding to the h
ubbub. Maggie told everyone it was her little sister’s birthday party. Rounds of “Happy Birthday” were sung until the words swam in June’s head. Loretta handed her some coins and told her what songs to play on the small jukebox attached to the wall next to their booth. When Loretta turned away, Brian and June read over the list and picked what they liked. The others really didn’t notice because they knew all the songs on the jukebox and would sing a few lines from each.
Giddy from all the attent
ion, June felt as though she were floating above the group. She thought this had to be the best day of her life!
When Dave sauntered through the door, June immediately focused on him as though her eyes were beams beckoning to him. He looked directly at their booth with
an expression of sheer joy lasting only a moment. He quickly dropped his hooded eyes and slicked back the sides of his blond hair. Casually, the tall youth slipped into the crowd. Although girls grabbed at him, he never let anyone stop him as he moved forward to their booth. June snuck a peek at Annie, who still hadn’t noticed he was only a few feet away from her.
Maggie was the first to begin singing when the Fleetwood
’s’ song “
Come Softly to Me”
began to play. Their booth became quiet as she sang on with her beautiful voice rising above the ruckus of the restaurant. Annie joined in. She closed her eyes and sang,
“I’ve waited so long for your kisses.
Come to me from up, from up above
.”
The group of teen girls sang the chorus. At the end of the song, Annie opened her eyes to see Dave
standing above her. She flushed a deep crimson and trembled.