Friday fiction: Mama explains a little

Part 1: http://radiantjess.blogspot.com/2009/06/friday-fiction-611.html

Part 2: http://radiantjess.blogspot.com/2009/06/friday-fiction-619.html

Part 3: http://radiantjess.blogspot.com/2009/07/friday-fiction-breakfast-with-jimmy.html

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Hi y'all. This is Mama talking here.

Now, I guess I get to tell my part of the story here for a minute. Trouble is, you probably don’t wanna hear it now that my name has been trampled, just trampled in the mud in front of well, everyone.

Things ain’t ever as clear as they seem. Like when you get a cup of water outta the faucet, and it seems good and clean, and then you notice little white stuff floatin in there. I’m here to stir up a little gunk so you can see better.

I married Jimmy Sr. when I was seventeen. Seventeen, y’all. Barely outta diapers. I started crankin out babies and then he got tired of the noise, and spending his hard earned dollars on something besides drinking and playing pool, and next thing I knew he was gone, and here I was with two snotty-nosed little kids and no money, and me looking like a million dollars.

I tell you what, I was something to look at. Still am, in fact. But back then, I knew I was too good lookin to work at Wal-Mart, and besides, I was Homecoming Queen both of my sophomore years.

Lucky for me, Mama was still living then and she worked three jobs anyway, so we just moved in over there and I helped out, kept the place picked up and made dinner every now and then. Mama never really appreciated me. She complained all the time, and who wants to be around a complainer? No one, that’s who. I spent most of my time at Thirsty Jim’s, and rarely paid for my own drink. God don’t give a girl a face like this because He intended her to pay for her own beer, I’m just sayin.

We managed to get by that way for several years, and then Mama took sick and we had to put her in the nursing home. She died pretty quick after that, bless her heart, and left us the house and a little nest egg she had been hiding, evidently. Surprised the heck outta me, because man, she could be stingy with her cash. Mama was selfish that way.