Entropy of a Good Girl- Summertime Pt 2

The evening was quite magical. The lightning’ bugs would come out and fill the air. I am ashamed to admit what I did to those poor bugs in the name of princess beauty, but alas, here I am. I would catch one, pull out all the fluorescent goo from the inside of their back ends and wrap it around m finger or my wrist. It was glowing jewelry and I felt like a proper princess as I would dance around and sing. Poor lightning’ bugs!

I would play in the yard, doing cartwheels and flips, entertaining myself and enjoying each moment of it. My whole world was filled with fairies and magical creatures and the real ones talked back to me. I was never lonely. I was the queen of my own world.

Soon it would be time that I headed to the front yard. It was time for me to visit my spider friend again. Like I would in the morning. I went to the edge of the yard into the gully and down to the stormdrain.
She had already started building her web that was reflecting off the street light that had just come on. I heard my Mama call me from the front stoop for dinner. I bid my spider friend a good night and pledged to see her in the morning before I took off toward the door for dinner.

After dinner was bathtime and tv time. This was as influential to me as all the play imaginations of the day was. I would watch The Muppet Show and Kroft Superstars, then The Carol Burnett Show and Hee-Haw. I still adore the stage!

When bedtime came around, my fantasy pirate ship bed and ocean turned into a questionably seaworthy raft in the middle of a snake infested swamp. When the time changed and the sun stayed up longer, frequently the sun would just be setting and the long shadows would feed into my imagination and would become hallucinations. As a child, this proved terrifying for me. I would not go to the bathroom at night and ended up with quite a few kidney infections.

I have two sisters. Andrea Helena, named for my grandmothers Helen and Elene. She went by Anbdrea but when she first started talking she couldnt say Andrea, instead, it came out Onia and it stuck. Over time, Onia became Oni and that is the name she still uses today.

Oni was almost 5 years younger than me. When she first came along it was neat. I had a real life babydoll and because I was a girlie girl, I helped Mama take care of her., This feeling doesnt last long.

Twenty-one months later Mama had Angela Renee. Angie became the new babydoll and eventually I realized there was very little time for me anymore. I sure did not sharing the spotlight.

Even though Oni was very little, Mama encouraged me to play with her or at least let her play with me. So, when Mama would let us out in the mornings, I’d visit my spider friend and the concert hall alone while Mama gave Oni breakfast.

I remember one day Mama insisted that I let Oni play with me, but it was time to play in the tree. Mama made me help her up. See, I had been bragging at dinner about my invisible flying horse that would fly past the tree every day and take me for a ride. Oni really wanted to ride and begged till Mama made me pretend with her, so I did.

“Here he comes”, I said to her. I had instructed her to stand on the edge of the branch and wait until the horse comes around because only I could see the invisible flying horse.

“Here he comes, get ready, jump!” I yelled and she jumped.
I walked to the edge of the branch, looked down at my sister, put up my arms and said, “Ya missed it!”

In the evening, Oni and I would play on the swingset and Angie would play with us. Let me be clear, Angie was little, so little in fact that she didnt speak yet. Another instance I am not proud of but I would sit Angie “spider”on my lap on the swing and would bump my head into hers and she would giggle. I loved to hear her giggle so I banged my head into hers. She had quite the goose egg from that.

One rainy afternoon Oni and I were supposed to be napping but Mama had to separate us because we would giggle and jump on the bed. We made too much noise so Oni would nap in Mama’s room and I would be in mine. Mama had let me out of naptime early and IO went with Mama to wake Oni up from her nap. Mama opened the door and in the center of the bed sat my sister with the diaper rash creme smeared everywhere. All you could see through the powder fog was the whites of her eyes. Mama often said when telling this story to family, that Oni said, “I makey me pretty”.

Another time, Oni had climbed onto the sink in the bathroom and got ahold of Mama’s can of aerosol Nair. Oni had long, shoulder length honey brown hair and Oni sprayed her hair on the crown of her head, thinking it was hairspray. Mama rushed in, seeing what she had done, plunged her into the nearest source of water. Mama turned Oni upside down and dunked her head first into the toilet. She looked like Benjamin Franklin for a while.