Chapter+Two

I walked out of the house just for a few minutes to pick up the daily newspaper on the front porch. Sue had let me stay over her house last night. She was a very nice lady. Right now, she was making me some hotcakes with bacon and eggs on the side.

I walked back inside, I was surprised to see that she was squeezing fresh juice into my glass. "You don't have to do all of this for me," I said. "I mean, first of all you agreed to be my legal guardian. And now you're making me hotcakes and //freshly// squeezed orange juice. No one has ever made a big breakfast like this before. Not even my own mother."

I felt a little guilty after what I had said about my mother. I wish I could have taken those words back. But luckily, she didn't seem to notice. She just continued the conversation. "Well, I always make big breakfasts and meals for my guests."

"Oh," It was very nice of her to do all this, but I still felt like I was outdoing her.

"Well," Sue was waiting for me to sit down, I guess. So I did.

I took my first bite of my meal, and I suddenly felt like I was in another place. Kind of like... heaven. I sat there and let it dance among my taste buds.

"Oh my. These are really good Ms. Marshall.

"Oh thank you. And you don't have to call me that. Just call me Sue."

I didn't answer back. I just made a mental note to call her that the next time we were having a conversation. When Sue sat down, her black hair bounced along with her delicate body. I wanted to reach out and touch it, it reminded me of my mother's hair. I didn't know why, though. My mother's hair was dark brown, not black. She grabbed a fork from the center of the table and began to eat her hotcakes. Her veins were popping from her hands as high as Mount Everest, purple and blue. Just like my grandmother's when she was in the hospital all pale-faced.

I wanted to talk to her more about my parents, to get the story more clear and movie-like in her mind. I mean, she was a forgetful, old lady. Or should I say, mature. But I guess she got to the subject pretty quickly, well, not the kind of thing I wanted to talk about. "So, I suppose you should be enrolling in school pretty soon. It is August, you know?" She waited for me to look up and catch my eye.

"Oh, yeah... about that. Umm, I don't really have any school clothes. All I have is some old jeans. They'll only last me about, //say//, another week or so." I kind of smiled to myself, glad to get a n excuse for not going to school.

"Well, there's no problem in that. I suppose I could take you to the mall. I think they're having some back to school sales already." my face start to tighten up while her's just, well, let's just say that it kind of hung there.

"But, but wouldn't that cost a lot of money?" I had set down my fork and litterally started to twiddle my thumbs. I could of sworn I felt a drop of sweat dripping from my forehead. I didn't want to go to school. I won't have any frieands, but I didn't want to tell her that. "Oh no, the advantage of being an old lady is-" she lowered her head more towards my direction. "I'm on welfare." she gave herself a small chuckle and this time, I actually remembered to laugh. I mean, don't get me wrong or anything, she's a nice lady. But I'm just not thay big on jokes.

"Well, great then," but I sure didn't feel great.