Twister in Blue Jell-O
“Come on,” Gitt said. It will be great!” Then she dialed all her friends. She pulled out the Twister mat and the Jell-O. She said one word, “Party.” And she reached for one of her mom’s crystal bowls and she mixed.
“Man down!” Somebody said.
Gitt rushed in like she was some kind of Dr. Oz, moving out of the triangle like pose she had maneuvered into playing Twister and iced the poor kid’s jaw, cradling his busted up face to her Denman high t-shirt as if he was her sweetheart. It made everyone love her more and rally around her and the injured kid, a nameless freshman.
Then Gitt did the bravest thing. She called the kid’s mom.
“Hi, Mrs. Mother of the Coolest Freshman in the Universe, we were playing Twister, and your son fell and broke his tooth.”
She didn’t tell anyone her mom told her to say all of that, and how her mom had been good in a crisis (at least the memory of her mom was). The shadows in the house that had never left and sometimes came into focus and whispered words like tonight when the freshman broke his nose, those visions were some version of real mixed with make believe but did it matter how they came?
And because Gitt acted as if she had turned into some kind of teenage Oz-Pocahontas, the kid didn’t spill one word about what really happened on the mat, about the games Gitt likes to play, and how he thought Gitt’s living room was like a giant ocean. (Everyone heard him say, “I’m gonna catch that wave,” before he dumped out the Jell-O on the mat and attempted to body surf and surf he did straight onto his face.)
“Man down!” Somebody said.
Gitt rushed in like she was some kind of Dr. Oz, moving out of the triangle like pose she had maneuvered into playing Twister and iced the poor kid’s jaw, cradling his busted up face to her Denman high t-shirt as if he was her sweetheart. It made everyone love her more and rally around her and the injured kid, a nameless freshman.
Then Gitt did the bravest thing. She called the kid’s mom.
“Hi, Mrs. Mother of the Coolest Freshman in the Universe, we were playing Twister, and your son fell and broke his tooth.”
She didn’t tell anyone her mom told her to say all of that, and how her mom had been good in a crisis (at least the memory of her mom was). The shadows in the house that had never left and sometimes came into focus and whispered words like tonight when the freshman broke his nose, those visions were some version of real mixed with make believe but did it matter how they came?
And because Gitt acted as if she had turned into some kind of teenage Oz-Pocahontas, the kid didn’t spill one word about what really happened on the mat, about the games Gitt likes to play, and how he thought Gitt’s living room was like a giant ocean. (Everyone heard him say, “I’m gonna catch that wave,” before he dumped out the Jell-O on the mat and attempted to body surf and surf he did straight onto his face.)
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