I remember it as if it were yesterday. There I was, innocently playing with my toys on the living room floor of our first home, careful to not get in the way of my mother's cleaning. It's her favorite pastime. Interference with it is not smart.
I remember that my throat was dry and scratchy. I hadn't had much to drink that day, but was too intent on playing to care. My mother had a can of Pledge in her hand. She was bending over the coffee table with an old undershirt, rubbing in circles so vigorous that her blonde hair was popping out of the bandana she had tied it back with.
I heard a scream and looked up. My mother dropped her rag and picked something up, a blue Chuck E. Cheese tumbler. My last birthday party had been at Chuck E. Cheese's, and my sister and I had won a blue and a yellow tumbler with the mouse logo on the side. Mine was the yellow Chuck E. Cheese cup. I repeat, mine was the yellow Chuck E. Cheese cup.
"WHO LEFT THIS HERE! IT'S FULL OF APPLE JUICE, AND NOW THERE'S A RING ON THE COFFEE TABLE!"
That's when the devil in ribbons spoke from the den. "I didn't do it mommy. My cup is the yellow one. It was Bunny."
I knew better than to hesitate. I jumped over my sit-n-spin and made a mad dash for the door. But mom was spry. She caught me in the kitchen, pulled my corduroys down and blistered my poor innocent little behind with smacks of such ferocity that my ass still shudders remembering it. The devil in ribbons went back to her Barbies, and though I didn't see her through my tears, I am sure there was a smirk. That's how the devil works.
I cried and pleaded, "No mommy! No! I didn't have apple juice. Mine is the yellow Chuck E. Cheese cup!" She didn't believe me. She kept smacking till she was assuaged, and then let me go.
I ran out into the back yard and cried some more. I vowed there would be vengeance. And someday there will, because MINE WAS THE YELLOW CHUCK E. CHEESE CUP.
Mine was the yellow Chuck E. Cheese cup.
Posted by at 10:49 PM