Mothing

The warmth of the setting summer sun, and the sound of wind on an open road. A tan-brown house with a red shingled roof. A blue Pontiac pulls into the asphalt driveway, screeching to a stop. A well dressed man in a pinstripe suit steps out of the driver side, and a woman in a purple pencil skirt dress steps out of the passenger side. The woman shepherds a little girl from the backseat off a plastic throne to the red door in a wall. The woman, which has long auburn hair, soft blue eyes, standing at 5’5”, with her white heels making her two inches taller, and is thin and curvy, a black leather handbag around her other shoulder.

“Honey can you grab the car seat?” commands the woman as she lifts the child at her side, holding her on one hip with one arm.

The suited man, which looks up from a smartphone in his hands. His tall six foot broad form cast a long shadow over the women in the light. His shortcut red hair moves in the slight breeze, his green eyes don’t move from his phone. “Okay honey.” he droned, as he walked around and opened the car door.

As he starts getting the car seat out, the woman starts rummaging through a shoulder strap black purse with one hand. About the same time the man gets the car seat out, closes and locks the car. The woman manages to find a large set of keys that also contain a keychain of a four-leafed clover. The little girl, just under two years old has one arm around the woman, and another she has in her mouth covering over two or three fingers coating them in saliva. Her blue-green eyes watching the keychain as it goes for the door. Her red hair, almost reminiscent of a rag doll, covers her ears. She is wearing a lavender dress with a white floral pattern and long white socks with two black shoes that strap over her tiny feet. “Momma, hungry.” she muffles through the hand she is trying to eat.

“Are you hungry already, didn’t you get enough food at dinner?” She responds, placing the keys into the lock, turning them before returning the keys to her bag. She jiggles the door knob and pushes the door open. The dark entranceway of the house greets them with silence. “You can have a snack, but then it’s bedtime.” she flips on the entryway light, revealing a oak wood entryway and a striped rectangular throw rug. “Close the door behind me dear.” she shouts walking left from the entryway to the kitchen, to the black French door refrigerator. Opening the door to reveal the bathing white light, grabbing an applesauce from within. Going to a drawer to pull out a small plastic spoon. The man comes through the open door, one arm wrapped around a car seat and the other hand holds the phone to his droned gaze. Placing the car seat on the ground kicking his shoes off near the closet. At the same time the little girl is placed on a small plastic colorful chair at a plastic table in a dining room next to a larger glass table that has six glass and metal chairs around the table.

The little girl begins to pull at the covering on the applesauce “Juice!” she says as she balls up and releases one of her hands pointing it at her mother, repeating the action several times.

“Honey, can you fill a sippy cup for Xila.” shouting over her shoulder as she helps remove the cover from the snack. “Honey?” she questions, handing the small plastic spoon to Xila. Still not getting a response she walks out of the dining room into the kitchen to get a view of the entryway. Seeing the man still standing in the entryway emotionless swiping up on the phone with a thumb. “Matt!” she said sternly.

“Yes?” he responds as he breaks the gaze with his phone.

“Your daughter wants some juice.” says the woman with a frustrated look on her face.

“Sorry, I was looking through some of the photos posted to Jim’s page.” Matt smiles. “Xila is just the cutest flower girl.”

“Can we get Xila to bed really quick.” she sighed, rubbing her temple with her hand.

“Yes, yes.” he shoves the phone into his pocket barely big enough to fit the device. He walks into the kitchen then both of them walk into the dining room to see the little girl already half asleep in the chair. Spoon partially filled with applesauce sitting upside down on the plastic table. Xila eyes barely open with food somewhat caking the rim of her lips. Matt pulls Xila out of the seat taking her over to a nearby counter to wipe the leftover food from her mouth. As the applesauce is being put into a container and into the fridge by the woman. Matt begins to bring Xila out of the dining room through the living room to some stairs that lead into the dark second level of the house. As the sun has descended beyond the horizon the breeze blows the green grass and vibrant trees in the yard.

A phone rings within the bag which has been set by the fridge earlier. The woman quickly goes to the bag, fumbling through the many items until the light of the phone is found. She pulls the device out, it displays “Jasmine” on the face. “Hello sis, get home okay?” she answers.

“Tina, Tina. I am sooooooo drunk!” she slurred.

“Did you get home in one piece?” Tina repeated.

“Yesssss, I DID.” Jasmine spoke loudly.

“Good, I hate to call this call short but I need to get Xila to bed.” Tina says, starting to walk towards the stairs.

“Oookkkkay” Jasmine hiccupped “Maybe Xila will have herself a playmate in nine months.” she giggled.

“You are very drunk sister, I’m going to go.” Tina laughed.

“BYE!” as there is a click from the device.

Tina holds the device as she climbs higher until reaching the second floor. Passing a closed door to the master bedroom on the left and a door on the right to the office. Walking into the hallway that has a barred railing overlooking the first floor. Towards the lamp light room at the end of the hallway. Pushing the slightly ajar door open just as Matt finishes putting Xila into a blue onesie with white flowers patterned onto it. Matt lifts Xila up as she giggles and is set into her small bed, then the colorful covers with cartoon characters get pulled over Xila.

“Bye, bye.” says Xila, moving her hand in a waving motion as the lamp light is replaced by a soft white night light.

“Bye, bye.” replies Matt and Tina simultaneously also waving as they slowly walk out the door leaving it slightly ajar as they do. Walking down the hall and opening the door to the master bedroom. Opening the walk-in closet not far from the door. Changing out of there fancy attire and into some solid colored pajamas. Tina brings the dirty fancy attire to the very back of the closet putting it into a hamper. Rejoining Matt as they walk out of the closet. The couple begins to walk down the stairs towards the entryway. Through a doorway to the right to the living room. Sitting down in black leather couch that has a white square wood coffee table in front of it. Beyond the table is a flat screen TV on a white TV stand with black soundbar, subwoofer and speakers.

“Give me that phone and turn the TV on, I want to see that pretty girl.” Smiles Tina as Matt hands her the phone and retrieves the pair of remotes from a drawer in the table. The TV flashes on as Tina messes with the phone. A few seconds go by and photos flash onto the screen, moving by in a slideshow. Showing Xila in her dress dropping and sprinkling purple flower petals in between church pews. Flipping to another photo of Xila, Matt, and Tina. Tina with a large smile holding Xila on her hip, Matt also with a large smile, his arm around Tina. The slideshow continues with solo pictures of each person. Some of them are blurred, slightly tilted, or not centered. It also shows pictures of another woman that looks similar to Tina in a white wedding dress standing next to a very tall man in a tuxedo next to her.

“When are the professional photos coming in?” Matt askes returning the remotes to the drawer.

“Jasmine said two weeks, right after coming back from the Caribbean.” Tina replied.

“We should go to the Caribbean!” Matt exclaimed.

“Like a second honeymoon?” Tina was puzzled with some excitement.

“Why not? We could get your parents to watch Xila.” Matt proposed.

“Was there something wrong with France?” Tina teased, taking her eyes from the screen.

“Nothing was wrong with France, but it was over five years ago now.” Matt also averted his gaze. “The Louvre was pretty great though.” Matt smiled.

“We could definitely use a vacation, I don’t think we have been on one since Xila was born.” Tina sighed stress away.

“Ya the boundary waters!” Matt chuckles with excitement.

“We would have to renew our passports.” Tina concludes.

“True, we could also just tour the country a bit.” Matt counterpoints.

“I was hoping for somewhere exotic.” Tina daydreams.

“What about Egypt?” Matt askes.

“Too hot.” Tina spits back.

“Alaska?” Matt smiles.

“Too dark.” Tina shakes her head.

“Tour of England?” Matt purposes.

“Just right.” Tina snickers “We could watch a travel channel, or a documentary to get ideas on where in England to go.” Tina starts grabbing remotes from within the drawer. Taking one last look at the current Xila on screen before changing it to a different input. Tina scrolls through options that appear on screen, until picking a series about traveling. The selecting an episode from the series on England. The episode begins to talk about some bed and breakfast locations to visit. There is a blue bar at the bottom of the screen to indicate how long the episode is, listing thirty seconds viewed of forty-five minutes as the bar disappears.