by Jennifer Lothrigel
We sat atop the small mound in the backyard chewing on long strands of grass. I felt cool, like I was smoking a cigarette. The mound was decorated with a small windmill and two deer statues, their brown fur paint slowly fading around their noses.
He made us virgin cocktails with sweet and sour mix, and tonic. We sat in swiveling bar chairs with our arms folded on the faux leather bumper edge of the bar that my grandma hated, leaning in to watch him shake and pour. I can still hear the sound of the ice hitting the highball rocks glass in that dark corner of the small brown house.
We kneaded ground beef in a ceramic bowl, then patted it into small balls. We always ate a little raw before he cooked them.
He only wore blue velcro walking shoes with rubber soles from Penny’s. He did his best Elvis impersonation every time he talked about them, fully immersed in a rigid hip sway.
He drove a blue Thunderbird with white leather seats. We rode to the market listening to the oldies station with the windows down. A few strands of slick combed over hair remained fastened tight across his head, sometimes just the tips on the other side of his head slightly flapped up in the wind.
He called me Princess, sometimes Sunshine. He built me stilts with my name carved along the bottom inside. I learned to walk all the way down the short length of the driveway next to the RV.
He had secret pens with ladies who lost their clothes when you tipped them to write. They were mixed in with the other extra pens in a small box at the back of the cabinet in the spare bedroom.
He was proud of the sign hanging in the back bathroom that listed ‘Types of People One Meets In a Public Washroom.’ It had a funny drawing of a man with his pants down looking back over his shoulder.
Last year my mom sent me a photo of him on his 1970’s Honda motorcycle. I realized it’s the same motorcycle I have, only mine is blue.
Jennifer Lothrigel is a writer and artist in the San Francisco Bay area. She is the author of 4 chapbooks. Her work has also been published in Phoebe Journal, Pile Press, Borderline Press, and Adanna Journal, amongst others.
Emerge Literary Journal 