Lolita's Perception

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚒𝚡

Saturday: May 31st |1947|
Today was just as typical as ever. Well...at least it started out that way. First, I went over to Rose's house for the very first time since Humbert's been hanging around, and told her all about him. She said she saw him getting the mail the other day, and wouldn't blame me if I ran off and married the guy tomorrow.

We watched the new "Merrie Melodies" cartoon everyone had been talking about, and poked at the jello salad Mrs. Hammond had zealously prepared. Neither were very good. Luckily, MaryRose's brother got off an hour early from his shift at Starlite Drive-in, and brought with him a whole bunch of fries. They were cold, but better than peas and carrots incased in lime jello.

Since mother apparently couldn't be bothered with picking me up (even though she promised she would—as long as I got there myself) so I rode my bike home. The sun would be setting any minute, and I felt almost like I was in a race with the one and only thing in this whole entire world I couldn't stop: time. Like that one song I'm always hearing on the radio.

Before I knew it I'd finally made my way back to that little white house situated between the dozens of others that look just like it. The only difference were those overgrown houseplants that completely take over the front porch, turning it into a tropical green haze. The sun still shone brightly overhead, it's flickering golden rays flitting across my face as I walked along the driveway's cracked pavement. I paused the very moment my hand reached for sun warmed front door, brows drawing close in confusion as I heard the tune to Les Baxter's "April in Portugal" playing from the other side.

It was flirty, and upbeat, and most importantly of all: the song Mother used to play while she'd dance with Daddy. Hearing it again, hearing it now, was strange. Haunting, even. As though I had been transported right back into a time where I still had the one and only man I'd ever loved.

My heart sank as I slowly stepped inside, but to my relief there was no dancing to be seen—only Humbert and Mother sitting on opposite ends of the candy-striped couch. She kept listlessly darting her lit cigarette between those three beloved ashtrays, while he smoked a shiny black pipe.

Sun dusted ribbons of milky white smoke plumed into the sticky sweet summer air, stinging my eyes and leaving me in a daze. Meanwhile, flickering rays of golden light trickled in through the dusky floral curtains, illuminating the magazine cluttered parlor in a strange, pinkish-orange haze.

The sun had finally begun it's journey below the horizon: transforming the world around us into a whirlwind of unearthly gold, and peeled peach pink.

"Dolly, wouldn't you care to join us?" asked Humbert from out of the blue, his so obviously bored expression changing the very moment he noticed me standing in the doorway.

Carelessly slamming the door behind me, I ran over that little candy-striped couch and let myself flop back onto it. Right in between the two of them. Of course, Mother immediately began to scold me: waving her cigarette back and forth as she went on about how I could've made her drop her cigarette, or Humbert his pipe, before branching off to the dozens of other things I'd apparently done wrong within the thirty seconds I'd been there.

"Charlotte, please," Humbert began, gazing down at me with a smile that made my heart soar higher than the heavens. "it's nothing to squabble over."

"Of course..." As she spoke, Mother's cheeks turned to the color of two fresh-caught lobsters, and she looked more embarrassed than ever. "Forgive my frustration, Monsieur. You see, I've just had such a horribly frazzling day."

"Forgiven." he sighed, slowly shaking his head in a way that told me he didn't quite believe her.

From there on out, I sat right in the middle of them, accidentally knocking against Humbert's knee every now and again as I swung my legs around and around—all in an attempt to amuse myself while the two of them talked about some dopey artist guy who's name sounded a whole lot like Pistachio.