Minutia (A 3-Day Novel)

Bonnie, Part 1

Bonnie Sulcoski came home from school one day to find a strange elderly woman in her kitchen.

"Hello, dear," the woman greeted her with great cheer. "Could you make me a cup of tea?"

Bonnie dropped her school bag and stood in the doorway.

The woman was old. Not like her teacher or her mother, but really old and wrinkly, with a bloated, round belly. Her skirt, straight and pale blue with white flowers, was pulled up so high that the waistband sat just under her breasts, emphasizing her mid-section.

The girl stared. Just then her mother, Maria, came through the door opposite, the one that led into the living room. "Don't just stand there, Bonnie," she admonished. "Get your Great-grandmother Judith a cup of tea."

Bonnie's eyes widened. Great-grandmother? This was news to her.

"Come here, Betty," her great-grandmother said. "Give me a kiss."

The woman's mouth was a nightmare of pink lipstick and drool. Bonnie did not move from the doorway.

"It's Bonnie," Maria corrected. She gave Bonnie a stern look that said, "Get over there and let the old woman kiss you. Right now."

The girl walked slowly into the arms of her great-grandmother and let the woman kiss her cheek, leaving a wet pink smear behind. She stepped back as soon as was polite, but the older woman grabbed her arm. "Betty, get me a cup of tea, would you?"

Bonnie's mother shrugged and returned to what she was doing, which was pressing a blouse to wear out that night. Bonnie could tell when her mother had a date by the way she piled her hair up on top of her head in a fashionable beehive. For chores or grocery shopping, she just tied it back under a colourful kerchief. Tonight Maria was pressing her nicest blouse, and her freshly polished black pumps sat under the kitchen table, ready for her.

Bonnie made tea, keeping an eye on the old woman as she did so. Her great-grandmother sat grinning happily, staring out the window, her long skinny legs crossed one over the other. When she had finally finished the tea, she set it before the old woman, who looked up and said, "Oh, thank you, Mummy!"

Backing away, the girl approached her mother in the next room. Maria was now mostly dressed but for the blouse, which was still cooling. She had on a satin bra with pink ribbons where the straps met the cups and the most vibrant red lipstick Bonnie could imagine.

"She called me Mummy," she whispered.

"She's old."

"Why is she here?"

"Because she needed a place to stay. Your Great Aunt Lucinda got tired of looking after her, and I need someone to keep an eye on you after school and when I'm out."

Bonnie did not know how to voice her concerns about this. Her single mother worked long hours, this was true. And she dated regularly. And Bonnie was often alone in their apartment in the aging converted Victorian. And she did get scared when she was on her own. But an ancient woman who called her Betty, or Mummy, did not seem like a good idea.

"Can I wipe this off yet?" she asked, pointing to the smear on her cheek. The juiciness of it was distracting her so badly she could not think.

Maria tsked and pulled a white handkerchief from somewhere in her bra to clean her daughter's face.

"I just need someone here so that if those nosy people upstairs do decide to talk to the authorities about us, I can say there's always an adult in the house with you."

Bonnie sat on the couch and watched her mother slip the blouse on, button it up and put away the iron and ironing board. There had been a lot of trouble with the people upstairs over the last year. They always seemed to be asking questions, or asking Maria to keep it down when entertaining guests (she was often entertaining male guests). But Bonnie thought these people might be even more troubled by these new developments.

Maria was speaking to herself as much as to Bonnie. "I don't understand why they are so eager to get others in trouble or to stick their nose in where it doesn't belong. I mean, we're all just trying to make ends meet. We're all just trying to find a little happiness, am I right?"

Bonnie thought the neighbours didn't care for her mother's brand of happiness, which usually involved men, music, cigarettes and alcohol.

"Betty!" her great-grandmother called from the other room just then. "Betty!"

"Oh, God!" exclaimed Maria, putting her hands up before herself in a gesture of surrender. "Go in there and keep her quiet, would you?"

"Where are you going tonight?"

"Just out."

"When will you be back?"

"I don't think I'll see you until tomorrow after school." She walked away from Bonnie, into her bedroom to check her make up in the mirror. Bonnie followed.

"Where is she going to sleep?" the girl asked.

"In your room."

"Where?" But she knew the answer.

"In your bed. You'll have to take the floor for now. I'll pick up one of those roll-away cots for you as soon as I can afford it." She turned to face her daughter. "Please, just keep her out of trouble. And out of my hair."

Keeping Great-Grandma Judith out of trouble was not easy.

Bonnie discovered this right away. She went back into the kitchen and found the woman going through her school bag.

"Can we read this, Betty?" she asked, holding up the girl's spelling book.

"You don't read a spelling book."

She made a face. "Oh, no. I don't want to read that. Well, what have you got to read?"

Bonnie looked around. "The newspaper?"

"No. Not the newspaper. That's depressing. It's all just bad news. Do you have a cigarette, Betty?"

"My name is Bonnie," the girl said.

"Right. Have you got a cigarette?"

"I'm eight."

"Oh. Well, ask your mother, dear. Ask your mother if she has a spare cigarette."

Bonnie didn't think asking right now was a good idea. She went to her mother's purse, which was hanging from the back of a kitchen chair, and removed a pack of cigarettes. She handed her great-grandmother one and a book of matches.

"Light it for me?"

"I don't know how to light a cigarette."

"Oh, just light the match and hold it up. I'll take care of the rest."

Bonnie did as she was asked. She held the flame out and the old lady leaned forward, shakily, with the cigarette between her lips and puffed away until there was a good glowing ember there. She found an ashtray and set it down before the old woman.

"Sit down," Judith ordered the girl.

Bonnie obeyed.

"You're Maria's daughter, aren't you?"

She nodded.

"You're the slow one, right? They say that you're retarded."

Bonnie blinked. Yes, she did know that some people in her family had called her that terrible word. It was because she had not walked until she was almost three, and because she had not talked until she was nearly four. She also had odd habits.

The old woman looked her up and down. "You don't seem retarded to me."

This made Bonnie smile, just a little.

"I've got a secret," Judith said then. She lowered her voice and leaned across the table. "I'm going to have a baby."

Bonnie could not help but look at her great-grandmother's stretched out abdomen, just briefly. But it was not possible. She knew that.

"And Norm and I are going to elope." She held one finger up to her lips. "Shhhh."