sweet like cinnamon (a love and death story)

grease lighting

Hi people and welcome to a new chapter! Thank you to everyone reading and I hope you enjoy!!

~~~

"Honey, why are your best sneakers in the flower pot?" I hear my mom ask with a confused sigh.

"They have flowers on them, so I thought they would like it." I shrug, not taking my eyes of the tv show that my siblings and I were watching, along with Alyssa as she was coming with us to the movie theatre.

"Well, shoes belong on the shoe rack or on your feet honey." Mom tells me while walking over and handing me the shoes. "Now where are your socks?"

"I don't like how they feel on my feet!" I protest. Socks are so itchy! And they make my feet really hot, I don't like them at all.

Mom throws a pair of socks onto my lap while getting my little brother to go and get his jacket on. "No socks, no movie."

I pout, but slowly admit defeat and pull the itchy death socks onto my feet, quickly putting on my flower shoes to make them more bearable.

~~~

"Popcorn!" Jenny exclaims, giggling and running over to a huge popcorn machine, pressing her face up against the glass, Alyssa doing the same thing. "Mom can we get some?!"

"Of course you can honey! Popcorn all around I think!" She laughs and hands the man behind the counter some money.

The theatre was busy as it was the opening night of 'Grease', which is what we were going to see. I could hear lots of other kids screaming, parents trying to calm them down, popcorn churning around in the machine, the smell of soda, butter and candy all mixing together. It was overwhelming.

I watch my siblings and Alyssa as they bounce around excitedly, pointing out all of the Grease posters to my dad that were scattered around the movie theatre, but everything was too loud for me so I grip onto my mom's denim skirt with my fists and hide my face in her body. Now the only thing I could smell was her familiar perfume, which calmed me.

As mom gets our tickets printed out she reaches her hand down and runs her hand over my head gently, doing even more to help my body calm down. I don't understand why I get like this? No one else does...

"Do you want to hold your popcorn, Miss Ashley?" Mommy asks, taking a container of sweet buttery kernels off the countertop and offering it to me.

I nod with a large smile, happily accepting the popcorn and eating a piece, a warm buttery taste filling my mouth.

"Popcorn!" Ian runs over and tries to take a piece, so I turn to face away from him with a frown.

"Hey mister, you have your own." Mommy quickly hands my little brother his own popcorn, before doing the same to Jenny and Alyssa.

We then make our way into the theatre to find our seats before the movie started. Mom was sitting on the end of the row. I was next to her and my sister, Alyssa was obviously on the other side of Jenny, then Ian, and then Dad who was also sat next to a stranger. I'm glad that wasn't me, I don't like strangers...

Once in our seats I eat more of my popcorn as it was just too good to leave it sitting there! We only got popcorn on special occasions, so I wasn't gonna let it go to waste.

I can't help but notice that mama was acting a little strange as the movie started. She was looking at the screen but seemed to be lost in thought and not really focusing much... did she not like the movie?

I alternate between looking at the film and looking at  mommy. Every time she noticed she would turn to me and give me a reassuring smile, but it didn't do much to help my worry.

Was she okay? Is something wrong? Did I do something wrong? All these thoughts whirl about my head and make it hard for me to hear anything going on in the movie, it all just because noise. Not calculated noise but random noise.

I stand up from my seat and move to sit myself on mommy's lap. Maybe a hug will make her feel better?

Mama smiles and wraps her arms around me, giving me a kiss on the forehead before turning her attention back to the screen where the characters were in some white room, dancing on a car.

"go greased lighting, you're burning up the quarter mile"

"greased lighting, go greased lighting"

"go greased lighting, you're coasting through the heat lap trials"

~~~

The day after the theatre mommy took us to the park where we met Miss Sherry and her two children. She had a boy who was Jenny's age, and a girl who was Ian's age, so we were playing with them on the jungle gym while our mom's sat on a nearby bench and talked.

Well. Gossiped.

I couldn't hear what they were talking about, but it must have been something serious as they were talking in hushed voices...

"Ashley!" My sisters voice snaps me from my thoughts. "I bet you can't go faster than me across the monkey bars!" She grins, jumping off the swing that was still moving and landing a few feet away from me.

"I don't wanna go on the monkey bars, Jenny." I tell her, going down the slide.

"Because you're too scared?" She taunts in a mocking voice.

"I'm not scared!" I defend, dusting some sawdust from my denim dungarees.

"Then prove it." She grins, running over to the monkey bars and standing on the starting platform.

I look between her and mommy, who was still talking to Miss Sherry, before slowly walking over to my sister. How hard can monkey bars be? I have seen lots of over kids do it before.

I slowly stand up onto the platform next to Jenny so I can reach the monkey bars more easily.

"Ready... GO!!" Jenny shouts, suddenly jumping up onto the monkey bars and starting to scale down them.

I take a deep breath before doing the same thing and jumping up onto the bars, moving one hand in front of the other while supporting my own body weight.

"Come on slow coach!" Jenny teases, a few bars ahead of me already.

I frown and try to swing myself more so I can get to the next bar easier, but I suddenly loose all my grip and gasp as I'm sent hurtling towards the floor.

I land face down on the sawdust beneath me, which knocks all the air out of my lungs.

"Mommy!" I vaguely hear Jenny yell, but I'm too focused on trying to get air back into my lungs, but my breath comes out in short gasps.

"Oh Ashley, sweetie!" Mommy hurries over and picks me up from the ground, dusting me off slightly. "Just try to breathe baby, you got it." She encourages, pushing my blonde hair back behind my ears.

My breathing just comes out in short gasps and I feel tears spring to my eyes as the adrenaline and shock starts to leave my body and the reality of what just happened sets in, as well as the tiny bits of wood chips that had gotten into my clothing and were itching my body all over.

Mama quickly uses her thumbs to wipe my tears and then picks me up and brings me over to the bench where Miss Sherry was sitting, setting me on her lap and letting me hide my face in her chest as my breathing settled down.

"There ya go..." Mommy runs her hand up and down my back gently, before turning to Miss Sherry. "When I said to take risks I didn't mean like that." She chuckles, placing a kiss on my head.

"You're lucky if it doesn't end up like that..." Miss Sherry tells her, which confused me.

If what didn't end up like that? Was mommy planning to go on the monkey bars too?

"What are you talking about?" I ask while looking up at my mom, wanting to know what was going on.

"Nothing for you to worry your pretty little head about, Ash." Mama quickly assures, placing a long kiss on my forehead and cupping my cheeks with her soft warm hands.

I pout slightly but let the topic go, staying sat patiently on my mommy's lap while I watched all the other children play.

Watching was more fun than joining in...