The Life And Times Of Rachel Grape

Blinking Away Tears

   Rachel leaned against the counter as her parents made out in the office.  "So embrarassing your parents act like teenagers," she told her best friend in the town.   Christine Balliet had been her best friend since they went to Kindergartem and TriCity High.   They were now going to college.  Christine was going away to a state college to study literature.   Rachel was going to college to study business, as she helped run the family grocery.   Gone were the tin cans that fed Endora, as that was not lucrative, but artisan jellies that she helped inventory.  They had a whole online business of handmade goods.   Her mom did the books and her dad just helped out.   Her sister Alyssa managed the store.   He worked at the factory as a foreman.   Money wasn't a plenty, but they did move out from that ranch house her mom hated.   She loved her mom.   Her roomate to be dispised her.   Her mom's name was Michelle and she came from a rough background.   I guess her dad had been in prison and her mom had to work really hard to get her through school.   She was an only child.   Rachel had Chase, Alyssa, Robert, Bonnie, Clara, Rose, and Gregory.   Her uncle Arnie lived there as well.    She liked Arnie, except he smelled sometimes and her dad had to bathe him.   Her dad was handsome for being in his fifties.  He looked like Johnny Depp.   Her mom was pretty as well.  

     "So, how many times did you cry today?"  One of the townspeople said to Elise.  

"Three or four," she siad.  

    After Wendy left, the slowly began to make friends in the down.   Elizabeth was her shoulder.   Gilbert cried as well, because that was his baby.   She had his deep brown eyes and according to her mother, "Thank God she has Gilbert's build."  Bonnie had her build and was always being  made fun of because of her boobs and belly.   Rachel wasn't popular with the boys, but she was well liked, had a good head on her shoulders, and as far as Elise knew, was a virgin.   Elise sometimes regretted being so loose with hers.   She was seventeen and she and that neighbor did it a lot.   She found him on social media.  He was a math teacher in Indiana.   Joe, the man who drugged her and taped her had died in 2004.   He collapsed of a heart attack.   The tapes?   I guess his wife found them and watched them.   She felt for the girl he taped and threw them out.    She was pissed that he made her do those things.   She hoped the girl was happy.   The boy from McDonald's had six kids and was her facebook friend.   He worked at a factory and his wife seemed to be happy.   From time to time, he thanked her for all she taught him.    She remembered the night she taught him to eat a pussy.   She hoped that his wife was satisfied.    

     Gilbert was stoic about it, but he would miss his girl.   Bonnie was busy being a cheerleader  and dating boys.   She was so much like her mother and Elise cringed.   She looked like Sherilyn Fenn minus the mole by her eyebrow.   She had 36F breasts and a big belly.   She was a mount, and she was popular with the boys, TOO POPULAR.  She was already scoping out colleges.   She was going to be a high school junior. 

    "Did you check internet orders?"   Elise said, but ended up crying.

"Mom, I will come home.  I am not dying."

"But I will miss you and who will help me in the store?"

"Alyssa helps."

"But she has a new baby.   All my kids are special, but you are very special to me and to dad." 

    "My roomate wrote me a letter," she told her mom.

"What's her name?"

"Arianna.   Arianna Haire, from Des Moines.   Weren't you a Haire for a while."

"Ah.   That used to be my last name."

"I know."

"He wasn't the best of husbands, and Grandpa made him marry me.   Chase wasn't his, but a man I 'hung out' with.  Honey, please don't do this.   I was never happy with Mr. Haire and if she us your roommate, just be kind."

"It would be wild if it was."

"Please don't mention it.    I wish I could have been a single mom, but then I would have never met your dad, so that was one good thing."

     She read the letter.  Her name was Arianna and she was from the city.   She had no siblings.   Her parents were "together"but not.   Her mom slept around.   She was a lot like her in high school.   They both were in the create club in their high schools.   They lived in older houses, Alyssa in a four square in a quiet, older neighborhood, and Rachel lived in a big farm house.  "I am one of eight.   I love it.   My older brother has moved to the city and my sister lives in town with her husband Johnnie and their new baby Mattox."    Rachel loved babysitting him, but she wasn't ready to have a baby.   She was going to get her degree and work with her mom and dad. 

    In the parsonage, they were apart.   Kevin Neeley was depressed.   His next to last boy, Westin was going to school.   Then he would be alone with Wendy.   Wendy was depressed.   No. Wendy was severely mentally ill. Wendy cried and that late July afternoon was no different.   "My Westin is going to school.  He is going to meet a girl, a girl will meet him and take him away from me."  He wanted to tell her to grow up, but as a good husband, he hugged her   Being his wife tested his faith.   He seemed to gravitate towards Tera Wilson, a human resource generalist with the city.   Her beauty was just, wow, but her husband Joe was a nice guy and he was married to his Wendy, but he was conflicted.  

    "He is going to meet someone he loves," she sobbed.

"Well isn't it how it's supposed to be?  It is 2015 This is what we should want, dear."

"He's my baby."

    He was so out of there.  

     "Elise, are you crying again?"  Gilbert asked as she watched her daughter get in her car, a 1986 LeBaron they bought.

"I just am going to miss her, her light."

"She sure iwaa light," he told her.

She still is."

"Look, Chase went to school and we were fine."

"But Rachel is just...   Special."

"I know.   However, we will have to do this in two years with Bonnie."

    Bonnie was the child who tested her.    Immensely popular, sort of haughty, she saw her as a girl who rushes a sorority, meets a guy, and lives happily ever after.   She wondered what her little angel Rachel was going to do?   She would find out soon enough.