Little Roof Jumpers

Chapter Seven - The Kennedy's

Mattie was the youngest of her three siblings by quite a few years and her parents darling tall blonde haired little girl. She would play the part at home but when she was out of the house or at school she was crazy and wanted to make us laugh. One of the things Mattie did at school to get a laugh was raise her rear so she could make the fart explode and bounce off her seat. Mattie didn't care what the boys or anyone thought. She was wild and funny and we loved her for it.

Mattie lived in a very pretty home with a bedroom fit for a princess. Her dresser, nightstands and pink canopy bed were ivory with gold scrollwork. The big double bed had a beautiful pink satin bedspread. Catty and I loved the nights we too got to sleep in Mattie's beautiful Canopy bed. On Sunday's Mattie went to church with her mom and then brunch and shopping. They shopped at the most expensive children's boutiques in Hamilton. Mattie usually came home with many beautiful dresses and shoes.

Catty and I wondered how she kept it together around her mom and in church, when Mattie was with Catty and I she was loud and wild. Mattie loved to whack you, knock you down or push you off the swing. She was as strong as an ox and didn't seem to feel pain. Many times she had the wind knocked out of her from one of our crazy dares. It didn't seem to faze her because she would do the same thing again and again. This behavior we were leery of and kept an eye on Mattie too make sure we knew where she was. The trick was to not allow her to get behind you because you never knew what Mattie was going to do. Even though we were leery of Mattie we loved her and the three of us made a great team of different talents.

That's how we became, The Roof Jumpers. We were fearless! Our main tricks usually started with us jumping off of my bedroom roof, or Mattie's parent's balcony, garage roofs, tree house's, bicycles and diving boards. We loved heights and the freedom we had flying off them. We were oblivious of the real danger of our daily activities.

By the time we were nine or ten Mattie could wear a women's size ten shoe. On one of her shopping trips with her mom she came home with shoes that looked just like a clowns and they made her feet look big on her long skinny legs. The clown shoes were flat with the toe and heel red and the side's metallic blue. She wore those shoes everyday that summer, she knew they made her feet look gigantic but Mattie didn't care. That was what was so special about Mattie. You could tease her and she would laugh too, then Mattie would whack you hard and then Chaos would erupt. Sometimes Mattie would go overboard and hit us way too hard and before one of us got mad her eyes would tear. Mattie never meant to hurt us but she did many times.

Mattie called her mom, "mother" for which we teased her relentlessly. Her, "mother" was a formal woman who tried to teach Mattie proper etiquette. Her mother took charge of the home and children. She could be stern but always let Mattie go with us. I don't remember Mattie staying at Catty's or anyone else's house very often. We stayed with her most of the time the three of us sleeping in Mattie's big bed me in the middle.

While we were trying to fall asleep we scratched each other's backs. I was always a scratcher sleeping in the middle but my back always had someone scratching it. We were together at some point most every day. In the summer we stayed with Mattie at least once a week, the three of us never tired of each other, we laughed until our stomachs hurt. Truth or dare was a game we played at every sleepover. None of us ever choose truth and we never ran out of dares.

Mattie's father was a carpenter by trade and an avid hunter. I remember standing in their back yard next to the picnic table watching as her dad cleaned the birds he brought home. Mattie helped and would throw the guts at us laughing and snorting, when Catty and I ran away screeching.

In the summers Mr. Kennedy took us to the lake so we could ski behind his bass boat. We waterskied all day and walk on jelly legs that evening. Mattie had been skiing for a long time and could salaam. Catty and I loved to watch her do tricks jumping over the wake that flowed behind the boat.

Mattie was fearless when we ran. She was taller than Catty and me her huge feet helped beat us when we ran down the gravel alley or riding our bikes. At least that's what Catty and I told her. I can still hear her high pitched squeal as she laughed when doing something we shouldn't which was often. If one of us started laughing the game was on or up.

When Mattie turned eleven her parents lost their business and they moved to a smaller home just two blocks away. Even though we couldn't run up and down the alley to Mattie's house any more. We still saw each other everyday.

The Kennedy's loved to camp and they kept a small camper in their backyard. When we got a little older our friends would join us in the camper. The camper became our own house where we exchanged many secret's told and games of Truth or Dare were played. As we were growing older we goaded each other into picking Truth so we could pry our most intimate secrets from each other.

Virginia Slim menthol and Eve cigarettes were our choice of sophisticated smokes. We smoked them in a cigarette holder, as we were elegant enchantresses that still had a little tomboy left in us. We were growing up and trying to explore our new teenage status. We learned a lot that summer and I for one thought we would be together forever. As youngsters do, we grew apart, Mattie was boy crazy and not in our Sorority and Catty and I just liked to have fun.