Wickless

Freshmen

School was to be starting in two more days. It was Friday, hot, and Dorothy the Fourth, Dee Dee, was spending her last two days of freedom lying on her bed reading an issue of Family. Family was a local Kansas magazine that focused on mothers, fathers, raising kids, and financial advice so families could have the best life experience. It was Dee Dee's favorite magazine, and it specifically became her favorite family magazine when the latest issue had a same-sex couple on the front cover.

Dee Dee smiled to herself as she thought about what took place earlier that morning. She was eating breakfast and checking to make sure she had all her school supplies when the mail man had come. Of course as she always did, she ran out to greet Albert, the mail man. As usual, he said hi back and handed her the mail. Rarely did he have time to talk because of his busy schedule. It also didn't help Dee Dee and her family lived about four miles away from town. Nothing but dry Kansas road, endless, endless road.

She laughed internally and flipped to the front cover of the magazine. Her legs were crossed up and swinging in the air and her room was tidy, calm, with hardly any posters. One thing she did have was shelves and shelves of books.

The two women on the front cover of the magazine were both smiling toward the camera. They had three kids, two girls and a baby boy. They were aging because the oldest woman had white hair where the younger one was still blonde. The kids were cheeky and rosy, also with blonde hair and Dee Dee assumed they came from the woman with the blonde hair. Dee Dee already read the article about them and it was pretty much about the two women giving advice on raising a son, and having positive male role models-

A knock came upon the bedroom's door and Dee Dee looked up. She looked over at her cell phone on the bed. That afternoon she had spoken to some of her friends about the up coming school days, but she didn't expect anyone over.

"Yes?" She answered.

Her mom poked her head into her room. Her mother was Dorothy the Third while of course, the grandmother was the second Dorothy, and Dee Dee was the fourth. The math behind it all was kind of confusing. All Dee Dee really understood was that her great grandmother was fourteen or fifteen in 1936. Either way, Dee Dee flung her legs over from the bed and stood up. Her mom probably wanted her to help out with the chickens. Although Dee Dee already got their eggs, some of the hens continued to lay far into the afternoon.

"No, no, it's alright, honey." Her mother told her. "Just wanted to let you know you should be listening out for the weather reports. It's gonna be raining hard these weeks, probably until September."

"Hurricane season?" Dee Dee asked.

"Yep, you know it." Dorothy the Third looked over her shoulder and lowered her voice into a whisper. "Your grandmother is having a fit. Talking nonsense."

Dee Dee laughed. Her grandmother was a hoot. A lively woman even in her golden years. She was able to function just like anyone else who was younger. It was sort of impressive. She wouldn't say her age though. Dee Dee used to ask when she was younger but her grandmother never would answer. Maybe it had something to do with that, 'a woman never tells her age' saying.

"Give grandma a break, ma. You know how she gets when the seasons change. You know," Dee Dee started. "I wondered if something happened, like, when she was younger or something to make her so...crazy when the weather gets bad like this." Dee Dee kept her eyes on her mother, but she didn't say anything. In fact, she avoided making eye contact with Dee Dee. Secrets, secrets. Dee Dee shook her head and picked up her magazine to continue reading it. She heard the door slightly close.

She continued to engulf herself in her magazine even when a few hours past, she was still flipping the pages of the thirty page book. It was a habit she did. When she got a new issue, she usually read it over again, about three to five times. If it was a really good issue then six or even ten times. She was weird about that...but it was who she was.