Felony Jones

Aunty Panty

     Felony woke up suddenly out of a sound sleep and it took a second for her to figure out why she was already pissed off. "Oh yeah..." She was still angry about Nicholas getting the best of her the night before, but it was Sunday and she had to be nurturing and patient, two things she struggled with on a regular basis. Sunday's were dedicated to her aunt Pansy, her favorite family member, including her own mother.

Pansy was five years older than Felony's mother, and almost the spitting image of her. The physical similarities were striking, especially in the eyes—so much the eyes, but that's where they ended. Pansy was what they used to call, a very proper woman. She was everything Ruby wasn't. She never drank, she went to church on a regular basis, but she wasn't what people would call a zealot, and she definitely never, ever used foul language. She was kind, reliable and never indulged in the company of men.

Pansy lived her entire life in Indiana until Felony moved her out to California. She married her high school sweetheart, Herb, before becoming the town librarian. In 1940, Herb went off to war and never came back. Pansy was devastated, forever remaining a widow. Now she was crippled up with arthritis, and dementia was the enemy. She had good days and bad days. Felony was going to make the best of them while she could.

Growing up, young Franklin and his mother fluttered around the Midwest so much, Pansy never knew where they were for long periods of time. She would get postcards or letters from them occasionally, but she never really knew how they were, or how they were getting by. Young Franklin stayed with Pansy from time to time while his mother did her stints in mental hospitals for severe depression. Those were some good times in his childhood. Pansy could be stern, but doted on young Franklin. Looking back, Felony was grateful for the structure and the stability, and she felt like she owed Pansy.

Felony could remember like it was yesterday, sitting at Pansy's kitchen table drinking homemade lemonade and eating the best peanut butter and honey sandwiches she ever had. The table was so big and round and heavy she wondered how Pansy ever managed to get it in the room to begin with. The wallpaper in the kitchen was pale yellow with little blue flowers that had bright green stems, and the house always smelled of a mix of lavender and furniture polish. Pansy's house barely changed in all the years she lived there. That's what Felony loved the most about her—her consistency and her dependability. That's who aunt Pansy was most of all.

When young Franklin was ten, he came for one of his longest visits— four months. When he arrived at Pansy's, she was waiting at the door as she usually did, giving a quick wave to his mother, but never speaking to her, as she usually did. Pansy wasn't big on small talk or unreliable sisters. As young Franklin clumsily made his way up the steep steps to Pansy's porch, she had an ear to ear grin on her face and told him that she had a big surprise for him. She took his little suitcase out of his hands and gently laid it on the table just inside the door, then took his jacket and hung it on a hook. She gently took young Franklin by the hand and led him to the back door, opened it and pointed out to the backyard. There in the great expanse was a brand-new swing-set. It seemed so small compared to the never-ending landscape. Pansy's house was backed up to what seemed to be the end of the world as far as young Franklin was concerned. He never stepped past the cut grass, so he never knew what went on beyond that boundary. The only thing he knew for sure was that there were trains out there somewhere, at least he heard their horns and their rumble, but he never actually saw them. He never actually saw anything out there except for the occasional rabbit and skunk—now there was a swing-set—his first one, and he would spend many hours on it during his visits. When Felony flew out to get Pansy, pack up her house and bring her out to California, she noticed it wasn't there. Pansy didn't remember it when Felony asked about it. Felony was devastated about that. Not so much the swing set itself, but the fact that Pansy didn't remember it. It should have been something she remembered.