Phoenix Mating

June

Courtney

"Okay, so here is your key. Down the hall is where the two rooms and bathroom are, the master bedroom is at the end of the hall, and everything else is kind of in your face," Lee explained.

Lee was a short elderly woman who was kind enough to rent out one of her single story houses to me, a girl from Jersey with no friends and no family down here. I left them all back home.

"Now it's time you break in your new place by serving your first guest tea," Lee said walking into the kitchen going straight to the first cabinet next to the sink. I smiled before pulling my bags to the master bedroom.

I opened the door seeing a Queen sized bed sat in the middle of the room. To the left was a dresser that was about five feet tall with 5 drawers. To the right of that was a door which, when I walked over to it, led to a closet. On the other side of the room there was a vanity desk with a simple oval mirror. The room was homey enough where I didn't need to decorate and that made this new venture feel so much better already.

I smiled putting everything on the little stool by the door before closing the room and walking into the next room taking in the pale orange walls and nothing else. I thought back to my last day at home. Telling my family and friends a month prior that I was going to move down to New Orleans for three months as an extended vacation in the south where I could find myself. With that little bit of information, I got a lot of backlash and people telling me to really consider the choice I was about to make.

Fortunately, for my own well being I had planned months ahead, for a year actually. I had saved up enough money to put a down payment on this house, and because it was down south everything was a lot cheaper. I even found two jobs to work so that I wouldn't go low on funds. I joined a group of women who meet every 6 months that would help young women become financially responsible as they navigate their way through adulthood. They helped us to find jobs and ways of penny pinching. They even gave us our own mentors that we would meet with every month to help us with problems, congratulate us on successes, and explain the bigger picture consequences when we make lapses in judgements, and how to avoid them in the future.

It was a wonderful group that I'm thankful I found. I give 70% of the credit to the group. But once everyone found out they started giving their two cents, and the majority of it was covered. I had two streams of income, a support group, a house, savings, and things to do. With two jobs I doubted I would really be able to do much anyway, but if I had time the option presented itself to me.

Lee was a supporter of my group and my mentor, it was a little weird to some that a 75 year old woman was my mentor- when I was only 24. But I was actually delighted about the choice. I have always been an old soul, and have been attracted to the warm wisdom of my elders. She even helped asauge the confusion, pain, and whatever other emotions my family was feeling. She came up and had a meeting with my family and friends, answering questions, giving information about the area, even the racial tension status. I smiled thinking of that day.

"Happy you're finally here?" Lee asked, noticing my smile. She covered the tea cups with plates and came to sit across from me at the table.

"I am, I was actually thinking about when you came up to see my family," I said.

Lee walked into the restaurant wearing her designer pants with a pin stripe white blouse with the collar popped and the first three buttons undone. A series of pearls dangled from her neck accentuating her neckline. Her kitten heels made a nice clack against the floor as she approached me. She took her shades off fixing her feathered hair smiling as she opened her arms and embraced me tightly.

"Courtney, my dear, why do you look like a snack is slithering under your clothes," she asked. She draped her skinny arm around my shoulders, shaking me a little.