Great Girls(Victoria Pedretti)

C. 17🕰

"Is this Cigarettes After Sex?" I ask a focused Luci, who was flashing a tiny flashlight in Gatsby's tiny pink ears, referring to the spinning record on the turntable. Luci's response was delayed, but when she did answer, she said, "No, it's The New Respects. The song is "Before The Sun Goes Down," in case you were wondering," she says with a soft smile.

I was lying on my back against Luci's brown, round rug that was downy to a child's first touch of velvet. Running my fingers across the lines, I turned myself over to see Luci with a worried expression on her face.

"Is there something wrong with Gatsby?" I asked, sitting up on my rear.

Luci shuts off the light and permits Gatsby to proceed, prowling around freely on his paws. She cleared her throat, "I think I need to take him to a vet as soon as possible."

"Why?"

"His ear's red and swollen. I just hope it's not too serious. I promised my grandmother that I would take care of him before she died of Alzheimer's." 

"I'm sorry."

"Don't worry, we will get through this, " Luci's eyes attend to Gatsby, who has not left her side, but has rubbed his head against the exterior portion of her hand.

"So, are you hungry?" she asked, getting up off of the floor, only to take the needle of the long-play record.

"Sure, anything you have in mind to wolf down for the evening?" I got up from the rug and slowly walk towards her. She placed her hands on the waistline of her dark blue suede button-front skirt.

"How about Chinese? I'm craving wonton soup and dried noodles. What about you?"

I shrug my shoulders, "I don't know. I guess...I could go for egg rolls." Luci clapped her hands like a seal in excitement. "Perfect."

◽◽◽◽◽◽

"My mother is the woman on the left in the green dress," Luci points to her twenty-four-year-old mother, who was holding a baby in a potato costume. "Oh, my goodness. Is that you?" I questioned, pointing to the ginger-haired baby.

Luci bit her lip and grinned like a Chesire cat as she tucked her orange hair behind her hair.

"Stop. You're lying," I cried out ecstatically. "Oh, you were so cute. That has to be the most adorable costume ever. Although you don't look too happy to be in it," I giggled, touching her warm hand as I stood in the living room, holding the tiny yellow photo album up in my left hand.

"Yeah, now that I think about it. It's not the costume that I didn't want to be in," Luci, standing beside me, changes her expression and slowly slides her hand away from mine.

I wondered what her mother had done to her to make her act this way. When I noticed the shift in her mood, I put the book back on the table where it once was. "Do you not have a good relationship with your mom, if you don't mind me asking."

Luci moved on both feet, compelling me to grab her by the wrist. She stood there, motionless as if she was a character in a movie and my hand was the remote pausing her.

She turned her head slowly and parted her lips, "My mother is dead...to me." "But, she's your mother. How can you say that?"

"Hey. Why don't you choose another book to pick out from the library because the book of my life is not for anyone to read, including you? Now, just drop it," she said with a cold stare.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I just—" The moment I began to apologize for overstepping my boundaries, the doorbell rang.

"I should probably get that," she compressed her lips and made her departure.