Follow The Drip

Pale Pink And Yellow

Miss Carol threw the towel over Bonnie's hair, after she rinsed out the foul smelling curl cream. The whole house reeked of chemicals, like a strong sewer smell. Dooley had already been sitting under the dryer for 20 minutes with curler rods setting her hair. Any time they went to Miss Carol's to get their hair done it was a whole day's process.

She sent them home with 2 bottles of curl activator and 2 sleeping caps, reminding them to keep their hair moisturized or it would just look like a nappy mess. They went home, ate dinner, and were off to bed. In the morning they were off to they're Madea's house to help cook Sunday dinner and do house chores.

"Girls, I need you to go out to the garden and pick the tomatoes and some mint." Madea yelled out into the dining room where the girls were setting the table. They walked out into the backyard, past the small wire fence into their grandmother's garden of sunflowers moving further towards the back of the white gate until they got to four rows of tomatoes. Dooley crouched down to roll the tomatoes into her skirt while Bonnie walked to the right to the herb section and pulled some leaves of mint for the tea their grandmother loved to make.

Counted at 3 acres, the land around the house was pretty bare, except for a big tree, an old oversized barn and a corn field that had not been tended to since Daddy was a young boy. A thin wire gate created a border for the backyard; filled with sunflowers, tulips, vegetables, herbs and small statues that set along one side of an old play house that was painted pale pink and yellow.

I remembered all the stories about Momma, Quin and the others playing in the doll house when they were younger. Last time we visited we were not allowed to go into the yard. Peeking through the window we saw that the small table still had chairs around it with a floral printed cushion that covered the back and the seat. The table cloth hung low sweeping the ground.

On the window sill sat four small children's books and an old Barbie doll with a dirty, curly afro puff a top of her head. A lady bug was crawling up the inside of the window and drew Bonnie's eyes over to the old Muppets curtain with a blue eyed Miss Piggy and the green frog hugging. It was held up by two nails that were stuck in the wooden post, around the ceiling. This was the first time they had gotten a look inside of the house.

Bonnie felt her sister's hand lift off her shoulder as she stepped closer to the door to turn the knob. "Yaw, hurry up now and bring me another tomato, ya hear." Madea yelled to hurry them back into the house so she could start her tea.