Picture My Voice

Chapter Three // Marlowe

"Mimi, you know I love your parents, but those two scare the crap outta me sometimes," Chelsea states as she settles herself into Mimi's room. It's Friday night, nearly two weeks after the start of the school year, and Chelsea is an hour and a half late to our girl's night (as expected).
Since Mimi and I had started our weekend homework, we begin to gather our assignments into our backpacks and shove textbooks onto Mimi's bookshelves. Chelsea plops down onto the navy blue comforter lying atop Mimi's bed and begins to pull candy, movies, popcorn, and magazines from her depthless purse of tricks. I crane my neck trying to see the movie titles by the light of the lanterns strung about the room. What I do see is a king-sized Reese's calling my name.
"I knocked, to be polite since I knew they weren't going to answer, and as I reached the stairs your mom whirled me around and was hugging and screaming and prodding me. Not to mention she said it all in Japanese!" She plucks the last DVD -- the first Magic Mike movie from the looks of it -- out of her purse and tosses it among the others. As it lands, a clacking sound rings throughout the room. "Even though they've been living here for fifteen years, I'm not convinced they've learned English yet."
"You know how they are, Chea; they prefer Japanese." Chelsea scowls and rolls her eyes; it's the same answer she gets each time Mr. and Mrs. Enoki scare the crap out of her.
"Well, I think it's great." I give Mimi a wink and in return get a look of appreciation. From where Mimi and I sit on the floor, I catch Chelsea shoot us an incredulous look.
"Whatever." She mutters under her breath. "Now what shall we watch first? My boy Channing strut his stuff? Or one of the Hemsworth brothers? I've got more, but those three are what I'm in the mood for."
Without missing a beat, Mimi and I simultaneously say, "Liam."

***

After watching Love and Honor -- starring the one and only Liam Hemsworth -- I pull out my DVD of Clueless: one of my all-time favorites. I mean, who doesn't absolutely adore Cher Horowitz? She's beautiful, creative and independent. And even though she can be shallow and naive, I love that she doesn't need a man. You gotta respect a woman like that.
We're in the middle of the scene after the Halloween party when Elton -- that snake -- tries to make out with Cher, when she obviously would rather punch him in the face, when Mimi's mother comes in and -- in English -- tells us dinner is ready. If we had been at me or Chelsea's place we would have simply ordered a pizza. But being in the Enoki household with Mimi's mother downstairs, let's just say the front door would be slammed in the delivery boy's face and Mrs. Enoki would scream at us from downstairs for our lack of culture as she began to cook us food.
Platters of yakitori Chicken kabobs and a large mixing bowl of egg, ham, and vegetable topped ramen are scattered about the knee-high dining table. Once comfortable on our pillows, Mrs. Enoki retreats to her bedroom to join her husband so they can binge watch CSI together.
Being the savages we are, as soon as Mrs. Enoki's feet disappear from the second-floor landing, the three of us are in a frenzy to get food onto our plates. Let's just keep it simple: we're hungry teenage girls in the presence of food made from a woman who's brilliant in the kitchen.
There is complete silence as Chelsea and Mimi cater themselves and check their phones. I stuff myself as well but choose to admire the room's decor instead. I never get tired of the silhouetted paintings of lotus flowers and lily pads that adorn the walls of the room where the dining table stands. To the right of the short and square table, a changing screen depicts a war scene. The black and white display isn't gruesome; the toenail-sized soldiers defending their land is a heart-warming picture that makes me feel an odd sense of safety. Two plastic bamboo trees have been placed on either side of the divider. The two plants -- though fake -- give the room an earthy feel. I revel in the personality and life of the room.
"Are you going to check that?"
Startled, my focus returns to reality and I find Chelsea and Mimi giving me expectant looks. Chelsea repeats herself, "You're text alert just went off. Are you going to check it?"
I nod, not saying a thing, and pull my cell phone from my sweatshirt pocket. Mimi leans over and asks what it says as I silently re-read the text.