The One Who Really Loves You

ART: "Peaceful Lovers" By Monica Stewart

Mabel waited for her two orders of General Tso's Chicken to come up. She had ordered one with fried rice and the other with white rice. It was a Friday in the late summer and she didn't feel like cooking. She had been in Philadelphia for a year now and she was becoming like other Philadelphians...Lazy, she thought as she giggled to herself. She saw the three of them enter the little chinese restaraunt together. Two boys and one girl. None of them looked over 13 years old. Just babies she thought. The girl had a cute round little face...She already had round little hips like the woman she was on the verge of becoming and big round breasts that seemed at once too grown for this little girl. She was still at thirteen just a child.. a well developed child just as she had been. She remembered how at thirteen the boys had followed her home from school...and even grown men had done a double take when she walked past them.. Her mother often said that she was over developed.. So was this young girl. The boy was tall and slender, with a face that resembled Usher, the singer. He was trying to pretend that he was sure of himself for the other boy, his friend...but it was quite obvious that he wasn't.

"Why is you talkin to me? she asked him.
The Boy smiled, looked at his friend and then said to her-

"Take a deep breath, I'm just tryin
to get to know you..."

"You don't need to know me...
I don't want you talkin to me." she protested

"Why, what I done to you, but talk?" he asked

"Cause I said so...you a young boy and you playin
ya self..I aint interested in you." she said.
Mabel eyed her carefully...It was obvious that she in fact did like the attention she was getting from the boy, but she was pretending that she didn't...He knew it...His friend knew it.. Everybody knew it...except her...She was still too young to be that in touch with her feelings. Mabel smiled and sighed as she picked up her chinese food...This young girl had a long road to go before she would come to knowledge of herself as a woman...And so, the love game began. This was much like the game her older and new found sister , Victoria was playing. Mabel and Cora Beth visited Victoria regularly in the "hospital" where the state said she had to stay until they were satisfied that she was "sane" She had shot her estranged husband, Reverend Brother Doctor Pastor Struthers again and had shot her father, Sweet Dick Jenkins. Mabel had shot her
to save their lives and now all of that was forgiven. Pastor Struthers was banging the choir director and one of the Sunday School teachers. When asked if he was going to visit his wife ,he replied.."Ah hope she rots in hell." Mabel and Cora Beth visted her...and always brought food. Clerow even came once with the baby....Her neice, Clarice.

One person was always there...Deacon Larry Weatherford. The man adored Victoria..but just like the pre-teens in the chinese store...Victoria insisted on insulting the man,calling him an idiot and an old burnt out fool.. Still it was obvious to Mabel, Cora Beth and Clerow that Victoria loved Deacon Weatherford just as much as he loved her..only she was too prideful to show it. Once when Clerow and Cora Beth and the baby visited, Victoria asked them
seven times if they'd seen the Deacon. She had called him an old burnt out fool one too many times and he had stopped visiting her for two weeks. She obviously missed him and was very solem and morose...Mabel had visited the Deacon and had begged him to go see her sister. Only
after she gave him a platter of her fried chicken and her bangin biscuits did he relent and begin
visiting Victoria again.

Once he began seeing her again, Her mood brightened...She stopped calling him names.. On this afternoon, just as Mabel was about to walk into Victoria's room, she stopped and
hung back a bit....To her surprise...The Deacon was pulling his pants up and fixing his shirt..Victoria was adjusting her hospital gown...She was glowing..She had that just been sexed really good look on her face...She purred like a cat-

"Oh Larry, I really missed you
You know I don't mean nothin
when ah call you names..Don't
ever take it serious...Ah don't mean it."

LARRY?? What was this Larry business? laughed Mabel to herself as she stepped back further
She didn't want Victoria to see her.

"Well Vicky, Ah got feelings too
ya know." he gushed...

"I know baby, I know...you gotta
whole lot more than jus feelins and
I don't want nobody else to have what you
got.." she laughed...

"Hmmmmph" he laughed

"After my jackass husband divorces
me ,I just want to be with you Larry,
an nobody else."

"You sayin what ah think you sayin Victoria?"
He laughed.

"Yes ,you ole fool, what the hell it
sound like I'm- oh, er uh.. Yeah
Larry...I want us to get married...
that is...if you'll have me..." she wimpered.

"If I'll have you? Girl you crazy..You know
the answer to that." he said.

"You're the one who really loves me, I
see that."

"Damn right gurl an don you forget it"
said the Deacon.

Mabel turned around and left the hospital...She could visit them some other time..She giggled like a school girl... As she walked by the chinese store , the three kids were still there. The other boy who had been silent said-
"Yall niggers is crazy, I'm out..
Trey, I'll get wit you later man.."
He walked away...The girl turned to the other boy who resembled Usher and said loudly-

"Ah tole you to stop talkin to me."
As soon as the other boy was out of sight, she turned to the object of her derision and smiled weakly-
"Okay,I'll let you talk to me...
but keep your hands to yourself..
I mean it...don't try to sneak and touch
my butt."

Mabel just laughed.....and the game of love continues on.