Off of a somewhat windy mountain road, just outside a
somewhat successful small city were three buildings: One condemned, one a
mini-mark/gas pump, and basically a shack. The shack is the home of our hero and heroin, Clive and
Janette. Think of Jack and Jill
except with a lot more dirt on their faces, as life goes. I mean we are talking
picture perfect cute little blonde hair, blued eyed kids, with Clive being
about 7 and Janette tagging closely enough being at 5. Now before you think we
are going to watch these kids “come of age” or magically transition to
adulthood, we're not. We are simply
going to see Ambition through their eyes.
It was a few hours after dusk when Clive and Janette’s
mother is attempting to round them up for bed, with freshly brushed teeth and
resistant dirt still on their faces.
She’s tired. The mother has
worked a long day, then made dinner, finally finished folding the laundry that
was washed three days ago, but mostly just tired. One day B.C. (Before Children) she was a reasonably good looking
woman always for a good time. Now she was tired. Time had worn on her skin and the grind of daily life had
added to her figure. But you do
what you have to do, and at this moment it was time to tuck the usually darling
rascals into bed. Leaning over them, you would think the mother was cruel with
how timid the children were acting as she pulled up the top two blankets to
just below Clive and Janette’s noses. Their mother loved them very much. But the mother is also her own person
who had wanted so much from life, and was now looking around at so little. In
spite of her care and attention to her darlings, they could see that her
longings were the predominate thoughts on her mind at that moment.
With very Hollywood timing, the long forgotten boyfriend
rides up on a well maintained but otherwise mishandled cruiser. The road noise
was nothing special so this went unnoticed for a time. He probably isn’t the
father to our hero or heroine, but as far as we know, no one ever asked. After all, it’s not like Clive and
Jeanette are partially interested in history checks or resumes. Mr. Hollywood Man, otherwise referenced
as Matt, was what we refer to as down on his luck and looking for a soft place
to land. Windy mountain road still
exist in the time of Facebook and the mother’s shack seemed like as good a
place as any on the way to the unnamed city up the road.
It has been a long ride and all Matt really wanted was a
beer. And a job. Which needed to come with a decent paycheck, meaning it needed
to be enough to support general pleasantries. These are the things on Matt’s
mind when he walks up the mother’s door.
She’s not amused. All she can see is an old bow that never
calls and is now asking for yet another favor. Still, she said “sure” when he asked via the internet, as
having someone to share a six pack with was a more compelling argument then
even she would have thought. The
Budlight is already cold in the fridge.
Unfortunately for our tired mother, this is where the story
gets more exciting. As far as
Clive and Janette know, their mother never got to drink that beer, being the
little rascals that they are. As
Matt stepped into the doorway the kids went bizzerk. As the Clive and Janette
were screaming in terror and trying to hide unsuccessfully due to the resulting
ruckus, Matt just stood there, regretting his decision to come here.
Being actually a rather impressively able person, the tired
mother managed to get Matt in the door, hand him a beer, and get her kids to stop
screaming all in the matter of seventeen minutes. I realize this does not sound impressive to some… But to
others, no further explanation is necessary. Once Matt had a silent moment to
sip his beer, he allowed himself to focus on the moment, which of course
involved properly introducing himself to the kiddos with a series of funny
faces and hearty smiles. In that
moment Matt was just Matt, the tired mother disappeared probably to brush her
own teeth having given up on a beer, and the Clive and Janette were calm but
increasing fussy with the late hours.
By the time coffee time rolled around the still tired mother
was enjoying tolerating Matt’s monologue about the job he needed to get, how he
was qualified for x pay grade because of y and z, and the general unfairness
the world toward him. As morning time raced by as morning hour time always
does, Clive and Janette still had not entered the kitchen, or gotten dressed,
or brushed their teeth or hair. As
a matter of fact, Clive and Janette were terrified again. At this point the
mother was out of patience, which she actually had a lot of, and late for work,
which she also did a lot.
So her and Matt struck a deal. Matt would stick around for “a bit,” utilizing her place as
a crash pad for his job hunt in the city, and Matt would take the kids with him
so they won’t be left alone. Seeing
as this was summer and there wasn’t much else to do with them as far as
supervision. Per usual, our tired
mother seems to be at the loosing end of the bargain. One does what one must, and losing a day of work because
one’s kids are acting weird seemed like a worse bargain. So a deal is a deal, and our tired
mother disappeared to work.
Matt on the other hand, took his sweet time getting out the
door. Apparently 2pm sounded like a good time to start the job hunt. See,
Matt’s problems were two fold: He was too good looking for his own ego, and he
was too smart for his lack of work ethic.
He worked hard when he worked, as long as he felt like the work was
worthy of his time. Consequently
Mr. Hollywood has a gorgeous resume, and has been unemployed for a while. However, seeing has he had been
‘saddled’ with his friend’s kids, clearly today was just a warm-up day. So he bribed the kids onto the bus with
the promise of ice cream and off to the city they went.
Funny thing about buses: No matter where you are, or where you are going, buses are
always full of characters. Clive
and Janette wondered at all the unique creatures that surrounded them, as if
they were at the zoo, but very close to the exhibits so they needed to be very
quite and very good. Matt, on the
other hand, saw people. Lots of people thinking they were coming from some
place or that they were at least going someplace. Mostly, Matt just saw people.
Matt did the door-to-door thing, favoring the some-what glamorous
places such as bars and the finer restaurants. Meanwhile Clive and Janette waited outside, unsupervised,
eating ice cream, then hard candy, then a hot dog for ‘actual food.’ By late afternoon Matt was chilling in
the park checking e-mails and LinkedIn on his phone while the kids played on
the swing set in the small and only park in town. Clive and Janette started playing a make-pretend game in
which Clive was a knight in shinning armor, Janette a talking lioness and Matt
was a shape shifting dragon. Matt really wasn’t the bad guy, if for no other
reason because he really wasn’t playing along, but he went along with the
storyline to keep the kiddos amused. In spite of himself, Matt had taken to Clive
and Janette and their childish version of the world.
By the time Matt figured it was time to get home for a beer
it was after 8pm. Clive and
Janette were half asleep on the bus and their tired mother was texting Matt
words she didn’t want her kids to hear. When they finally walked in the door,
Clive and Janette didn’t see the furry on their mother’s face, but the talking
Lioness that Janette had imitated earlier that day. All smiles, Clive and Janette talked over each other to
update their mother candy bar by candy bar about their day. Meanwhile, Matt helped himself to a
beer, the one that our tired mother has still not gotten to drink. Not
convinced that the kids weren’t done needing supervision, the mother let this
slide.
Later that evening, once the kids were asleep, our mother
joined Matt on the couch to watch the second half of some black and white
movie. She used to do this all the
time. She used to watch old movies
late at night and go out to see new ones opening weekend and drink smoothies for
breakfast and take shots of tequila on Fridays. Now she watched the second half of whatever was already on.
Still, she did enjoy the dialogue in those old movies. And they had great character names,
such as Clive and Janette.
Seeing as there wasn’t any point to staying mad at Matt, she
went back to pleasantly tolerating his monologue about the job hunt. He has
such potential. He is smart,
personable, experienced and just generally well received. And they did have
good times--And a lot of fights. A
lot of fights. She definitely hadn’t
forgotten that. Although, Matt
seemed to have forgotten about that part of history. Mathew D. McMahn:
That was the header to his resume. It looked good, too. She hoped he’d
find something soon.
The next morning was a repeat of the last, as was the
morning after that. Not exact replicas, but close enough. The day after that Matt got a call to
come in. So the shapeshifting
dragon bribed the kids onto the bus and off to the city they went. The thing
about dragons is they care most about gold, but don’t’care much about anything
else. Still, Clive and Janette had
grown on Matt. Feeling confident
about his manhood with the promise of work starting next Thursday, Matt was
partially jovial today, and his scales were slick and shinny for the interview.
Matt D. Mcahn got the job. Of course he got the job. He is quite the talker. So the dragon took Clive and Janette out for ice cream
Sundays and a movie. The movie
didn’t actually end up happening once Matt was looking at the kid friendly
listings and decided he just couldn’t do it. But another bribe later Clive and Janette seemed less than
disappointed. You see they were
soaring with the dragon now, through the city streets, explore this and
embracing that. The gold furry aside, dragons are beautiful creatures. And all things that fly fascinate us
land creatures. Clive was
fascinated enough that he was getting confused. He was beginning to think that we should play a
shape-shifting dragon instead of the knight in shinning armor. Bribes seemed like a much easier
way to get through life alive.
When Matt decided it was beer time, he and the kiddos headed
back to the crash pad. Exhausted
by the day, Clive and Janette curled up in front of a movie and passed out
within minutes of walking in the door.
The post-sugar-high clearly aided their unconsciousness. Meanwhile Matt had decided it was a
Heineken day and was five deep with our tired mother finally walked in the
door.
Another monologue later, trouble was brewing. Our tired mother was over Matt’s
company and his daily regal yet again did not include his soliciting his own
accommodations. Tired by tactful,
our tired mother attempted to strongly suggest he do so soon, as move-in dates
are not always immediate. Matt’s
complete disregard for this resulting in an elevated volume in both of their
vocal projections. Clive and Janette were now awake in the corner, concerned
for their fierce Lioness against the seemingly larger Dragon.
It wasn’t often Clive and Janette heard their mother
addressed by first name, but Matt seemed to be unaware of his lack of priority
in repeatedly using it: Leona. Our tired mother had a name, a drive, and a
fire. Her fire was now better
known as Clive and Janette. Funny
thing about names—they are within themselves meaningless and yet titles come to
identify the whole, whatever “the whole” may be.
See, in Clive and Janette’s eye, within their childish
perspective is a clarity lost through time, data, and disappointment. Our tired mother battled more than we
can know, a fierce protector of her cubs.
The greedy and lazy dragon plays at striking awe within the young and
the weak. But the young grow up
and as long as we have Lionesses and a Child’s Clarity within this world, it will
always manage to be a beautiful one.
All fantastical, complex and sometimes overrated creatures considered—May
the Lionesses rule.
Dedicated to Our Tired Mother, also known as Valerie.
Edited at of 5/19/14... But reserve the right to tinker with it :)