Pass Christian

by Molly Parker

Just another flaming hot day on the gulf coast of Mississippi, in the town of Pass Christian. My mom was prepping shrimp for the stir fry in the kitchen behind us and me and my sister were on the couch watching an Arthur episode on PBS (I think this was one of the only channels we could receive on that piece of junk). I was almost seven and my sister was nine, so such things were entertaining to us at the time. Every weekday that summer my sister and I would sit in front of the television set at 4:30pm to watch Arthur, and again at 5:30pm when the same episode was repeated.

Now on this day, the episode had us laughing hysterically. Arthur’s puppy was racing to catch a hot dog that had fallen on the floor across the kitchen, and on the way toppled over that large stack of pies and tarts Arthur’s father had prepared for his catering business. We immediately planned to grab my mom’s attention at the 5:30 showing so that she could see that exact moment.

Glued to the Television set, 5:30 rolled around. And when we saw Arthur’s puppy coming into the kitchen me and my sister both turned around and tried to get my mom’s attention, “MOM MOM MOM MOM!!!!” There was no response, and we didn’t see her in the kitchen any longer.

“Where’d she go Amanda?” I asked, as if she would know.

“Molly, why do you ask me things like that!? I don’t know the answer to all your questions.” Amanda replied, with her smart ass attitude.

“Let’s find her so we can tell her about Arthur!!!” I suggested with excitement.

“Okay, but I get to tell her because you’re going to tell it wrong!”

“Mom? Mom? Are you inside? Dad? Where’s Mom?” we both yelled through the halls of the house. But much to our dismay we heard no response.

Amanda and I continued throughout the house until we were certain that both our mom and dad had gone elsewhere.

“I bet they are out by the bayou or something,” Amanda said as she headed towards the back door. I grabbed her by her shirt and tugged.

“No Amanda, were not supposed to leave the house without telling anyone! I don’t want to get in trouble let’s just wait for them here.”

“Um, hello? I don’t see anyone around here, and they didn’t tell us they were leaving.” Amanda scolded me. She was acting as if our only option was to break the rules.

I was terrified. It wasn’t like my parents to just leave the house and not tell us. Even if they were to go out into the yard they always would tell us where they are going, not matter what. I always thought it was irritating, like I couldn’t figure out if they were in the backyard, but now I know why they usually tell us. I felt like my parents were finally right in my mind, and I felt like I was doing something so wrong by leaving the house to check it out. I couldn’t figure out if I should bend the rules a little under this circumstance. Or if my parents would have preferred Amanda and I to stay inside. At that age, I felt like it was the hardest decision in the world.

We set foot onto the car port, and shut the door behind us. I had the worst feeling that right then and there my mom or dad would come out from around the corner and scold us for not staying inside and stuff. And somehow I’m sure my mom would find a way to be mad at me and not at Amanda. That’s always how the story goes.

But nothing happened; we couldn’t hear a sound besides the AC unit roaring at full blast in the 110 degree weather at the corner of the house. We continued to yell for our parents circling the house, then down to the bayou, then in the gazebo, then in the tool room, and back around the house. Nothing...

“Should we talk to the neighbor..?” I asked nervously up to my sister standing in front of me.

“No one’s home, you know that.” Amanda replied with her authoritative attitude and her hands on her hips.

Pass Christian was a town made up of either retirees or vacation homes. And Elm Lane especially was just a long stretch of houses with pools untouched till the months June/July. And it was early May.

“Well, maybe we should just check!” I screamed back at her, determined to stand up to her. It was always petty arguments with her and me. I don’t know why I chose that moment to try and be hostile.

“’Shut up Molly! Let’s call someone.” Amanda suggested, immediately dismissing what I thought was a good comeback.

“I only know Anniemarie's number by heart! And she’s all the way back in Berkeley, how will that help?”

“Molly, if we talk to her mom or dad they could help us. I mean, hello? They are ADULTS!” She always had a response that made sense somehow to me so I just blindly followed her lead as we figured out what the hell we were going to do next.

Of course this was a time before cell phones, so there was no way of contacting my mom or dad. And all we had was the landline and whatever friend’s numbers we might have memorized.

“Well I know Zoe’s. Should we call her or Anniemarie?” Amanda asked as we stood in the sun.

“Let’s just go back inside and call someone, I’m burning!!!”

We both ran inside and ran to the phone on the kitchen counter. Hesitant, we both looked at each other, and looked at the phone. My sister reached for it, but I intervened.

“Wait, should we -”, just as I was about to suggest that we wait another few minutes before panicking and calling someone, she cut me off.

“Molly, just stop it. You are too little to deal with this matter of business. I’ll call Zoe.”

10 minutes later, there we were sitting on the kitchen stools waiting.

“She didn’t answer.”

“What should we do?” again, as if Amanda would have any better idea than me. I never even thought to try and make a plan. I was too nervous. Amanda would try and take the lead anyways so I just let her handle it.

“Well, they left us here alone. We better get ready to go.”

“Where are we going?”

“We better pack up the car and head for the casino in Biloxi. We can just live in the daycare for now.”

“Amanda, you can’t drive the car! Besides, you don’t even know how!”

“I know how to drive the golf cart!”

“Uhh. Isn’t the casino kind of far?”

“You think I’m stupid? Because I know it’s sort of far, and that’s why we better get all our stuff together and get going now before it’s too late.”

Both of us ran into the bedroom. Amanda immediately started to make orders, “We’ll need sheets for blankets when we make stops. Get the coin jar. Oh, and those babies throw them in as well. Don’t forget the Arthur tape! We should probably bring some soap or something. Yeah, and we are going to need some food this journey might take a few days you know.” She ran out of the room and headed for the pantry.

I shoved all those things into a suitcase and zipped it up. Then I dragged it down the hall and back to the kitchen where my sister was standing on a stool, throwing things into a bag.

“I’ve got the food covered. We’ve got crackers, Spaghetti O’s, Juicy Juice, and some cereal.” She said as she hopped down grabbing the bag and heading down the stairs to the golf cart.

My grandfather had this old beat up golf cart that for the most part just sat there and got rusty. But on occasion, my dad would let us go for joy rides around the land with it. Of course, he would be with us basically driving it himself the whole time. But, something made us think we could operate this thing just fine on our own.

There was a small trunk space, or more like a box sort of strapped on to the back. We managed to jam what we had in it, probably crushing all the crackers cereal. The key was just left in it at all times so we got in and my sister started it up. She pressed on the gas and sent us flying out of the car port and into the bird house.

“Well, good thing mom isn’t here to notice!” Amanda said as we zoomed away from the destroyed bird house and headed down the road. It was really shaky at first but once she got the hang of it we were headed down the road pretty steadily.

We were gone no longer than two minutes when we saw the car, the big red Mercury, come squealing around the bend ahead of us.

“Oh no, moms back.” Amanda said to me.

Oh no? I was THRILLED. I didn’t want to be doing this, I was just following Amanda! But my sister had other plans.

My mom flew by us with the most outrages expression on her face and quickly pulled a U turn and came up behind us.

“Amanda! Stop the cart!” I screamed.

But Amanda replied, “Should we keep going?”