The House on Swift Street

The Chilly People

It’s getting colder here. It’s darker in the morning and gets darker early now. But that’s okay, I like it when the snow falls all fresh and crispy on the ground. It sparkles like Mummy’s wedding ring. The rainbows play tag on the outside walls of the house as the sun sets every night. But the weather isn’t the only thing that gets colder here. The people get colder too. They give you mean looks when you try to make a snowman, even though the ground is barely covered. They trample your special snow angels that have just been set into the ground. They’re mean. They’re cold. They’re my chilly people.

An Angel Fit for Royalty

Daddy decided that we needed a tree. A big tall tree with feathery branches that reach high up to touch the ceiling. He called them a funny name. It tickled my tongue when I tried to pronounce it. A Noble Fir. Noble, like royalty, Daddy explained to me. I told him we should put a crown on it. He said that an angel would do just fine, and then he tried to put me on top of it.

Christmas in the Emergency Room

It was my worst Christmas ever. Ever. Grammy had actually come to see us and it was very exciting, but it wasn’t exciting for very long. Mummy and Daddy had just given me the coolest Barbie doll ever, and Grammy said she’d open the box for me with the new Swiss Army Knife Mummy gave her for Christmas. But she didn’t do it very well ‘cause she cut her hand open while trying to do it. Mummy had to take her to the “Emergency Room.” I don’t know where that is, but they were there an awful long time. I don’t even remember when they got back. I just didn’t like waiting such an awfully long time before I got to open more presents.

Snow Dance!

The snow isn’t soft this year. It’s hard. When I wake up in the morning and Mummy helps me get dressed, the snow freezes solid. I can hear the snow snap and crackle with impatience underneath my boots when I walk on it. The leaves from Fall are still on the ground, they muddy the pretty white snow into a dull gray, like my cat when she sheds. There are trails of footprints from where I’ve walked. When school is over, my best friend Annie and I dance in the snow pretending we are Indians! We slap the sticky palms of our hands over our mouths and pretend to make a snow dance, hoping that the good snow will come: the white snow, the cold snow, the soft snow.

The Bad Birthday Cake

It was my birthday! My birthday! A lady from Mummy’s church had made me my birthday cake. I hadn’t seen it yet, and I was excited for the party that night. I got lots of things from my grandparents and other family too! My great-grandparents were there so it was a big deal. Mummy had told me it was. Papa was very happy all day long. G.G. was too. At dinner, Papa started laughing so hard, he fell backwards in his chair! He was still smiling, though it gave Mummy and Daddy a scare! When it was time for Mummy to bring out the cake, it was a huge cat with spaghetti noodles for its whiskers! The cake said “Have a Purr-fect Birthday!” on it! It had a big number seven candle and seven smaller birthday candles. I was so excited to eat it, but it ended up being a very bad cake.

Hide-and-go-Seek

It was cold outside, but I wanted to climb the tree. It was making fun of me. Standing there with big bare empty arms, telling me to climb it. It looked sad, alone. It looked like our neighbor did when her daughter went away. I don’t know where. She just went away. First she’d gotten fat. Mean, too. She yelled at me for playing hide-and-go-seek in their bushes even though she used to play there with me before she got fat and mean. But I wanted to climb that tree. I left the front of the house and walked over to the tree. It looked funny, not ha-ha funny but weird funny. It was specked with gray like mushrooms. Daddy told me once it was called “fungus.” The word fungus makes me think of green toes ‘cause that’s what Grand-Dad told me happened to his feet. I tried to climb the tree. And I did climb it, but not very well. Mummy said it was dumb of me because I fell out and broke my arm. The neighbors didn’t offer help when they heard me scream or when I fell into the crunchy, now yellow, snow.

Granny Bras and War Skirts

The snow was really melting when the old ladies at Mummy’s church had a garage sale. Or a junk sale. Or trash sale really, ‘cause it was all just trash to everybody. I saw the women who passed by wrinkle their noses like they got a big whiff of a bad smelling odor. It was funny. But to me and Annie it wasn’t junk. It was our treasure! Like a pirate’s treasure! It laid on the table in its old and moldy glory. It was ours for the taking, and so take we did. We took some of the old lady clothes and changed into them in the old cellar below the church sanctuary. Annie looked so funny! I laughed so hard that it felt like butterflies were tickling the insides of my tummy. We had dressed into old granny bras and skirts that looked like they were in a war somewhere! It was very fun. We also took some walking sticks and old microphones and sang to the old ladies. Their noses still wrinkled with that bad odor. I wondered if the bras smelled. They probably did. Yeah, it was probably the bras.

The Muu-muu

Mr. Adams scolded me for touching the books. He said, “Little girl, now don’t you get your greasy baby paws on my fine books or I’ll box your ears!” He used to be the nicest grocer in town ‘till old Mrs. Bennings “passed away.” Mummy said that they were best friends. Daddy said she died peacefully, and that it wasn’t very polite to say she croaked in her sleep. He said that Mrs. Bennings “passed away” and it was much nicer for a pastor’s child to say “passed away” instead of “croaked.” I don’t know why, because she croaked all the time when she was alive. She croaked insults, she croaked compliments, she even croaked when she sneezed! I didn’t like Mrs. Bennings at all. She pinched my cheeks every Sunday morning when Mummy took me to church with her. She even made me a muu-muu once. At least that’s what she said it was. It was ugly. Real ugly. I didn’t like it, but Mummy made me wear it to church. I don’t know why I had to be polite to Mrs. Bennings because she wasn’t very polite to me. She told the entire church that I didn’t like the dress because it “made my chest hang out.” My face got bright red like an exploding ketchup bottle. I remember how Mummy’s church people laughed. I remember how I cried.

Are We There Yet?

It was early summer now, and it was time for our annual trip to the cottage! On the Lake! In Canada! But the car ride was always long and boring. Being an only child made road trips boring when your parents didn’t like fun games like Bingo, or I Spy! But Daddy would always get Mummy to entertain me. Or something like that. Something to get me to quit bothering them. “Are we there yet?” I’d asked for the umpteenth time. It felt like forever since we’d left our driveway and got on the road, but Daddy kept saying, “No.” And he kept getting louder too. “Can we play Bingo?” I asked. Mummy just about shouted “No!” to me. I don’t think she enjoyed car games very much. Then I asked Daddy if we could play I Spy! He said okay, so we played I Spy! for hours. It got really boring looking for blue, green, yellow and white things. Eventually, Daddy asked me to look for something purple. Well, I looked, and looked, and looked. Then I realized, there was nothing purple. I Spy! is a really stupid game.

Chicken Little, Henny Penny, and Turkey Lurkey

Annie’s Daddy said it was okay for her and me to play with the baby chickens at their farm! They were so cute, all yellow and fuzzy! It tickled when I held them up to my ear to listen to their soft peeping! They sounded like little crickets. Or the seashells when you held them up to your ear to hear the ocean! It made me and Annie laugh! Annie got the best idea while we were playing with them. She said we should baptize them like my Mummy baptizes the babies at our church. I thought it was a really good idea, so we took them to the cage in the barn by the little water faucet. I said we should name a couple of them Chicken Little ‘cause there were so many of them! Maybe five, or seven! Annie said we should name some of the Henny Penny! I said Turkey Lurkey! Then Annie said they weren’t turkeys, and that was just a silly name. I giggled and told her she was right.

Toe Painting Extravaganza

Kate came over today from her cottage and she brought polish. Nail polish. For toes, she told me. She said “Claire, we’re gonna paint our Daddies’ toes.” I asked her why. And she told me why. She told me, “cause it’ll be funny.” I told her okay and asked her if we could put googly eyes on them too. She said, “Yeah, yeah googly eyes and sparklies.” Kate told me that we had to trick our Daddies into letting us. And so we tried everything. Everything. But it worked. My Daddy, who’s best friends with Kate’s Daddy, said he would if he could throw me in the lake. I said okay because I can run faster than Daddy. I chose purple, but Daddy asked if I could put green polka-dots on them too. It was silly. He looked so strange with painted toes. Kate’s Daddy looked goofy, like something had barfed all over his toes in a hot, pink, messy disaster. It was tradition to paint our Daddies’ toes during the summer from then on.

Bye-bye Swift Street

It was Mummy who told me she got a new job. I asked her why, but she didn’t really give me an answer. She just told me it was because of grown-up reasons. I asked her where in Auburn we were going. She told me we were moving to California, to Grandma! I asked her when we’d be moving back. She said we weren’t. I asked her why, and she said because we won’t live here anymore. It made me sad, but it confused me as well. Why would we move to California? I liked my home in New York just fine. It’s where I lived. But the day came when we had to move. Mummy and Daddy packed up our luggage, and we got into the car to go to the airport. My house looked lonely as we drove away. The neighborhood of my chilly people was still cold and mean. I wanted to hug it all goodbye. But I couldn’t. It was just too big.