Patience and Tape

“Dear Diary, today is my birthday!” That’s all I can think to write for right now as I close and lock my diary. I sit crisscross applesauce on my bed picking at a hole in my Pocahontas sheets when my sister walks in the room. “It’s your birthday today, you excited?”

“Yeah,” I’m excited she’s excited.

“Well Mom sent me in here to tell you to hurry up and get ready or she’s leaving without you.” my sister says closing the door on her way back out. I quickly scan the floor for the cleanest thing to wear and settle for an old t-shirt and pants that are kinda big. They smell bad but I ignore it. Maybe I’ll get new clothes today.

“Hurry up, we’re leaving,” Paige pops her head back in.

I rush out of the room, not wanting them to leave without me. I don’t want Paige choosing my birthday movie for me. I barely make it to the front door in time while mom stands there trying to swallow her irritation. She presses $0.50 into my palm and sternly says, “Don’t lose your bus money and make sure you ask for a transfer.”

I nod and she repeats the same thing to my sister as the three of us head out of the apartment towards the bus stop. It doesn’t take 30 seconds to go by before boredom strikes. Paige takes out a piece of string from her pocket and we resort to our usual game of cat’s cradle to pass the time. In what seems like seconds later the bus arrives and we shuffle on it behind our mom like small duckies following along.

“Come sit over here Liz!” Paige waves to me. I go sit beside her in the empty seat in front of mom.

“Pay attention so we don’t miss our stop girls.” Mom warns as she settles in with her crossword puzzle.

“Yes ma’am” we say at the same time.

“What sweet girls!” An old lady sitting on the other side of isle tells my mom. Her voice reminds me of the ladybug from James and the Giant Peach.

“What do you say girls?” Mom looks over at us.

“Thank you” We say again at the same time. She just puts her hand over her chest and sighs. We giggle. We didn’t even do anything. Paige didn’t fight me for the window seat today so I just look out of the window once the lady goes back to reading her horse book with the long haired guy. Why is his shirt unbuttoned? I brush off the thought and go back to looking out of the window. Time passes quickly for the short bus ride, and as we’re getting closer to our exit, mom tells me to pull the stop string when I see a big yellow sign.

“When it’s my birthday, I’ll get to pull the string.” Paige smiles.

The ladybug lady chimes in again “Oh is it your birthday today?”

Before I can let words come out of my open mouth my sister responds,

“Yeah it’s Lizzy’s birthday today and mine isn’t far away!” I wanted to be the one to tell the ladybug lady but Paige beats me to it. It’s fine that she tells her. Paige loves me a lot so she gets real excited about me being born.

“Oh how precious! I hope you two have the HAPPIEST of birthdays”

“Thank you.” We say. I finally see the big yellow sign and I pull the bus string hard and stand up. As the bus comes to a stop and we hop down the stairs onto the sidewalk.

“Oh you didn’t have to thank you ma’am, I’m sure they’ll appreciate it!” I hear my mom say to someone as she steps off the bus and it pulls away.

“GIRLS!” She says so sternly it makes us stand still.

“Yes ma’am” we say except there’s noone here to tell us that it’s cute.

“If you keep hopping around like maniacs, I’ll keep just keep it…”

“Keep what?” I ask, my interest peaks.

“Yeah, keep what?” Paige says.

After a beat mom continues “Ms. Jefferies sai-“

“Who’s Ms. Jefferies?” I interrupt.

“The lady on the bus. She sai-“

“The ladybug lady?” Paige interrupts.

“WILL YOU TWO LET ME FINISH?” Mom yells a little. We just stare quietly while she takes a deep breath. I think she’s a little mad today.

“The ladybug la- Ms.Jefferies, gave you girls a little gift but if you can’t behave I’m not gonna give it to you and I’ll just keep it myself.”

“We’re gonna behave!” we assure her and we will because she really will keep it. I wonder what it is. “Can we have it now?”

“You’ll get it when I give it to you. Now remember store rules, indoor voices, and ONE movie a piece. And we have to be quick because I still have to get ready for work, capeesh?”

“Caposh.” We say in unison.

We’re only a few steps away from the door but as soon as mom opens it, this rush of cool air hit my face. That feels nice. It’s so hot outside so it kinda feels like walking into the fridge. It smells so good in here. I walk into the counter by accident because I can’t stop staring at the big yellow walls. How am I going to ever pick a movie? I can feel Paige tugging at my hand out of excitement.

“Mommy, can me and Liz go pick a movie together? She asks.

“Hold on a sec.” Mom says as she counts some money. She’s got at least seven or eight $5 bills in her hand. Woah, she’s got a lot of money. She looks at the money again and puts it in her pocket. She looks a little sad again for just a second before she says, “Yeah girls, go ahead I’ll be waiting up here.”

“Aren’t you going to pick a movie too?” I wonder.

“No baby, I’ll wait up here I just remembered I have movies at home I have to finish watching. Go pick a movie.” She made that face she makes when something is making her upset. Paige takes off for the Nickelodeon movies.

“You ok mommy?” I don’t like it when she’s sad.

“Yes, go pick a movie to buy. You have 5 minutes. Go.”

“Okay,” I say getting up to go pick. On my way down the isles I see Paige headed towards me with two movies.

“Parent Trap or Passport to Paris?” She asks.

Dang, hard choice. I do a quick eenie-meeny in my head.

“Parent Trap.”

“Thanks!” She yells as she puts Passport To Paris on the wrong shelf as she runs up front to mom. I gotta hurry. I snatch the Mary-Kate and Ashley movie and rush to the right isle so I can put it back and find a movie.

Annie, James and the Giant Peach, and Madeline stare me in the face. How am I going to choose? I feel the panic set in right away. If I can’t choose in time I won’t get a movie. I almost begin to cry and then I see it. I see my favorite movie of all time, Matilda. All my fear goes away and happiness takes over. This is so perfect! I grab the movie and dart up front as Paige is calling me to hurry. We check out and quickly make it back to the bus stop.

Once the bus arrives, we shuffle back on behind our mom and quickly find our seats so we can bury our faces in the back cover, like mom does her crossword puzzles. We were so focused on our films we didn’t realize it was time to pull the stop string until mom did it for us. We were so excited about our movies we weren’t even upset.

“Put the movies away girls, we’re about to get off.”

“Yes ma’am.” We say. We put the movies away and get ready to hop off the bus. As soon as we get off we start to head towards home when mom says “Wait girls come here.” I hope we’re not in trouble. “Yes mom?” I ask little worried.

“Don’t head home just yet.” She pulls out two $5 bills and hands us each one. Woah! What’s this for? Mom can definitely read minds because she answered,

“It’s from the ladybug lady. Pick something from the store and come directly home. I’m about to leave for work.” She says as she kisses our foreheads and walks to the front door. As we’re leaving the corner store headed home we see mom walking from the front door to the bus stop.

“What did you girls buy?” she raises an eyebrow.

“I got some chips and juice and Liz got a chocolate chip brownie cause it reminds her of chocolate cake.” Paige says opening the front door. Mom reminds us to lock the doors and behave.

“We will.” We say as we go into the house and lock the doors. As soon as the doors close Paige calls dibs on the good TV/VCR in mom’s room and darts there. Crap, I should’ve called dibs. Fair is fair. We have another VCR but I have to try to fix it so it works right.

I open the top of the VCR with a dirty butter knife I found in the sink and the inside is really dirty. No wonder why it acts up. Out of the corner of my eye I see a tiny roach scurry from under the white spiky wheels inside the VCR.

“Ew.” I get a straw from an old McDonald’s cup I found in the trash and blow out all the dust and old bugs out. Looking better. After that I get some paper towels from the back of toilet and wet the corner. I use the corner to gently wipe the dirt out inside. That should fix it. I plug everything in and hook up the wires. I put my tape in and get my brownie, but before I can even sit down, I hear the VCR eating the tape. I rush back up to grab it and to salvage my favorite movie. Don’t cry, don’t cry. I cry anyway and just lay down on my ripped sheets holding my VHS until I doze off.

All of a sudden I feel a soft tap on my shoulder. I crack my eyes a bit and can tell it’s super dark, except for a small flicker of light coming from a candle. Is this for me? Mom is standing there in her Denny’s uniform with a small chocolate cake with birthday candles on it. As I begin to sit up with my mangled movie in my hand, she softly sings Happy Birthday. It IS for me! When she gets done I make a wish and blow out my candles.

“I’m sorry I messed up the tape.” I say showing her the tangled mess of film in my hands.

“It’s okay baby. It’s nothing a piece of tape and some patience can’t fix. She stands up and takes my hand and we walk to her room. Paige is asleep on the bed and she just scoots her over and tells me to get some cake while she fixes the tape. In no time she has the movie taped and is putting it in her VCR. Please work. Then all of a sudden the movie begins and I see the light and the clouds.

“It works!” I’m so happy. “Thank you mommy!”

“You’re welcome baby. Happy Birthday” she says as she changes into night clothes and gets into bed to watch Matilda. I know she’ll be asleep in a few minutes. But it’s okay. And as baby Matilda shows up and I begin to eat MY cake, a thought crosses my mind…make sure to write in your diary that this was the best eight birthday ever!