Regular visits to the Farm ((Closed))

[Kitty Swann]

"Mama-Mejia!" Jerome called. "This is a big fish!" Kitty rolled her eyes. "And you think I'm weird?" She took a look anyway. The fish was big. Real big. It had pretty strips running down it's body. "It looks like a zebra." Jerome whispered. "What is it with you and fish?" Kitty asked, closing her eyes and opening them again to face Jerome. "They're so slimy, and slippery, and just..." She shivered to make her point. Jerome pouted. "But... they're good pets!" He argued. "I'm not spending my money on a fish. Sorry, Jerome, but you can't use your own money for that." She took a look at his face. "Are you really twelve? You look more like seven to me." She pretended to think on it. Jerome hit her hard in the back. "Ouch!" Kitty growled, turning to Jerome with a wince and fury.

"Stop it!" Mum came out of no where, as all mum's do. It's like a special effect they have; they set fear on their victims. And in case you didn't know, victims equal children. Kitty smiled at mum. "Hey, mum. What's up? Jerome wants me to buy that stupid fish but I can't, because I want a puppy, not a fish. I told him to use his own - " Jerome interrupted her very interesting speech with his normal loud tone. "Mum! She said she'd pay me back when I helped her with the wheelbarrow and the logs. The fish only costs a little bit of money. It's no fair!" Kitty glared and turned away, tapping her foot in a pretend-to-be-angry manner. Mum sighed, exasperated.

"I don't care about the fish. Jerome, you buy it with your own money, but Kitty will do your chores today." Both kids in unison cried; "What?!" Mum shrugged. She looked tired. "You heard me. Take it or leave it. But we're leaving, so make quick. We don't have time to loiter around here." She cast the shop a glance as if signaling out the people she'd rather not be with. How embarrassing. Kitty slapped her palm to her cheek, relishing in the loud slapping noise it created. Jerome crossed his arms and leaned back on his heels. "Fine. What do you want to do, Kitty?" He asked. Trying to be polite. Kitty smiled. "I dunno. What do you want to do?" Jerome's smile vanished. "I asked you first!" "So?" "So you answer first!" "Can't you decide anything for yourself?" "Bug off, Kitty! Just buy me that fish!"

"Shut up!" Mum roared. The argument ceased. Kitty looked down and Jerome looked at his fish. Mum's pebble eyes swung from Kitty to Jerome. "Jerome, watch your tongue. Kathleen - " "Mum!" Kitty cried, looking around to see if anyone heard. "What now?" "My name's Kitty, remember?" Mum rolled her eyes and looked at the sky for support. Or ceiling, I guess. "Kitty is the name of an animal, Kathleen. Now, I want you both to just drop whatever you were planning. We're leaving now. I told you to make haste, but you didn't. I told you to decide, and all you do is bicker. Enough is enough. Back to the car." She ordered, marching out and dragging Jerome by the collar. Kitty sighed. Jerome always brought out the worst in her. Him and his antics. She needed to relax. Taking a deep breath, she followed suit.

[Kitty Swann]

The car ride home was long and not quite pleasant, full of those uncomfortable silences that Kitty always hated. Her legs bounced up and down. Silence. Jerome turned to look out the window. Trees passed by, waving their bare limbs in the wind. Kitty stared at her untied shoelaces. Mum shifted in her seat, making the leather squeal. It was old. Silence. Kitty tapped her fingers on her jeans, making a loud noise. Jerome turned; Mum looked back in the rear view mirror. "Kitty!" She admonished, turning back to her driving. Kitty stopped. For a while. Jerome was sucking on his cheek, she could see it making a hole. She put her forehead on the window sill. And let her finger nails rattle across the hard stuff on the door. "Kathleen!" "Mum?" Mum turned around, irritable. "Do I really have to ask?" Kitty shrugged. "Turn on the radio or something."

So they listened to Led Zeppelin the whole way home. Fun stuff. Kitty preferred music she could dance to, while Mr. Zeppelin was not anything close to that type. She didn't complain though. The longer the music was on, the better. As if reading her thoughts, Mum turned the knob. Silence. Mum cleared her throat and looked at her hands. Of course, they were currently on the steering wheel, not in her lap. So don't get any ideas. "Your father's going to be home this weekend." She started. The old lecture again. Kitty knew it by heart. She muttered under her breath the same words Mum was saying to them. "You know what that means, I want you to behave, act responsible, and don't bicker. Your father's just been at work, and we all know how hard he works to keep our family alive." Kitty nodded her head, as was expected. Jerome did the same. She felt like a trained animal. "Good." Mum leaned back, satisfied with her feat. Kitty did likewise. She was tired.

"Daddy!" Kitty was nearly jumping out of her window, which was rolled down so her yell could travel to Daddy's ears. He was waiting on the porch, in his favorite chair, and it looked like he was nearly asleep. When Mum caught on, she turned around and gave Kitty a hard slap in the back. "Ouch!" "Can't you see your father is sleeping?" Mum hissed. Kitty looked down as Jerome stifled his laughter. "I... I was j-just happy to see him." She sniffled. Mum looked at her for a while then turned around, getting out of the car quickly and silently. Kitty hated the silent treatment. It was more torture then punishment, and yes, there is a difference. After Mum getting paranoid about Daddy, Kitty decided the safest thing to do was to tip-toe into the house. Tippy toe. Closer, closer, aha. There.

Kitty didn't go inside the house right away. She had to see her Dad for just a little, even if he was snoring in a rather disgusting way. His belly, which was so thin that his ribs protruded out of his shirt, rose and fell in rhythm. Behind his lids his eyes were moving frantically around, as if in a nightmare. But most disturbing of all was his hands, which were holding the chair so tight the knuckles were pale, and his hair, which was graying and was falling out so fast she couldn't keep track. Every time she saw Daddy she tried to fight of the inevitable. Him dying and everything. He was always so full of energy, she could hardly imagine him lying still except for slumber. With cancer and everything, it was hard to escape reality. The facts always hunted her down, until she felt cornered. And so did Daddy. He didn't want to leave, she could tell that much. Kitty turned away and walked stiffly into the house.

"Something wrong?" Jerome asked obnoxiously. He had no idea. Kitty wiped at her eyes with her sleeves, in case she was starting to tear up. "Nope, not really."

[Kitty Swann]

"Hello Kitty!" Daddy cried when she approached, wiping her hands on her pants. A mud streak was left. Well, after working with the pigs, what do you expect? Geesh. "Daddy!" She ran over to him and hugged him tight, making darn sure she didn't get any mud on him. That would be bad. Mum would get all cranky and mad about it, to be sure. "How are you doing, honey? It seems ages since you last told me about school." Daddy sat her down carefully on the rocker, and then he, more painfully, did the same in his chair. I grinned and squirmed in my seat. "Well... it's totally wicked! I'm getting new friends, and I met this girl named Lacey who's real nice. She lives in an apartment that's... medi...medi... something." "Mediocre?" Daddy guessed. "Yeah, that! And I might bring her over sometimes. She wants to see animals and see stars too! She says she can't see stars from her apartment, which has to be a bummer. Stars are cool, aren't they, Daddy?" "Yes, Kitty, they certainly are." Kitty grinned and nodded, hugging her knees to her. "And they have real good food there that - "

"Kathleen!" Mum shouted. She was like a big bad bull elephant when she shouted. Kitty's ears actually rang from the effect. "Mum! I'm right here!" She called. In truth, she was just beneath the window mum had decided to shout out of. "Oh. Right. Well, come in here. We have to go shopping." Mum poked her head out the window and smiled wearily at Daddy. "How are you doing?" "Just fine, Liv. Kitty was telling me about school just now and her new friends." "Oh, I see. Well, you can always do that later, Kitty. We have to go shopping." Kitty pouted. "What kind of shopping?" "Just get your shoes on, Kathleen!" "Alright, alright! Keep your pants on!" She bounded into the house, pulled on her boots, and grinned. Until Jerome came into the room, looking all sullen like. "What are you doing here?" Kitty asked him, pursing her lips. "What do you think? I have to go shopping too. Duh." Kitty glared, then turned to mum.

"Mum!" "I need all the help I can get, Kitty. If it was only you, I wouldn't get anything. You're too busy day-dreaming." That hurt. Real bad. Kitty looked down. "All right." "That's better. Jerome, go out to the car. Kitty, tie your shoes right." "But, it's better with them tucked in, 'cause then you don't have to - " "Tie them, please!" Kitty obeyed, not without mutters, mind. "Ready?" "I guess." "Go out in the car then. I'll be out in a sec." "Okay." Kitty ran outside, glad she had a chance to get away from mum, who seemed pretty cranky today. "I'll finish talking later, Daddy!" She called over her shoulder. "I'm sure you will, Kitty." Daddy said, laughing.

[Kitty Swann]

It had been a rough day. Kitty couldn't resist making funny noises at people passing by, or even at Jerome, who frequently rolled his eyes at her behavior. Mum was no better; her hands became pasted to the cart as she pushed it along, giving grim smiles to people who stopped to stare. It wasn't polite to do that, but hey, it was Kitty. She liked attention. Sticking out her tongue, she did a random twirl about the cart, making it crash into a stand of cereal boxes. They crashed to the floor, making such a racket that it created a crowd. Kitty had half a mind to flop in the middle of it and swim; it could surely be done - I mean, it was so large and deep she could be hip high in it. Another one of Kitty's fantasies, but lately she was having trouble separating fantasy from reality. Mum made a heavy sigh that pronounced her embarrassment to the public, and Jerome turned and walked away, probably pretending he hadn't been with his sister and mum. It wouldn't be the first time he ran out on a moment like this. Kitty, however, was all for it.

"Stop the presses!" She yelled wildly, swinging her arms about. A bottle of ketchup flung through the air and hit a poor old innocent lady. Kitty stared for a moment, then looked down at her hand. "Bad!" She cried, smacking her bad hand with her good hand. She gave the lady now covered in ketchup and apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, ma'am, to have caused you trouble. Don't know what happened, but you can expect that I will punish my hand appropriately." The lady bared her teeth, a rather disgusting sight. All green and it reminded Kitty of spinach. She tried hard not to make a dramatic faint. "You have a little nasty one here, don't ya?" The old lady asked gruffly, sniffing some ketchup out of her nose. How it got in there was beyond Kitty - she really didn't want to find out. "You have to keep 'em on a leash, ones like these," the lady went on. She had a rather nasally voice too. " - I have many treatments to use, in case you need some help with discipline." Discipline? Hah. Mum wrinkled her nose and tried to stay calm. "My daughter can't control herself, but please, ma'am, let's stay put. I'm in charge of her treatment, not a random stranger that - " " - that has been unduly terrorized by your daughter!" The lady snapped. "Please, there is no need to - " "Don't talk to me about needs!" The lady screeched, flailing her arms as if to hit mum. Kitty grinned. Hey, it was a funny sight. "You're not the one covered in ketchup!" Mum just shook her head.

"Kathleen meant now harm, honestly!" She cried in one last attempt to keep things controlled. Her voice cracked. "Kathleen? That's a lady's name. Shouldn't it be something more like Stephen? Something simple - perhaps Ralph?" "She's a girl," mum pointed out. "I know. But she's no lady, so she doesn't deserve any sort of name that even suggests it." The lady sneered. Kitty inched toward the cereal ocean, grabbed a box of cornflakes and opened it without ado. The crowd was beginning to gather closer; the lady didn't help much. She was in a state that had no return; totally out of whack. Kitty was feeling reckless; she walked back toward the lady, opened cereal box clutched close to her. "Ma'am, I really do apologize for what I did. But you shouldn't have a fit like this. Just get a new set of clothes - " " - that you'll pay for!" The lady screeched! Kitty frowned. They didn't have enough money to waste on mean old ladies who couldn't let a thing like ketchup-stained clothes go. She felt angry too... looking down at the cornflakes she wondered if she should... The lady was closer to Kitty now, close enough so that her breath could be felt on Kitty's face. She stepped back away from the scary lady... this was really getting - well - stupid!

"Here!" Kitty said suddenly. "Have some!" She chucked the box wildly at the lady, making contents and something golden fall out all over the dramatized lady. It stuck too, just as planned. Kitty broke out in giggles; it made her stomach hurt. "Well, will you look at that!" Kitty said, loudly. "Looks like I've got me a prize!" She pulled the golden ticket off the lady. It couldn't be read; ketchup was all over it. Kitty shrugged, threw the ticket over her shoulder. She winced though; a yelp concluded that it had been mum she had hit with the flying ticket. "Kathleen Jones!" Mum yelled, grabbing Kitty forcibly by the arm. It hurt. Kitty tried to yank it back, but it was a vice grip and went unmoved. "This has gone far enough. Clean up the cereal boxes and we'll give the lady some money for the trouble we've caused her." In an undertone, mum added, "it will come out of your savings when we get home." Kitty sagged against mum. "But - " "No buts! No clean it up while I pay this poor lady." Mum went to do her job and Kitty turned to the cereal boxes. A guy walked up to her - maybe two years older then herself. He tapped her on the shoulder when she didn't acknowledge him. "Hey," he said. Kitty didn't reply. "Thanks for a good laugh." He said, grinning. "I needed it."

[Kitty Swann]

The ride home was a silent one. Mum was fuming under her breath the whole time, making Kitty wring her hands in her lap. Had she done the right thing? Mum had to pay fifty dollars for the lady, a huge price for an accident, and Kitty knew that mum would carry out her previous threat. All that money gone would come out of her own small amount of money. She had about a hundred dollars now, and to see it being emptied out because of an old lady, well... Kitty glanced out the window. She had probably seen this same scenery her whole life. She had never moved and going to the grocery store had always been routine. They never ventured to any other store, for some reason Kitty couldn't quite figure out. She looked through all the trees whipping past and wistfully thought of what fifty dollars could have done for her. Maybe she could have gotten new shoes. Kitty looked down at her worn, beat up sneakers. Yes, she had so much opportunities with fifty bucks. Kitty looked up at mum, opening her mouth to argue, but stopped herself. It was hopeless. Looking down, Kitty accepted what she had got herself into.

"Hey Kitty," Jerome said with a smile as they pulled up in the drive. Kitty shot a venomous look at him. Mum had gone silent, but Kitty didn't want a reckless remark from Jerome to make her mad again. "Thanks for a good laugh," he snickered, quoting the boy from the grocery store. Kitty glared. "Well, if you had been there instead of ran off because you were afraid to show yourself, then maybe you would have gotten a laugh too." She snapped, opening the car door and slamming it shut. Jerome grinned and didn't look a bit phased by her attack. Kitty had to admit, she really didn't have any good come-backs. She wasn't made for fighting. Closing her eyes, she walked up to her ranch. The noise of animals could be heard in the background, along with the whistling of grass. "Umph!" Kitty had accidentally bumped into the wall of the garage, leaving a large red spot on her shoulder. Rubbing it ruefully, she continued on to the house.

"- and then, to top it all off, she threw cornflakes at the poor woman. Cornflakes!" Mum shrieked, ending her tirade momentarily. Dad blinked and looked at Kitty, who was sulking in the background. "Is this true?" He asked quietly. "Of course it's true!" Mum yelled, totally off her rocker. "I had to pay her fifty bucks, honey! Fifty!" She glared at Kitty. Dad looked so tired that Kitty felt ashamed of herself. Lowering her head, she bit her lip and felt angry tears build up. She refused to let them fall. "So?" He asked. Mum frowned. "What?" "What punishment did you decide?" "I..." Mum licked her chapped lips and ran a hand through her hair. "Shouldn't we decide that together?" Dad blinked. "Together?" "Yes, honey. We both should talk about it." Mum said gently, a worried crease in her brow. Dad shrugged. "Oh. Alright then." He turned and sat down heavily on the couch. He looked so tired. Kitty stood. "May I leave now?" She ventured. Mum waved her away, more worried about Dad to care. Kitty bolted out the front door, letting the screen door slam behind her, and ran away. Toward the forest, to the pigs, to the coop. Anywhere but with her family, which was slowly, ever so slowly, falling apart.