Blue isn't just a mood!
I’ve said elsewhere how my sisters would gang up on me. They’d wrestle me into the front coat closet, shut its door and shove a chair under the knob. I’d be stuck in there until mom or dad saw the chair and let out. Dad would usually ask me what I had done to one of the girls. Mom would just laugh and tease me that I needed to learn how to run faster. I complained that I knew it was taboo to physically defend myself, but had no idea what to do. My mom told me I was smart and could think of something. She was right and I did.
The girls and I had an argument. I locked myself in the main floor bathroom. The girls whined to Dad. He told me to get my but out of there. I relocated to the upstairs bath. When you sulk, you need to fixate your glare on something as you pout. I staired at a crystal decanter of blue bath powder sitting on the tub.
There was loud nocking on the door and my oldest sister hollered, scolding me as if she were my boss. I was mad and kept quiet and kept sulking. After less than an minute of silence, I heard dad yell from down below. He told me to go hide somewhere they go, like maybe in the garage.
The garage wasn’t a good sulking place and it was cold outside. I went down to the laundry room. It had spiderwebs and the girls didn’t like it. I sat on a pile of clothes and looked at the laundry tub.\felt even more sorry for myself and picked the laundry tub to stare at. In the middle of a good pout I noticed a short stack of small packages. Printing on them read, ‘Rit Dye.’ I stopped sulking and grinned. I realized what my mother had meant when she said I was smart and could – would, think of something. One of the boxes was marked, Blue.
I grabbed the box and headed upstairs for the bubble bath decanter.
Saturday night was bath night for the girls. Mom and dad would watch ‘Hootnanny’ and ‘Laurance Welk’ on TV. One at a time, my sisters would go upstairs for a bath. My oldest sister, Bobbie, was first. She was up there for a few minutes and began screaming. Dad and mom ran up the stairs. I headed there a little slower. My dad was halfway down so fast he couldn’t have been all the way up there. He grabbed me by the collar and pulled me behind him, yelling at me, “What did you do? What’d you DO?” Bobby was wrapped in a towel and stood in the bathroom door. Mom was behind her.
Bobby was blue. She wasn’t a deep blue. She just looked like she hadn’t breathed for an hour or two.
It was early summer, and the weather was warm. My sister was probably the only girl who wore turtlenecks to school. I spent a couple of weeks grounded. Whenever I think about that night I remember the look on my mom’s face as she stood behind my blue sister. Mom turned her face to try and hide her smile.
