ONE
July 2, 1982
The two 19 year old girls walked carefully, attempting to avoid the rusty cans and general litter on the grounds of the Craddock-Childress Greens Mobile Home Village. The taller girl, a pretty redhead in a bikini carried a boom-box, which was emanating Boy George's sordid screams.
The smaller girl had short, ratty hair, and wore thick glasses and lugged a copy of "War and Peace" bouncing against her soggy one-piece swimsuit.
"Goddamn if that YMCA pool is worth hitching to.," the bespectacled girl muttered. "We could swim in the river if I wasn't afraid we were going to get some kind of biochemical cancer, but with your luck, Serena, you'd probably just get bigger breasts!"
Serena laughed and patted her younger friend on the back. "Yours will come, don't worry...just wait. Besides, you're getting out of here soon, right? You're going to start at Smith college on scholarship next week, right Prattsie?"
Serena lit a Marlboro as she was walking. "They might have a pool, you know?"
Prattsie grinned at her optimistic friend. "I just wish you were going with me, instead of to hairdressing school." Prattsie said mournfully.
Serena smiled, and tried to look nonchalant. They'd been more than "friends" that summer, and the real reason they were both pissed about the condition of the river was because it was lots safer messin' around in the bushes than in the Y shower. But hey. They weren't lezzies, it was just a phase.
As they reached a particularly filthy singlewide mobile home with a large hand-painted sign saying "B.Pratt Home Keepe Owt" in the front yard, Serena's radio did a fizzle.
Suddenly Boy George was gone and instead it was one of those boring talk shows
Before Serena could flip the station, they heard
. "...And the Equal Rights Amendment was defeated on June thirtieth when the required 38 state legislatures did not ratify in time. Today I have Tegan O'Kesen, president of Smith College Christians Against Rights Initiatives. SCCARI girls worked with Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum and the Concerned Women of America to defeat the ERA, and Miss O'Kesen is proud of her good work. Miss O'Kesen?"
Serena looked bored and Prattsie disgusted as a nasal female voice came on.
"Yes, that's right, Myron. We SCCARI women worked to shut down the Equal Rights Amendment because women don't need it. Every woman in America has all the rights she needs, and if she isn't enjoying life, it's her attitude! All a woman has to learn is how to be a feminine and obedient wife..."
Serena turned the station to "I Want a New Drug" by Huey Lewis and the News, but Prattsie still looked a bit put out.
Suddenly there was a sound of ripping and screaming from inside the "B Pratt" trailer. "I'll teach you to hide my Dilaudids, you bitch!" came a man's voice, and then there was a crash. Suddenly the trailer was rocking with a woman's screams and a man's coarse laughter.
"Stop, Thurman, you're killin' me!!!" Two small children came out of the mobile home, turning their dirty faces to Prattsie, instinctively.
"Kelvin, Colette, go to the Recreation Center for a couple hours." Prattsie said, sighing. "Here's a five for the Pac-Man machine, now get on out of here! Don't come back 'til dark. And wash in the sink at the Rec Center, or I'll beat you both to a pulp!"
The two urchins chortled over their change of fortune and ran off. "And thus go half my Dairy Queen tips" the bespectacled girl moaned.
Suddenly there was a slam inside the trailer and a further scream, and a lower denture plate flew out of the door, and Prattsie caught it with a practiced air.
Serena looked uncomfortable. Prattsie smiled ruefully. "I gotta go inside and keep Momma from being killed again. Let's go swimming again tomorrow."
Serena gave her friend a quick hug and ran down the filth littered path, as her own uncle was probably making advances to her younger sister in THEIR trailer, and it couldn't hurt to get home soon.
February 19, 2004 9:43 a.m.
"Well it is a problem, Prattsie," said Samuel, embarrassed. "I probably shouldn't have let Kenseth come here without getting fixed first." Samuel leaned down on the stool, looking into the "coffin" a retired telephone booth that was lying on its side. Samuel shook his large black head. "It's the younger generation. Although my father had my brother and I before his operation, I was proud to be snipped in mid puberty."
Samuel leaned his bulky arms on the "Coffin" because it was moving around, as its occupant kept bouncing and bucking about. "I am ashamed of Kenseth's attitude. He is my brother's son, but his attitudes are terrible.
His sister is even worse. Can you believe Sibongile refused to be a volcano virgin, Prattsie?" Samuel shook his giant head again, and Miss Pratt thought it resembled a watermelon. "She is a waitress in Madagascar, and has a therapist!"
"Secular bitch!" Miss Pratt said with a grin. "These kids, I tell you, Samuel. Worldly little bastards."
It was taped together so there were no air holes except for those on the top door, and inside it was Evelyn, covered in sugar water. Miss Pratt poured more sugar water on Evelyn, who closed her eyes and shook herself.
Miss Pratt made a face. Evelyn, naked, even with her ugly, wrinkled hands cuffed behind her back, was a hideous sight.
"What's the problem, Samuel?" Miss Pratt asked casually. "He's been watching "Sex in the City" and "Entourage" and he wants to get laid before he becomes a eunuch?"
Samuel looked to the box of fire ants, and Miss Pratt nodded. Samuel frowned as he opened the box. "These are from Puerto Rico, and they cost a pretty penny." Backing away a bit, he opened the door to the Coffin. "Are you ready for your surprise, Evelyn?"
Evelyn looked up through eyes blurry with sugar water. "I don't understand this, I'm all sticky...what sort of--Oh!" She winced and pulled as the fire ants began falling onto her face and began crawling over her body." No, please Samuel...don't do this to me!"
Miss Pratt shook her head. "I can't stand to hear her whining. Did the bait shop send crickets, too? I think I'll listen to some Toni Braxton while you pour those on."
Samuel grinned broadly. "You are so easy to torture. Shakespeare said that we despise in others what we perceive in ourselves, and for the decade that I have known you, Prattsie, you have been a greater whiner than poor Evelyn."
Samuel looked down, as the crickets followed the fire ants, onto the struggling, shaking fifty-six year old woman. "They're biting me...please, Noooo!" Samuel shook his head again.
"Before I put on the headphones, what do you want to do about Kenseth? Do you think if I got him laid with a hooker perhaps he would be content to go home and get his castration?" Miss Pratt was concerned here. Samuel was not at all close to retirement, but it was always good to have a spare eunuch around.
"Kenseth just wants to have his schlong sucked." Samuel said with a smile. "Perhaps you can order in someone, attractive..." Miss Pratt snapped her fingers. "You know, I have a Sarah-Jessica Parker coming in today who is just the one!"
Samuel winced. "No, no, Prattsie, I don't think Miss O'Kesen is interested in men." But Miss Pratt had put the earphones on, and, while watching Evelyn's misery, was snapping her fingers to "Breathe Again."
February 19, 2004. 1:39 pm
Glynnis couldn't believe that she was looking at Tegan O'Kesen. Of course they both lived in DC, so Glyn knew that there was always a possibility of seeing a television celebrity--she'd once been on the Metro with David Broder, and Walter Mondale used to shop at Giant Food with Glyn's mom. He was very nice.
God, the telephone books were heavy. Glyn never would have guessed that she could hold one telephone book in both hands for an hour standing up, much less a heavy book in each hand while standing with her feet in two different chairs.
Glyn's right hand sagged a bit under its book, but Miss Pratt looked quickly at her, while regaling O'Kesen, and Glynnis pulled up her hand.
But Tegan O'Kesen was such a bitch! Like most DC residents, Glynnis was a liberal, and everyone thought O'Kesen was a right-wing bimbo.
But God, how she wished she could tell her friends that she'd seen the right-wing bimbo being caned by Miss Pratt! But of course none of Glyn's friends knew that Glynnis, herself saw a domme.
Glynnis's right knee was starting to really smart, and she was terrified that the chair under her right foot might go out, and she'd fall. Glyn was forty-eight and didn't think she could be falling down hard.
Earlier, Miss Pratt had caned Glynnis viciously because Glyn had been preparing Miss Pratt's lunch and had stepped on the white squares of the black and white kitchen tile floor.
Miss Pratt had ordered Kenseth, the obese black younger guy, to monitor Glyn, who owned four restaurants and was a published cookbook author, in making the meal, but it was hard to concentrate on a good bouillabaisse while worrying about what tiles to step on.
It had been grim. Miss Pratt had waited until Glynnis had served the lunch, and even kindly waited til Glyn had eaten her share out of the dog dish before punishing her.