Who Says Johnsons Means No More Tears?

She plugged the tub and tipped the Avon whale to add a few drops into the running water. We stripped our clothes off as she made sure we had soap and wash cloths. She turned off the water, and told us we could play a bit while she did some other things. As soon as she was out of sight, I slipped out of the tub, closed the door, and turned the water back on. I poured the remainder of the bubble bath in and splashed.

“Not enough bubbles”, Cindy complained. I emptied the container of my sister’s shampoo beneath the running faucet. We dumped the entire bottle of Johnson’s Baby Shampoo on our heads. We lathered our hair, dunking our heads into the tub to dilute the thick gel. We stretched and pulled our own hair and laughed as we tugged at one another’s tresses. We climbed onto the end of the tub and onto the sink so we could see ourselves in the mirror on the medicine cabinet. We jumped back into the tub from the sink. Water and suds splashed everywhere.

“Oh no, we’re losing our bubbles.” Cindy frowned beneath her elongated white soap-capped head. I climbed up on the radiator to see if Kay was outside. I saw her at the far end of the yard. I ran to the kitchen and came back with a bottle of Joy dishwashing liquid.

“Oh boy, lemons!” I handed the bottle to Cindy who squirted it all over the tub and surrounding walls. We splished, and we splashed. We laughed. We were overwhelmed with joy and Joy. I zoomed the whale in and out of the suds, and Cindy refilled the Joy bottled with water and sprayed me. We swapped. We continued to play with our soapy hair and then we sudded our faces and pretend-shaved each other. We sopped and soaped the entire bathroom, giggling all the while.

Suddenly we heard stomping and screaming as the bathroom door swung open. Kay’s face was tomato red, and her eyes seemed to triple in size as she scanned the room wall to wall, floor to ceiling.

“You wasted my shampoo. You wait till I get you outta’ there!” As she turned her back to grab a towel out of the closet, Cindy and I looked at each other and we knew what we had to do. I took off first with her only a step behind me, flinging a trail of suds with us. We slipped, sloshed, and ran right through the house, out the front door, over the bank of phlox and into the safety of Mrs. Kidd’s yard. The crazy screaming teenage girl was only a few feet behind us. My sister had transformed into a mutant, and for the first time in my life I was petrified of her. Her eyes were blazing coals, and I swear steam was rising from the top of her shiny black hair. She was waving her arms through the air and shrieking like a lunatic. We headed to the other side of the yard and hid behind some bushes.

We looked up to find Kay towering over us. With her high cheek bones, black hair, and dark complexion, she looked like an Indian on the warpath, and we were very afraid. However, her only weapons were her hands. She grabbed each of us by an arm and pulled us to our feet. She pushed us by our shoulders all the way up the hill. Our naked butts were coated in dirt and fresh grass cuttings as well as the rest of our bodies. She spanked each of us, and with heads dripping Johnson’s No More Tears, we cried. She stuck us back into the tub of suds and washed us down, rinsed the soap out of our hair, and towel dried us. Second time in the tub was no where near as fun as the first time.

Living in the Gap

February 22, 2012 – Cotton Candy Sky

Dusk appeared as if a cotton candy machine had spit balls of pink sugar throughout the sky. Even the contrails were pink. The lowest splatters in the sky were the brightest. I felt as if I could reach out and grab a handful. Later I was showing Dirt Man the pics I took, and he told me he had watched the sky at the same time and thought about how the pictures would be if he’d been able to capture the moment; glad I was able to capture it for him.