Princess of the Duelist Kingdom
By
Rebecca Anna Coleman

-4-
A Penny for your Thoughts?

Mom and I both settled into our seats and soon we were stuffing our mouths with crispy, fried chicken tenders, and golden, crinkle cut french fries that were golden on the outside and nice, and fluffy on the inside. Halfway through our meal, mom decided to break the silence.

“A Penny for your thoughts?” Mom said as she stuffed three french fries into her mouth.

“I just kind of enjoyed 'crossplaying' today.” I said blushing a little. I then braced myself for the verbal assault that was bound to follow such a remark.

“I figured you did, you looked happy when I picked you up.” Mom said stuffing three more french fries into her mouth followed by a thirty second sip of diet cola. “I wanted to say something this morning, but well we were rushed. I think we both overslept.”

I nodded my head and bit off half of a chicken tender.

“And you're not upset?” I said after I swallowed the chicken tender and washed it down with a swallow of bubbly, rootbeer.

“I'm more upset about you going through my closet, and my make-up kit without asking me first. But then again I can understand your point of view. I'm not going to lie to you, I knew you had been using my shampoo, and my make-up. Most guys use unscented shampoo. And this morning, I smelled coconut and tea leaf when you passed by me. Also your hair has been looking a lot nicer lately.” Mom said as she shrugged her shoulders.

I felt like somebody had taken a hammer and smashed my nose in.

“Listen,” Mom took a deep breath and reached across the table and took my hand into mine. “You're my child, I spent ten, hellish hours giving birth to you. I love you, nothing is going to change that. But I want us to talk to each other. I'm sure if this is a 'stage' you're going through or if something more is kicking around in your brain.” Mom paused, I could tell she was trying to collect her thoughts. Like she was trying to be careful with her words. 

I nodded my head.

“But I know one thing, you were the happiest I've seen you in a long time this morning.” Mom paused. “And yes, I've been worried about you. You've been brooding and moody, but you're a teenager or almost a teenager so I expected that. But not only have you been moody, and brooding but you seemed to sulking and lurking around the house But today you seemed to almost walking on the clouds,”

I nodded my head right now my mind was one my food. But soon I felt the nagging pull of a question that had been lurking at the back of my mind for a while now.

“Mom, can I ask a question?” I said taking a bite of chicken.

“You just did.” Mom said, giving a loop sided grin. And in that moment my mom briefly reminded me of the 'Mad Hatter' from 'Alice and Wonderland'. 

“Mom,” I said, taking a deep breath.

“Sure, go ahead, I'll do my best to answer. But I can't promise a profound answer.” Mom said as she tore a piece of chicken with her teeth in a way that reminded me of Cujo, the dog from Steven King's Classic masterpiece of the same name tearing away at the unlucky postman's leg. Maybe mom in her tired state was going a bit feral.

“If I'd been born a girl.” I paused. “What would have named me?”

Mom without skipping a beat smiled and finished devouring her chicken strip, in a manner that reminded me much of a hungry wolf.

“I would have named you 'Susan' after my favorite Narnia character 'Susan Pevensie'.”

I blinked and blinked again.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because Susan was an eight year old me, a girl who I could look up to. When I was your age, I loved the Narnia books. I was a huge bookworm,” Mom paused. “But yes, Susan Pevensie was a girl I really looked up to. She was strong willed, she was a warrior, she fought with a bow. She was the kind of queen who would ride out with her armies if her realm was threatened. She was right in the thick of things when that big battle broke out.” 

I blushed a little.

“I mean sure, I think C.S Lewis was a bit of a jerk for the way he treated her, but I guess, he got stuck writing her and wanted to write her out of the books. I was ten when I read 'The Last Battle' and was heartbroken that Susan was excluded from Narnia because she seemingly just grew up.” 

“So 'Susan' would have been my first name and 'Prince' would have been my last name. What would have been my middle name?” 

“Oh! I would have given you the last name 'Sarah' because Sarah in the Bible was a woman who was renowned for her hospitality and beauty. It was also my great-grandmother's name. She was the one who introduced me to the 'Narnia' stories when I was just starting to learn to read.”  Mom said, smiling a little.

“Oh?” I said, smiling a little.

“You see sweetie, back when I was your age, I spent a lot of my time living with my grandmother, my mom's mom.  Dad traveled a lot for work and stuff. And mom also traveled. So to kind of give me a stable life they packed me off to my  mom's hometown, a kind of rustic little village called Benton.” Mom paused and took a sip from her cup.

“Benton?” I said picking up another chicken tender.

“Yep, nothing special about it.  It was kind of small, but it was kind of charming in its own way.” Mom said as she rattled some ice around her cup.

“Oh?” Mom rarely told me about her girlhood, but when she did I always kind of listened. Kind of gave me a chance to learn more about the woman who well gave birth to me.

“Yep, The older sections of town, that to say the sections of town closest to the river front were all paved in brick, like you know the older sections of Vicksburg or Natchez are. A trolley ran from the bottom of mainstreet to end of Croft Street, it then looped around at the end of Croft Street and looped back to Main. It ran past the old High School which had been demoted to being a Junior High.”

“Sounds magical.” I said, smiling a little.

“It was a nice little town filled with character and old buildings. But it was a town that was filled with ghosts. When I was little, I thought it was the most magical place on earth, because it was the kind of town where people still slept with their windows open on warm summer nights, where people still sat on the front porch and drank ice tea from big pitches and waved to passerbys. A place where a kid could set out a lemonade stand or in my case an ice tea stand and in the span of one afternoon would make more than enough money to go see a movie that evening or buy a dozen old Archie comics from the local Methodist Charity Market.” Mom paused.

“Go on,” 

“As a teenager though I thought it was the most boring place on earth. The closet city was, Yazoo City and that was twenty miles away. And even Yazoo City was nothing more than a overgrown village. Sure they at the time had a K-Mart, something Benton did not, But that was it. If you really wanted to do some real shopping you had to drive into either Jackson and shop at the MetroCenter or go to the newly open Northpark Mall in Ridgeland.”

I nodded my head.

“Say what with all the questions?” Mom finally asked as she finished off her chicken tenders and shoved the last few french fries into her mouth. She then drained the last few drops of cola that had gathered in the bottom of her plastic cup.

“I just wanted to know more about you.”

Mom paused and then smiled.

“Okay, finish up your meal okay? I'm tired as sin and I really need a nap. We can talk later, I would kind of like to know more about my new daughter, Susan Sarah Prince.” She said winking.
And so that is how my Saturday ended. With me learning the female my mom would given me, along with being invited to what would have been the biggest Yu-Gi-Oh tournament this area had ever seen. 

To be continued.