The day started out with a cry, Sweet Pea always started her cryin 'round 6. Trixie Jean stumbled out of bed and across the small, dark room to her crib. Poor baby was hungry.
"Shhh," she cooed at the fussing baby, "S'alright, momma's gotchu" She soothed as she walked over to the fridge for a fresh bottle. She heard Baby Boy from his crib and walked over to see his smiling face, Baby Boy always had a big 'ole smile on his tiny little face; Sweet Pea could be fussin' and cryin' til she turned blue in the face, but Baby Boy would just be there with that big 'ole smile.
Trixie Jean could feel the sweat pouring off her face, that damn apartment always made Trixie Jean sweat like a whore in church. A one-bedroom in the Castle Apartments was all she could afford, but Trixie Jean was just fine with that; she didn't need much space, and she always loved to hear her babies soft sounds as she fell asleep.
It was a quarter past six, time to get the babies off to orphanage. Trixie Jean couldn't afford no kinda day care so the sweet ladies at the orphanage always let Baby Boy and Sweet Pea stay there while Trixie Jean was working. She sure loved those sweet ladies; they had raised her since she was nothing but a little bit, dropped off on the front stoop. They always told her that she was their little gift from God, but she knew that the sweet ladies were God's gift to her.
"Awww Sweet Pea!", the smell wafted up to her nose; that familiar smell that stuck to your senses like ants in molasses. Sweet Pea had thrown up on her shoulder. Trixie Jean stuck Sweet Pea in her bouncy chair, that damn bouncy chair was just about the only thing in the whole wide world that could keep that baby calm. Every time Sweet Pea was in it she turned into a sweet, smilin' baby, just like Baby Boy, and for a second....just one second,Trixie Jean had peace.
Trixie Jean got her babies dressed and ready and into their double-wide stroller and she was off. First stop was the orphanage.
"Whay hay there Miss. Trixie Jean, how you doin on this fine Wednesday mawnin? This weather treatin ya good?" Cried Mr. Diedrich, the old bumb who lived right outside the apartments on Poplar Street.
"Why I'm just fine Mr. Diedrich, and how are you?" Trixie Jean replied
"I'm terrible, these God damn space robots are always tryin ta get inside ma brain! They want me to let them in! But I won't, that's why I got this here helmet on," He gestured to the pasta strainer we was wearing, "to protect me from them damn space miscreants!" Old Mr. Diedrich may not have been the sanest or the cleanest man in town, but Trixie Jean had a soft spot for him from the days when he was a janitor at the orphanage; he always used to color and paint with Trixie Jean, and that was the kind of friendship you don't forget no matter whose wearing a pasta strainer on their head.
Trixie Jean opened up the big, brown, double wide doors to the orphanage, and she kissed her babies on the forehead as she handed them over to the sweet ladies at the orphanage,
"Now I love you, don't you ever forget that." She whispered to each of them, and with that Trixie Jean headed off to work.
Trixie Jean worked at Casa D Waffles as a waitress, she didn't mind her job. Sometimes working with her best girl friend Janie Jones made her job seem like it was the most fun thing.
Janie Jones and her had been best friends since they were six; Janie came to the orphanage when she was 5, they found her sleeping with the rats and bums down on Quincy way and them sweet ladies took her in without a second thought. At first Janie and Trixie used to hate each other, they would fight and play tricks on each other until one day they both realized how much they needed a friend who wasn't a homeless man or a nun.
They would sing and dance with the mops when it was a slow day just like they were teenagers again. Just like before Trixie Jean and Janie Jones both got knocked up. Janie Jones had a baby boy named Joe, but they liked to call him "Strummer" because he could make music out of anything with a string. That baby was just three years old and already he was smart as a whip and tall as the day is long.
That day at work was the same as any other day, wiping down tables, taking orders, picking up bills. Trixie Jean was so used to the routine that she would sometimes daze off into her own little word til 5 'o clock came around and Trixie Jean got to go see her babies. That was always what Trixie Jean yearned for.
Everyday around two Mr. Jagger would come by the restaurant and try to talk Janie Jones and Trixie Jean into coming and dancing at Isabella's. Janie Jones was adamant about never wanting to work there, her days of promiscuity and dancing on tables ended when she had little Strummer. Sometimes Trixie Jean would fantasize about working there, she wouldn't work too many hours and she'd be making a weeks worth of pay per night dancing there, but then she would always snap back into reality; ain't no man wanna see a stripper dancing with C- Section scars, not now, not ever.
