Away We Go

PLAIN JANE

 

Jane Amelia, barely six years old, stood on the top stone step into the row house where she, her Momma, Poppa and older by 3 years brother, Charles, lived. Cute as a butterfly kissing a buttercup, she stood with a smirk on her face , a terry cloth towel behind her shoulders and jumped to the pavement. The towel had no time to fluff out, float her down. She landed one foot on the bottom step, her twisted ankle on the sidewalk. Hurting, crying, she called, 'Momma, Momma, I fell.' Mrs. Taylor, in the large kitchen in the rear of the house, couldn't possibly hear her angel crying. Nonetheless, a strange feeling ran down her spine, forced her to put down the frying pan she was about to grease with salt free butter and walk to the front screen door. Jane Amelia heard her coming and managed to cry crocodile tears. 'Help me, Momma. My wings didn't open and I fell down the steps. I didn't dirty your towel very much.'

 

Mrs. Taylor examined Jane Amelia's foot, saw a little scrape, carried her into the kitchen, removed her Buster Brown shoes and white anklets. 'Oh, my, Jane Amelia,' she said. 'I had better call Poppa to come home and take you to the doctor to have your foot cut off.' Mrs. Taylor didn't realize how much her idea frightened her darling child until Jane Amelia began to cry real tears, held her tight and begged her not to call her Poppa. To improve the situation she offered her daughter two Hershey silver buds. That did the trick and deserved a kiss.

 

As they walked back to the front door a loud buzzing sound whirred above them. 'Quick, quick, let's go see the airplane. Poppa and I haven't seen one all week,' Mrs. Taylor's excitement made Jane Amelia forget her hurting ankle. She got to the door before her Momma, went thru it and let it bang shut on her Momma. 'Come back here, you little Sugar Plum Dumpling, and close the door softly without hitting me.'

 

The plane rose high, high above the new twenty story National Insurance Building that had ten stories more to go before all of the shops and offices opened for business. Jane Amelia threw questions at her Mamma. ' How high can buildings get? How much higher can airplanes fly? Will you take me for a ride in an airplane when I am seven?' A few words silenced her for too short a time. 'Honey, I don't know. But Poppa and I will take you and Charles to the amusement park next Saturday and you can ride in the Airplane Wrangler together. How's that idea?' The child liked that but it wasn't good enough. 'Yes, Momma, but that's for children and I want to go in a real airplane before I get too old.' Momma laughed.

 

Before that Saturday came, Jane Amelia had a great idea. She got the biggest terry cloth towel in the closet. It wasn't brand new so she figured she could use it, wouldn't get it dirty but stopped in her tracks. She couldn't open the third floor windows, didn't know how the men fixing the roof next door got out there. Sitting in the corner of Charles' bedroom, she thought and thought, picked up her terry cloth wing and put it back in the closet. With little anticipatience she had to  wait for the Wrangler ride.

 

The day was beautiful. The sun made it warm enough to think about summer and a new bathing suit. Momma put Charles' leather jacket in the back seat, a sweater for Jane Amelia and a little wrapped package into Poppa's pocket. He drove too fast and Momma hollered at him. We missed the Amusement Park and kept going, past fields of corn and a lake with water as blue as the sky. Poppa slowed down and turned into a place we had never been. 'Momma, what does the sign say?' Momma told her, 'Airarium.' Poor Jane Amelia never heard that word and asked her Momma what that meant. Momma told her to be still, she'd find out.

 

When she did, she thought she had died and gone to heaven. There were two airplanes on a long street. They were making noise and shaking a little. A man came out of a building to speak to Mr. And Mrs. Taylor, looked at her and Charles and asked Mr. Taylor if he was sure he wanted to do this. He got angry and told the man that if he wasn't sure, he wouldn't be standing in front of him telling him he's sure.

 

Charles had to put on his leather jacket. Jane Amelia was given her sweater and told to button it. They were led to an airplane that had a door on each side. The man lifted Jane Amelia up high and set her down on the seat next to where he was going to be. Charles and Poppa got in the back seats. Straps were buckled around every body. Poppa opened the small package Momma had for him and put one little something into each ear so the noise wouldn't hurt them.

 

The motor noise almost split Jane Amelia's ears but she didn't care. They were moving down the long pavement, going faster and faster, then up and up. Looking down thru a strange shaped window they could all see the Amusement Park, the lake. Poppa yelled out, 'Look that's where we live.'

 

It was a short ride, seemed like it didn't really happen, until Jane Amelia was lifted down and threw up her entire breakfast on her Momma's sweater.

 

As soon as she got home she found the heavy towels that were going to let her fly and hid them behind the new furnace in the basement and gave up flying forever.