When I was growing up, well, things were a lot different then. My mom worked, even though most of my friends' moms stayed home. Daddy had gone to the store one night and never came home, and after that day Mom started working at the five and dime downtown. I was eleven and in my opinion old enough to come home from school and tend to myself. But Mom, she didn't feel comfortable with that, and so that's when Miss Lavender started coming to the house. That's not her real name; in fact, I can't remember what it was - maybe Naomi or Nanette - but she used to wear this scent of lavender so Mom and I called her Miss Lavender.
I remember the first day she arrived. Standing on the front porch with a flower print dress and a large, floppy straw hat. A yellow hat with some artificial flowers stuck in the brim.
Mom opened the door and as soon as Miss Lavender walked in, the room filled with springtime. Really. She walked like a warm breeze. There was something about her smile, her sparkling eyes that reminded me of Miss Thompson's field way out in the country. All the yellow, white and purple flowers everywhere. Birds chirping, sunshine.
She walked right over to me, extending her hand as if I were some sort of a lady or something and she said sweetly, "So you're Elizabeth!" I don't know quite what happened, except I think the word swoon describes what I felt when she took my hand in hers.
I had never had that kind of feeling before - just kind of dizzy, and praying that Miss Lavender would never ever let go. Her hand was so smooth and warm, and oh that lavender perfume!
Mom talked to her for quite a while, and I sat there in the corner pretending to play with my dolls, real quiet, so Mom wouldn't make me leave the room. I sat there, holding my dolls as if I was absorbed in some sort of important game, but all the while I was asking God to let her stay.
God answered me, 'cause Miss Lavender started coming to my house every day. Mom worked from 1:00 PM to 9:00 PM so Miss Lavender would get there before I got home from school and would stay till 9:30 cleaning up, cooking dinner, doing household chores for Mom.
Sometimes, when I'd get home from school, Miss Lavender would be in the middle of cleaning the kitehen. That was always my favorite activity of hers - she'd climb up on a stool to wash down the cabinets. I used to watch her body as she stretched to reach the top cabinets. I'd sit in the corner, eating a cookie and sipping some ice-cold milk that Miss Lavender had poured for me, and I'd watch and watch.
Miss Lavender used to bake cookies on Wednesdays. She'd wait for me to come home and then we'd mix the batter together. I'd beg for a taste and I'd ask her over and over, "Please let me lick the spoon. Please, please." And she'd shake her head. That is, until all the chocolate chips had been added. Then she'd say: "Is my sugar ready for some sugar?" And I'd get so excited 'cause I knew she was going to let me taste the batter with those big chunks of chocolate. But the best part of all was that she'd dip her finger deep into the sticky batter - twirl it around, it seemed like forever and then would let me lick the delicious paste off her finger.
Oh Miss Lavender! Such good memories. She seemed so sophisticated, so sure of herself. I thought she was a real lady with all those flowered dresses and hats and beaded purses. Once, when I had fallen on Mr. Goober's porch, she even took a lace hanky from her purse and dabbed my eyes. That's a lady! I used to dream about Miss Lavender at night. She and I on a bus going far away, maybe out to Miss Thompson's house with the flowers. Then I'd wake up and be sad to find myself alone in my bed.
That reminds me of the time when Mom went to visit her sick Aunt Tilly and Miss Lavender stayed the night. I was asleep and had oh, I think my worst dream ever, one I still remember to this day. Miss Anderson, my teacher, had a white rabbit and she was going to cut his ear off with a pair of scissors and I was screaming "No! No! No!" Suddenly I woke up, my face covered with tears, and Miss Lavender was holding me, running her hands through my hair saying, "Hush, flush, sugar, Miss Lavender will take good care of you." Being in her arms, pulled in close to her soft body, surrounded by fresh flowers - well, that's the night I knew for certain I was in love with Miss Lavender.
Mom met a man at Aunt Tilly's. Some sort of a veterinarian. Before I knew it they were talking marriage, and Mom was walking around the house singing. I heard her on the phone to her friends, talking about quitting the five and dime 'cause now that she and Nathan were getting married, she could stay home and raise her daughter right.
That's when I really started praying. Every night I'd get on my knees and pray desperately that God would keep me and Miss Lavender together. I picked up every penny I found, I didn't walk on sidewalk cracks and every night I put my magic rock under my pillow. I was that serious about keeping Miss Lavender around.
But all the praying, all the jumping around over sidewalks, the rock - well, I guess it just wasn't enough - 'cause that horrible day came when Mom told me Miss Lavender was coming back just one last time. I said, "Oh really." Kind of holding back everything. Then I ran up to my room, grabbed my magic rock and cried and cried.
Miss Lavender, that last day, was sad too. I could see it in her eyes. She took me out to the front porch and we sat there on Mom's swing chair and swung back and forth together for maybe two hours. She just put her arm around me, didn't say much, and we rocked. When it was time to go, Miss Lavender told me she was going to New York City to find a new life and she handed me the prettiest necklace. It had a jagged heart dangling from it with the word Some engraved on it. Well, I didn't understand it, but I felt such a shiver because I loved that necklace right away. Then she pulled from underneath her flowered neckline a chain with the other half of the heart. She read me the word on hers: day.
She leaned over and whispered "Some day when you're older - maybe twenty and I'll be almost thirty-six - you come to New York and look for the other half of your heart." With that she pulled me to her gently and kissed me right on the lips. A kiss like I'd never felt before - I could feel the soft fullness of her lips, a light breeze of lavender and honeysuckle just about filling my whole body, making me think I would float away if I didn't move real close to Miss Lavender. My head was dizzy like I had just got off the merry-go-round at Twin Rock Park... and when I felt her lips open just the tiniest bit and a heat of some sort pass right from her mouth into mine, well that sent a tingling through me the likes of which I've never felt since. And for just the quickest second, Miss Lavender let her warm tongue softly move into my mouth... Like honey and sugar all mixed together, that's how my Miss Lavender tasted. Then she pulled away. Wiped a tear from her eye and said we should be going on over to Dr. Nathan's now. And that's just what we did. Oh, Miss Lavender...
The End