[Critique Group 1] Mary-Jo Submission for May 10

[Mary-Jo Lord]

The Taste of Curiosity

 

"Sexy Meleski! Woo! Woo! Woo!"            

 

Mrs. Meleski lived down and across the street, two doors from my friend
Theresa. We knew that Mr. Meleski left in the morning for work and came home
at the end of the day. The doors and windows were usually closed, even in
the summer and we didn't see Mrs. Meleski outside. She didn't sit on the
front porch or hang clothes on a line in the backyard like all of the moms
and other neighbor ladies. We didn't see her at Great Scott on Friday nights
when we went grocery shopping. Nobody ran into her at the beauty shop or the
dentists. We didn't see her at Don's Drug Store getting medicine, birthday
cards, or magazines. She or Mr. Meleski must have gone there though, because
they gave out pumpkin seeds for Halloween and Don's sold them for a Nickel a
box.

 

The fact that Mrs. Meleski gave out Pumpkin seeds for Halloween was one of
the few things that we knew about her. The other things that we knew were
that she was Theresa's mother's sister, her name was Jean, and that she and
Theresa's mother didn't speak to each other. Theresa didn't remember her
Aunt ever coming to her house and she had never been to her house, not even
for Halloween. She and her sister Joanie weren't allowed to go there. They
would wait on the sidewalk while the rest of us would go to the door, Mrs.
Meleski would put exactly four pumpkin seeds in our bags, say something we
didn't understand, we would say "thank you," and walk back to the sidewalk.

 

So on a hot afternoon near the end of August, Theresa and I had run out of
things to do. We were tired of playing Barbies, coloring, and riding the
tandem bike. We had made our trip to Don's and ate all of the candy that a
quarter could buy. We started with the butterfingers before the chocolate
got all melty, ate Sweet Tarts until our mouths tasted funny and sucked
every last bit of the sower, fizzy centers from our zots. We had finished
off all of the pumpkin seeds that crunched and tasted salty and a little
like the cardboard box that they came in. There was nothing more to say
about school starting soon. We did and didn't want it to start.

 

We were bored, until I brought up the subject of Theresa's aunt. We wondered
if we could make her come out of the house. We talked about calling her name
over and over again in a singsong voice until she would get mad or curious
and come out. Theresa thought it would be good to make up a cheer but we
didn't know any cheers. We searched our seven and nine-year-old vocabularies
for a word that would rhyme with "Meleski." The best and really bad word
that we came up with was "sexy!" The rest just fell into place.

 

We were in the second round of our chant, about to get to our favorite part,
the "Woo! Woo! Woo!" when Joanie opened the back door. She stepped out on
the porch and hissed, "You shut up right now! If you don't stop, Theresa,
Mom's gonna ground you and I'm gonna tell Mrs. Kaiser."

 

We froze with the beginning of a "woo" formed on our open mouths. Joanie
didn't yell but we felt like we were already in trouble. Theresa didn't want
to be grounded and I sure didn't want Joanie telling my mother anything.

 

Theresa and I didn't say a word until Joanie was back in the house and we
were sure she wasn't coming back. We tried to find other things to talk
about and eventually moved on to something else.

 

We forgot about Mrs. Meleski until Halloween. We all went out as witches,
ghosts, pumpkins, clowns and bums. As usual, when we got to the Meleski's
house, Theresa and Joanie waited on the sidewalk. We went to the door, and
before we could say, "trick or treat," Mrs. Meleski was there with her
pumpkin seeds. She counted out four for each of us, said something that we
didn't understand, we said, "thank you," and we were on our way.

 

When my sister Laura and I got home, tired and weighed down by large bags of
candy, our mother was waiting and ready to do her inspection. Anything that
wasn't wrapped, or looked like the wrapper had been opened went into the
garbage. My mother said that bad things could be in unwrapped candy. Mrs.
Meleski's pumpkin seeds never made it into the candy bowl until that year.
Somehow, two of the four small, almost flat, unwrapped seeds escaped my
mother's scrutiny. I made the discovery the next day after school. I was
tempted to eat them right away, in case my mother found them but I
remembered that something bad might be in anything unwrapped.

 

A couple of days went by and curiosity overcame fear. I took the two pumpkin
seeds from the bottom of my candy bowl and went into my room. If something
bad happened, I wanted to be in my room. I put them to my lips and pulled my
hand back quickly. Then, before I could chicken out, I put both pumpkin
seeds in my mouth and chewed them fast. Nothing happened. They didn't taste
bad, or funny, or anything. They weren't crunchy anymore and they just
tasted like salt, peanut butter, Sweet Tart, and bazooka bubble gum. There
was still a hint of that cardboard box taste and maybe the flat, bitter
taste of disappointment. I felt relieved that I wasn't poisoned and my
mother didn't run into my room with sudden knowledge that I had just ate
unwrapped pumpkin seeds. Nothing happened at all.

 

Now that I knew that Mrs. Meleski's pumpkin seeds were just ordinary, boxed
pumpkin seeds, like the ones that we bought from Don's every week, I wanted
to know more. What was she really like and what did she say to us every year
when she put the seeds in our bags on Halloween? Why four, always four? I
discovered that curiosity feeds knowledge and Knowledge feeds curiosity. It
was an endless and crazy circle. Knowledge, like candy and pumpkin seeds
comes in all flavors, sometimes sweet, sometimes sour, and sometimes just a
little bitter. 

 

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