Life's Learned Lessons Short Stories of Faith and Belief

"What does intercourse mean," Marea asked her older sister and cousins.  They all laughed and no one told Marea what intercourse meant.  Marea grew up without being told about sex, growing up, or even menstrual periods.  Marea spent most weekends and summers at her grandmother's house where her aunt and cousins lived.  Marea knew that she was being mistreated when she would have to do the dishes while her cousins were outside playing but there was really nothing she could do because she loved being at this house.  What Marea didn't realize at the time was she was getting a lesson in how to truly clean a kitchen because her aunt was there to make sure she did it right and if she didn't do it right, she did it over.  She learned that you dried dishes with the dry towel and pots and skillets with the dish towel.  That was a lesson that Marea took with her into adulthood.

Marea's cousins, Candy and Felice, always had the best things.  Marea's aunt, Felicia made sure her girls were always dressed nice and had money to buy what they wanted.  Marea's mother was never around to make sure she had anything.  Marea didn't have nice clothes or an older person to guide her in ways relevant to growing up but she was allowed to go to work with her grandmother who did house cleaning.  This is the act that taught Marea that she would have to work to get what she wanted.  Marea liked going to work with her grandmother as she loved her grandmother because she was known and loved by all.  Neighborhood people called her Ms. Hazel.  Ms. Hazel was a peace keeper.  She would keep the peace when the neighborhood guys would clown with each other or have arguments.

Candy and Felice didn't get along too well with grandmother as they didn't like going to work with her.  She would sometimes force them to go to work with her, trying to get them to understand how important it was to learn to go to work.  Candy and Felice grudgingly went to work with grandmother but they would steal from their grandmother's employers.  When confronted by their grandmother, they would deny stealing but she knew they did, there was no one else in the home except the people that lived there.  Candy was 2 years older than Marea and Felice was 2 years younger.  Rita, their friend,  was 1 year older than Marea. 

Marea never found out what intercourse meant.  After she asked about it but never got an answer, she kind of forgot about it.  Marea never talked about sex with Candy or Felice as they were approximately the same age and she just didn't think they knew anymore about it than she did.  When Marea started her menstrual period the summer of 1974, she wasn't afraid but she had no one to talk to about it.  She had no protection to use to guard against staining her clothing.  Marea turned to one of their neighbors who lived across the street.  Her name was Rita.  She lived with both her parents and her sisters and brothers.  Rita was smart and she told Marea all about how to use the clothes protection and about how long her menstrual cycle might last.  Marea had no one to get money from to buy her own protection so she had to again asked Rita who was very nice about helping her with this problem.

It started when Marea was 13 years old.  Playing outside with friends and cousins during summer months was what she lived for.  As soon as school was out for summer, she would pack her clothes and be off walking to her grandmother's house.  At this age, Marea was 5'7" tall, she weighed 135 pounds with full breasts and small waist but not very good looking in her own eyes.  She didn't have very nice clothes and hair was kind of short.  Marea would get a press and curl on her hair but that didn't last very long.  Perms was not the in-thing for African-Americans during that time. 

At grandmother's, it was customary for the girls to have liquor as they had older brothers and cousins.  Candy's brother, Miller, and his friends would always parties in the basement.  After their parties ended, Marea and her cousins and friends would go into the basement and drink liquor.  It was common for the girls to have liquor and beer.  They even smoked cigarettes.  Marea never realized that smoking cigarettes and drinking would lead to other things that would cause her terrible harm in the future.  Marea drank liquor but it was not something she liked to do.  She could never get the buzz the other girls