Thinking about Claudia being forced to move out…knowing that the same thing will happen to the rest of us soon, kept me up half the night and also invade my thoughts and fears the next morning. So much so that I end up having to blow a few bubbles once again to calm myself down.
I enter the kitchen to see Mama Nadine giving Claudia a cooking lesson…something that she’ll definitely have to know how to do once she’s on her own. I’m not too excited about the prospect of eating something Claudia made rather than Mama Nadine’s food this morning, but I guess I have no choice. Mama Nadine will no doubt want us all to be supportive of Claudia’s first attempt at preparing breakfast.
Claudia: *struggling to keep the eggs from sticking*
Mama Nadine: Next time add a bit more olive oil and you won’t have that problem.
Claudia finishes preparing the meal and we all sit down and eat. I have to admit that Mama Nadine is as good as a cooking coach as she is a cook, because under her guidance…Claudia’s eggs and bacon come out excellent.
Alida: Hey…this is very good, Clau.
Claudia: Thanks, Alida!
Realizing the mistake she made in doing everything for us…Mama Nadine is now on a mission to make sure that we’re all able to take care of ourselves and have basic homemaking skills. Raul asks me to join him outside in the abandoned lot after I finish loading up the washer. I’m sure I know what he wants to talk about, but I have something completely different on my mind.
Raul and I, unfortunately, have to pass Darwin in order to sneak out back. He speaks up right away as we walk out the gate…
Darwin: I thought we weren’t supposed to go back there!
Raul: We’re not, but guess what….if you tell, I’ll turn off all the night lights in our room in the middle of the night and let the Night-Night Monster come and gobble your little ass right up!
Darwin: *whimpers*
I almost feel bad about Raul scaring Darwin like that, but I hurry with him out the gate. We walk over to the abandoned couch in the lot. I sit down, but Raul lays back into the grass and looks up at the sky. I bring up what’s been on my mind before Raul has a chance to ask me anything about Mama Nadine’s ex-fiancé…the only thing he seems to ever want to talk about these days.
Alida: How do you feel about Claudia moving out soon?
Raul pauses so long that I almost think he’s not going to answer. Finally, he does…
Raul: It’s all bullshit.
I get up off the couch and join him on the ground…
Alida: This moving out thing sort of bothers me. I mean…what if my mom doesn’t get of jail. Where will I go?
Raul: There’s always the military. That’s what I plan to do. The military will take care of all my worries.
I think about it, but decide that the military probably wouldn’t be a good fit for me. I need to come up with something else. I suddenly wish I was talking about this with Michael instead. I’m sure his fears are similar to my own…and it’s almost a 100% guarantee that Michael isn’t considering going to the military. I wonder where he is…
Meanwhile, inside Mama Nadine’s bedroom…
Michael:*picks up his script and gets into character* “This morning, I was lookin’ in the mirror and thinking about it… I’m thirty-five years old; I been married eleven years and I got a boy who sleeps in the living room – *very, very quietly* – and all I got to give him is stories about how rich white people live…”**
(**Character: Walter Lee, Play: A Raisin in the Sun)
There’s just enough of a pause in the conversation to allow Raul to bring up the Robert Beasley guy again.
Raul: So…has he called you yet?
Alida: No…and thank god – I’m not sure about this whole thing. I wouldn’t even know what to say to him.
Raul: Just try and schedule a meeting. If you do that…I’ll handle the rest.
I still don’t want to do it…I cannot see how getting in touch with Mama Nadine’s ex-fiancé will help anything and I definitely don’t understand why Raul is so obsessed with it. Raul gets to up get ready for his scout meeting…leaving me there to play out the possible outcomes of this whole situation in my head.
(Generation 1 Chapter Summaries)
