Ancil“Mammy, I find these foreigners stranded on the street. Somebody steal their stuff nahh,” Kyle said. “They need a place to stay till they can figure everything out.”
“My home always open to people in need,” the woman said with a warm smile.
“We won’t be too much trouble,” Kate said.
“That’s the least of my worries,” the woman said.
After we introduced ourselves, the woman, who was known as Tanty Mavis said, “Let me show allyuh around and introduce allyuh to the others.”
Tanty Mavis led us to a group of chairs surrounding a round table where all the big kids sat. They were the quietest bunch of them all since they were all mostly focused on doing their homework and assignments. Tanty Mavis introduced Kate and me to the group then she began to call their names, pointing to the person attached to the name and stating a little bit about them and their struggles. The first name she called was Timothy, who looked quite athletic with his firm build protruding through his slim white vest. He was left an orphan at age 12 after his mother died in a freak accident. Sitting next to Timothy was 16-year-old Carol who was a bit on the thick side. She was abandoned by her parents at birth and left in a garbage bag at the side of the street. Carol was particularly special because she was the first child that Tanty Mavis took in. While walking the streets Tanty Mavis heard crying. She followed the crying and found Carol and fell in love with her so much that she decided to turn her home into a shelter and help more children in need. Then there was 16-year-old John whose puffy afro was bigger than his entire head. Tanty Mavis told us that he was just airing it out for a while before it’s fixed back to its usual plaited state. John was a temporary member of the shelter. His father and only parent was jailed for drug possession and distribution for 25 years and John was just staying in the shelter along with Jenna his 19-year-old sister who sat next to him till his release which would have been in the next 14 years. His sister’s hair wasn’t as puffy though. She was skinny and fat in all the right places and looked like the type of person who had the attention of all the boys.
After the long introductions of the teens, Tanty Mavis then led us over to a table where a group of little children was playing with toy trucks and Play-Doh sets. Tanty Mavis told us their names but Kate seemed to be distracted as she focused on one little kid in particular. The little girl wasn’t among the others on the table but all by herself, curled up on the floor against the wall in a corner. She was a really small girl with a long nightgown and over one of her eyes was a huge white plaster made of wool. She seemed to be writing something in a small book that was pressed against her lap.
“Who’s that?” Kate asked pointing to the little girl in the corner.
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t see she there nahh. That’s Juliet,” Tanty Mavis said.
“Juliet,” Kate repeated.
“She’s not like the others though,” Tanty Mavis said. “She always by herself in some corner quiet. She does never smile.”
“What happened to her?” I asked.
“Abuse. She was abused by her father. He even gouged one of her eyes out. That’s why she only have one.”
Kate walked up to Juliet and crouched in front of her. “Hey, Juliet.”
Juliet looked up from her book, looked at Kate, looked at me then looked at Tanty Mavis then said, in the tiniest and mousiest voice I’ve ever heard, “hey.”
“What are you writing?” Kate asked.
“A story,” she said, in her same mousey voice.
“A story about what?” Kate asked, getting closer to her.
“About a princess.”
“What kind of a princess?”
“A princess that nobody likes,” Juliet said.
“Everybody likes a princess.”
“Not this one.”
“Why not?”
“Because she’s ugly,” Juliet said. “She only have one eye and everybody does call she Cyclops.”
