What Little Girls ARE Made Of

Grade 2

I hop down from the bottom step of the school bus, and as it disappears over the knoll I start skipping along the dirt road home, my footfalls crunching the dry Autumn leaves that skitter along the ground. Fluffy, my grey short-haired cat greets me at the edge of the crushed-limestone driveway and chatters to me as we walk side-by-side along the flagstone walk and up the stairs. My mother beams at me from the open doorway, takes my blue vinyl lunch pail and gives me a hug.

“How was your day, Sweetheart?”

I shrug. “It was okay. How was yours?”

“It was good too,” my mother smiles. “Auntie Anne and I made new curtains for above the kitchen sink. Come look.”

“Hi, Auntie Anne,” I call as I pass the den where she sits watching television. My aunt waves as I trot past and into the kitchen. The new curtains ruffle in the breeze blowing through the open window. I like their pale green colour.

The kitchen smells like spaghetti sauce, and my mouth waters. I pull a little plastic bowl from the cupboard beneath the counter and pour in some Lucky Charms. I bring the cereal into the den and put it on the side table, then climb up on my aunt’s lap. She puts her arms around me and I lean my head back on her shoulder.

“So, tell me what you learned in school today.” Many, many years ago Auntie Anne was what she calls a ‘marm’. She is always curious what they are teaching now in school.

“We did a little bit about nouns and verbs. Oh, and we got to go out in the bush and get leaves to trace so we can do art for the walls and learn what leaves come from what trees. Maple leaves are my favourites because I like Rick Vaive. And because of the flag of Canada. Christopher got to put the flag up the pole today.”

The show Auntie Anne had been watching ends, and some commercials come on. In one a pretty lady talks about shampoo. Then Star Trek starts and we get quiet. The Enterprise finds a blue planet. Captain Kirk and Nurse Chapel go down to it. They find a cave with big rocks on the top and bottom. There are red ones, and purple ones, and blue too.

“Auntie, what kind of rocks are those?” I ask. I know my aunt knows a lot about rocks, and she gave me a book about them when she came to stay with us. She brought me a nice purple amethyst rock too. That is her birth stone. Mine is dark red.

“Those are just pretend rocks,” she tells me. “They paint them and shine coloured lights on them to make them seem like something from another planet.”

“Like Uranus or Neptune?”

“Yes, maybe. Kind of. We don’t really know what those planets are like, but it’s fun to imagine, right?”

I nod. Captain Kirk is holding hands with Nurse Chapel and it makes me giggle. It is nice though, the way the colour of her eyes matches the colour of her uniform. Eyes like my mother’s and eyes like Auntie Anne’s.

The bad guys in this episode are all machines, but they are pretending to be real people. I try to picture people I know really being machines.

“Auntie Anne, could that really happen?”

I’m not sure dear. But anything might be possible one day. We just have to keep learning more and more things.”

“Imagine if they could be good machines, and help lots of people...” Everyone is safe at home on the Enterprise now, and the spaceship flies off through the round stars.

***

Grade 4

Auntie Anne and her boyfriend, Uncle Roy have come to spend the holidays with us. When we get home from Christmas Eve mass, we all go in to the living room, and my mother turns the tree lights on. They remind me of stars. My dad and Uncle Roy help Auntie Anne into the big rocking recliner. I sit myself on Auntie Anne’s wheelchair. We listen to Christmas carols, and after a lot of pleading I am given permission to open ONE present. I choose a cube-shaped one with shiny metallic paper, from my aunt and uncle. Inside I find a set of books. They tell about different places in the world, and there are stickers with colour pictures of the places. You have to find the right places for the right stickers. I want to take them to bed with me, but my mother says ‘no’.

The next day I am glad I waited, because one of my other presents is a globe, and Auntie Anne makes a game of being able to find the places in the books on the surface of the globe.

***

Grade 6

Aunt Anne and Uncle Roy have to move to a nursing home. Her Parkinson’s Disease has gotten worse, and Uncle Roy isn’t able to care for her anymore. His health is bad as well. They will live in the same home, but in different rooms.

One weekend my mom and dad and I go to their apartment in Collingwood to help them pack.

They have lots and lots of records - Aunt Anne loves music. For OUR birthday last year (our birthdays are exactly one week apart, so we decided to start celebrating together on the middle day from now on) my aunt gave me the violin she used to play as a child.

While my parents are outside taking a dolly of boxes to our car, Aunt Anne pulls one of the albums out from her collection and hands it to me. The cover to HAIR is bright green orange and yellow, on a beige and dark brown background.

“I want you to have this,” she says. “Listen to it closely and please write to me about what you think of it. Just...kmaybe listen to it on your record player in the basement - I’m not sure how your parents would feel about some of the concepts and language, but I think there are some important messages in it.

Of course I sneak down to the basement the first chance I get. I listen to it over and over.

***

Whenever I hear certain songs, or find interesting rocks, or look out into the cosmos I feel grateful to have had an aunt who exposed me to new ideas, encouraged me to think for myself and always answered my questions truthfully and logically.

‘Aquarius. Aquarius.’