Aunt Mayflower in the 80’s

Mayflower grimaced, as she was sitting on the dusty wooden floor. She was doing her morning stretches and had gotten a horrible foot cramp.

“Youchies!”

She usually wore a skirt with a wild pattern on it. Her teased, dyed, red, hair was voluminous to say the least. She usually tied it back with a headband or scarf that never matched her outfit.

Once her foot cramp subsided, she grabbed her Walkman and turned on a Tina Turner tape. The first song that came on was “Break Every Rule.” She knew all the lyrics to this song.

Randomly, she clapped her legs and jetted to her messy room.

“I knew I forgot something!”

Grabbing some neon leg warmers, she quickly pulled them up, under her patterned skirt. Skipping out the front door she sang at the top of her lungs the lyrics to the song.

“And every road that I walk on

And every flight that I ever take

With every dream that I dream on

And every journey brings me closer, closer, closer.”

Down the sidewalk, she did some random spastic exercises, including one called the grapevine.

She walked several blocks through the neighborhood, almost tripping over a man who was out walking his dog.

“Sorry about that mister! But nice dog ya’ got there!”

She sang more of the song lyrics.

“You're every dream that I dream

You're every beautiful thing I've ever seen

I'm always singing your praises

Counting the days away.”

Mayflower danced along the sidewalk and then she made it to her older sister’s house. The mailman had just pulled up to the mailbox to deliver the mail.

“Oh, why are you so cute?”

She asked the mailman, with a flirty wink.

Continuing to sing the lyrics, she was singing to the mailman now, as he’d become her audience.

“I would be your slave

I'd even be your fool

I'm so in love with you

I'm in love with you, baby

I'm gonna break every rule.”

The mailman gave her the finger. To clarify, he pointed to his ring finger showing her his wedding band on it, not his middle finger. Ironically, on that hand he didn’t actually have a middle finger at all due to a bad chainsaw accident.

She waved at him with a goofy expression and he drove off to deliver mail at the next house.

Mayflower was about to open the front door, but before she could, it opened from the inside and out ran a five year old boy with grape jelly all over his face.

“I’m out! I can’t stand it there anymore I’m going to go live with Aunt May! She’s more fun!”

He yelled back into the house. When he saw his aunt at the front step, he took a deep sigh.

“Finally! I thought you’d never make it, Aunt May! Mom wants me to clean my room on a Saturday!”

“Oh no, that’s super rough! I feel your pain little buddy. I should clean my room too… But if you get your room clean now, then I’ll take you and your sister to the mall and the arcade today!”

“Gnarly!”

Without another word, he ran back inside to his room to get it cleaned up since he had the proper motivation now.

Mandy, the oldest niece, who was almost a teenager, appeared at the door.

“Oh, hey, Aunt May! Want some breakfast?”

She nodded and came to the dining room. Her older sister had a baby on her hip and she was using a blender to make some fruit smoothies.

Aunt Mayflower kissed her sister on the cheek and grabbed the baby and snuggled the little baby who had nothing but a diaper on that needed to be changed.

The TV in the living room had an episode of The Golden Girls on but no one was watching it.

“Big sis, I was thinking I could take the two older kids to the mall and arcade for a bit today and let you have sometime to yourself after you put little stinky diaper down for a nap. That cool?”

“Oh yeah sure, but they gotta get their rooms cleaned up…”

Just then, little Phillip ran down the stairs yelling…

“Done! Room’s clean. Let’s go!”

Aunt May giggled at his enthusiasm. His mother rolled her eyes, as she was skeptical about the quality of the speedy room cleaning that he’d just supposedly completed.

Mandy took about fifteen more minutes and then slowly walked down the steps. She was too cool lately to rush and was starting to take longer for everything in life.

Aunt May and the two children walked to the mall which was about a mile and a half away. Phillip wore a bright pair of jelly shoes.

“When do you leave for your trip to India?”

Mandy asked her aunt, as they walked down the sidewalk.

“In two weeks I fly out.”

“You’ll have to take some cool pictures.”

“Oh, you know me, I will! Who knows maybe one day you guys can come with me on a trip overseas!”

The three of them made it to the mall and

Phillip picked out some Transformers figures that he was excited to play with.

Mandy chose a pair of new acid wash jeans that she planned to wear on her first day back to school.

The three of them enjoyed playing lots of arcade games together, including Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, and Frogger. They laughed and embraced the time with their fun-loving aunt who always enjoyed any opportunity to spoil them.