Trailer Without Travel

After running the gauntlet, David Roper was able to settle in at the built-in table located at the front of the trailer.  It served many functions, that old table and sofa up front.  It was where he and Mama ate their meals, and it was where he studied and worked on his game.  It was folded up like a built-in ironing board at night, the sofa sleeper pulled out, and it became his bedroom.

He sighed heavily as he got out his gaming materials and tried to focus on his next step in his invention process.  He wished it was easier to get to the trailer than what it was.  But there was always one or more of them hanging out in front of their trailers and they were impossible to get by without being razzed and hassled.

Today he hit the perfect storm.  First there were Skipper Reese, skinny little Skipper, chain smoking and in a foul mood, calling him Ropey Roper Four Eyes, and asking him if he was gonna go blind with all that useless reading.  Then Susi Kapok and Frenchy Candor started teasing him as if they liked him, asking if he wanted to come party at their trailer.  He knew better than to fall for that.  The one time he fell for it, they took his pants off, booted him from the trailer, and laughed at him as he tried to run home in his underwear. Then there were the Gorland twins, who would corner him and ask for money.  He would just give it to them, even carried a Gorland "dollar" with him for just the occasion.  The one time he had refused, they turned him upside down and shook it out of him.

Not everyone was nasty.  Dona Cooper was kind, even came to his trailer once and played scrabble with him, drinking root beer and eating popcorn.  She was two grades behind him in school, but she was intelligent and curious.  Dona was plump but not obese, attractive but battling with frequent acne outbursts.  She was kind and friendly, and a great relief from the behavior of most of the kids in the trailer park.

Of course, it wasn't supposed to be called a trailer.  It was a mobile home, or to be even fancier, a manufactured home.  But where he and his Mama lived could hardly be called anything but a trailer.  It was a 19 foot Holiday Rambler from the eighties, one of the smallest in the "mobile home park."  When Mama broke away from Daddy, this was the best she could do, a travel trailer that her grandparents had.  At the time, it was more important that she leave than that she gather the financial resources to find something better.

He scattered out the materials he was using to create his game, To Crown A King, his own invention that combined board games, cards, and role playing.  There were no more video game systems, nothing but Scrabble, Monopoly and an old rabbit-eared television that occasionally pulled in a Jacksonville station.  But that was okay.  He loved to read and imagine, and his game idea had gripped him like a bird dog tracking a quail.  He laughed at the thought.  The game was like his "Holy Quail."

He was lost in the game for an unknown amount of time (all sense of time vanished when he was designing) when his Mama came in.  She was carrying two bags of groceries (plastic bags - the days of choosing paper or plastic were long since over) and he came over to help her.  He was not so deeply engrossed that he would forget to help his Mama.  Not David Roper.  No, he would not forget that. 

He noticed that she was teary eyed.  "What happened, Mama?" he asked her, genuinely concerned.  The last few months had been very hard on her.  Their change in lifestyle often overwhelmed her.  Just when she thought she was getting used to it, something new would happen to throw her back into depression.

Mama sat down at the table, slumping sadly, wiping her tears away with a tissue.  She was dressed smartly, in a blue pant suit, with moderately high heels on her feet, wearing a nice necklace and her best earrings.  She had been job hunting that afternoon, and looked good except for the runny makeup around her eyes.  "I'll be alright, David.  Just a hard day.  I had no luck finding a job, although Gariton Hollander had been nice at the CPA office.  He promised that they would keep me in mind if another opening came up."

"That's good news, Mama.  It's a good thing they'll keep you in mind."  Mama had been Daddy's bookkeeper for his contracting business.  She had no degree, but did have practical experience.  It had been six months since she left him.  Six long, hard months.  The Austen House, a halfway house for women who were trying to leave abusive situations had been helpful, but they had to learn to set things up on their own. 

"I-I w-w-as in the checkout line, and this woman was staring at me.  I smiled at her and she said, 'Nice jewelry and clothes for somebody using food stamps'. "  Mama put her head on my shoulder and started to sob.  "I just wanted to crawl into a hole and die."

David didn't know what to say.  He just continued to hold her until the sobbing started to subside.

Maybe moving to Crowley was a mistake.  Maybe the people here were just too uncaring to stay.  Or maybe every place was just like Crowley. 

For every Dona Cooper and Gariton Hollander, there seemed to be a dozen people like that woman in the grocery store. and the bullying kids at the mobile home park.

But he would soothe his Mama and build her back up.  They would find a way to make it work.  They had too.

They had no other choice.