Like most small, rural, townships in the mostly agricultural heavy south. The heart and soul of Benton was its Main Street. Here one could find just about anything one needed. And on this Monday morning both sides of the street were crammed full of parked cars and the sidewalks seemed almost bursting at the seams with people as they rushed from one shop to the other. Each little shop and boutique seemed to be filled with people. With the crowds spilling out onto the concrete sidewalks.

Main Street had everything one might need or want. If you needed some legal advice, there were one or two good law firms downtown that would be more than happy to take you on as their client. If you needed some screws, nails, bolts and all the odds and ends used for quick fixer-ups and projects around the house they had Brewer Hardware, family owned and operated since the town first drew breath. If you needed a pound of bacon, a pound of flour, canned goods of any kind, bread or just wanted to get a quick bite to eat. There was Potter Mercantile.

Let's say you wanted a special cut of meat, let say you wanted something more than the average run of the mill steak. Then you wanted to visit The Benton Butcher. An old world inspired butcher shop that specializes in locally raised and processed meats. Also Benton's only full line grocery store was located downtown. Sunflower Food Store, well known for hand breaded, crispy, golden brown fried chicken, a wide selection of meats, including fresh ground chuck. If you needed groceries, Sunflower was the store for you.

Let's say your soul needed to be saved. Well, you could find three mainline churches down in Benton, St. Mary's Episcopal Church, a pretty pink and white church that was befitting the name of the woman who birthed Jesus, All Saints Roman Catholic church, an handsome fire red brick church that serviced the small Catholic population of Benton. And finally Benton United Methodist. So, between those three you could be sure that your soul will be saved.

And if you needed to get your hair trimmed or styled for that big date on Saturday night Then you wanted to go to Pandora's Family Salon. And if your furry, four legged friend needed to get checked out, you could also pop in and visit Lisa Croft, owner of Croft Veterinary Clinic and head doctor. And if you needed a booster shot, well St. Johns Clinic was just a few doors down. In short, downtown Benton had everything you needed for a busy day on the town. It was the beating heart of the town.

All of these thoughts filtered through my head as mom and I stepped into the lobby of the main branch of The Bank of Yazoo City. Mom was dressed in a sky blue cotton dress that had short sleeves. I felt preppy that morning so I decided to go with a matching sky blue skirt and blouse. Both mom and I wore our hair in high ponytails. The woman sitting behind the wooden service desk raised her eyebrow and peered at us both.

“How can I help you ladies?” She said after a moment's pause.

Mom shifted her eyes toward me and gently pushed me toward the woman. I cleared my throat and took a deep breath. I hated talking to new people, it always put me on edge. I always felt like they were waiting for me to trip over my own words or say the wrong thing. Or that they were snickering at me behind my back. It made my blood boil and often made me see red.

“Yes ma'am.” I said blushing. “I would like to open a checking account with you. A checking and saving account.” I turned toward mom who nodded her head.

“Oh.” The woman said. “Sure we can do that. Just have a seat and somebody should be right with you.” She said pointing toward a small sitting area. I nodded my head. The woman had right out dismissed me, I felt like a pebble standing in the shadow of a massive rock. A massive rock that could just roll over at any moment and crush me and break my frail body into a million and one pieces. And the woman and not even bothered to ask me my name! No, she had just brushed me off with the causal ease one brushes off a fly. It made me feel bad, so mad. The woman did not seem to mind, instead she had returned to typing. I was about to say something, something that would no doubt have gotten me kicked out if mom had not stepped in and placed her hand upon shoulder and shook her head.

Sighing I nodded my head and followed mom into the sitting area. Thankfully only a few minutes passed before somebody else a man this time appeared in one of the doorways. He waved us back and soon I found myself sitting in a little side office.

“Good morning ladies.” He said with a small smile. “My name is John and I'm the new opening and closing account manager here.” His voice was smooth as silk. John was tall, tall for a man, and his shoulders were broad. He wore a white button down shirt and a pair of gray slacks. Everything about him seemed neat and well put together. My sour mood from before was starting to lift. As I peered into John's eyes. They were green or maybe gray, eyes a girl could get lost in. Then I noticed a small golden band on his hand. I felt myself starting to sigh. Here I was, swooning over a man twice my age and a married one at that. Man being a girl was so confusing at times.

“Yes.. my daughter here would like to open up an checking and saving account with you.” Mom then turned toward me, and I believe she noticed me starting to space out. Taking a deep breath she started to snap her fingers together. But I was too far gone, the train had left the station. I was dealing with emotions that I never thought I'd have to deal with. I mean, I was starting to wonder if I could charm him into the vault for some fun.. that thought bubble popped as soon as it surfaced.

“Anyway.” Mom it seemed had given up on pulling back to earth. “She going to a freshman next year. And I really want her to learn to manage her own money. I understand its going to a joint account till she turns seventeen. With that in mind, I would like a draft of forty dollars to placed on my account. I would like that forty dollars to be deposited into her account on the first of each month.” Mom said in a polite but forceful tone of voice.

The man nodded his head.

“Okay I'm going to need your daughters name, a social, and some form of I.D” He said.

At this point mom gave me a gentle push and I finally stopped my day dreaming.

“Lauren Elizabeth Huntington.” I spouted out a little too loud, because a dozen heads started to turn around and a dozen pairs of eyes just stared wide eyed at me, like I don't know, I just sprouted an extra head or something.

“Inside voice petal.” Mom said with a sign. “Remember you gotta use your inside voice. You're a big girl now, no need to yell. A lady only raises her voice as a last result. First she throws up her hands.” Mom paused as those last four words left her mouth.. “And only as a last result.”

I blinked and blinked again, Had mom really suggested throwing hands over using words. I never knew mom had that kind of backbone. Then again, from the stories her older brother and younger sister have told me. She was something of a firecracker in her younger days.
“Okay..” The man blinked a little. “Now we just need proof of address.” He said as he tapped the keyboard a few times. No doubt entering all my information into that great computer that tracks us all. “And we still need to be social.” He added as he peered toward the screen.

“Here you go.” Mom said as she handed over a recent bill, I think it was the internet, cable and phone bill from Sparklight, the company that provided our internet, cable and phone. Over to the man. “Proof of address.” And she then handed over a card. “And my daughters social.” The man nodded his head and entered the information into the computer. Though he did make a comment that made my ears perk up.

“So you guys live on Croft Street?” He inquired.

Mom and I nodded our heads in unison.

“Nice street. Strange things are supposed to happen on the street though. I remember growing up somebody always had a story about Croft Street. You know the woods behind those houses are supposed to be haunted. They say during the eighties a bunch of devil worshipers moved into those woods and built a bunch of stone altars. Lot of folks reported hearing chanting late at night and a lot of household pets went missing.” He said with a casual shrug of his shoulders.

Mom and I blinked and exchanged glances. But neither of us said anything.

“Anyway.” John said returning the social and the bill back to mom. “Give this machine a few minutes and..” A loud beeping could then be heard. “Oh I guess it's ready now, one moment please.” With that John pushed his chair back and stood straight up. He then left the room. He had a swagger to him, he walked with the air of a man who commanded the world and knew it. And I don't know why, but that drove me wild. I once more felt my flash flushing with color.

“Try not to drool petal.” Mom said, sighing. “And close your mouth too. You're not a fly trap. And allow me to give you a bit of friendly advice, one woman to another woman. I don't know about men, but women tend to frown on poaching. Now, a married woman would only be slightly annoyed, maybe even flattered by the signs you were giving off. A girl in high school would knock your block off your head. Or worse, cut your ponytail off. Women are a lot crueler than men sometimes.”

I blinked and blinked again.

“I'll give you an example. Men often use their fist to settle their differences. It's expected of them. We're in the deep south. And as such chivalry still does exist in one form or another. A man is expected to hold the door open for a woman. He's expected to hold her books, he's expected to pay for dinner. And he's expected to settle his differences with his fellow males out in the field, in front of his peers. With the main choice of weapons being his fist.” Mom paused. “Or in some cases pocket knifes.”

I nodded my head again. I was not expecting this. In fact this is the last thing I expected.

“Girls on the other hand, have other weapons. It's frowned upon for a woman to slap another woman. So instead they use words. I'll give you an example, a girl who hates another girl will gossip behind her back and spread rumors about her. She might even try to turn that girls friends against her.”

I blinked and blinked. It all seemed so savage and unreal to me. I mean, I always thought girls got along with each other. You rarely saw them fight or bicker like boys do. Then again I was aware of the classic mean girl trope, and I've seen enough teenage movies, for example Heather's, Carrie, and It. To know girls did bully other girls mostly by calling them names such as Slut, Bitch, and Dyke. But I thought that was just in the movies, something some trillion dollar Hollywood director had dreamed up.

I was just about to say something when John returned with my new checking card. He handed the card to me and I quickly slipped it into my wallet. Mom and I then left John, since he had other business to attend to. We then left the bank and walked a few doors down to the town's dentist office. Mom got her teeth cleaned first and then I got mine cleaned. Nothing special their. Nothing to really write home about. I mean nothing I write in my diary or anything.

Anyway, once we got our teeth cleaned. Mom stopped by Joanna's and got a quick bite to eat. We both decided on the chicken tender basket. It was more than we could eat, the chicken tender basket came with six dinosaur size tenders and a mountain of golden, brown, crinkle cut french fries, that were golden on the brown on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. A king size piece of toast finished the basket off along with a huge soda . It was pure heaven.

Mom and I ate in silence though. I think both of us were just too tired to talk, and sometimes silence is golden. Once we finished our lunch, mom deemed it was time to finish off her day. It was a quarter past noon and mom I think was ready for her afternoon nap. But then I remembered I had some books that needed to be returned. And so, grunting something mom agreed to swing by the library. Of course she gave me strict instructions to just drop the books off, pick up a few new ones and leave. I could tell she was ready to get back to the house and take a late afternoon nap. Could always tell when she was getting tired, her normal facade of collective calmness started to slip away and she started to become snippy and the slightest annoyance would set her off on a rampage that could only be compared to a thirty something year old woman throwing a massive fit.

But being very aware that this woman held the powers to ground me or even spank me, caused me to keep my mouth shut. Mom had threatened me once or twice with spanking when my mouth had gotten the best of me. And as I often did from time to time. It had never moved past that, a threat. Anyway, true to my word I dipped in and placed the books in the wire basket that was marked “Returns” when a voice called out to me.

“Hey Lauren!” The voice called out, it was a friendly voice. A very southern voice. I spun quickly around to greet the person who had called out to me, and there standing in the doorway that lead to the Children's/Young Adult section was Madeline. She wore a coal black pencil skirt, a cream colored blouse and her long brunette hair was tied back in a tight bun.

“Perfect timing girl, we just got some manga in. Like our manga section is expanding by leaps and bounds. Hard to believe a town this small will have a manga section. Then again it's hard to believe a town this size would have like half the stuff we have.” Madeline said with a smile. “ Though I remember when I first came here about three and a half years ago. This town was really small. It's grown though, some in population, and some in business. It's really starting to boom. Like I've seen some seeds that were planted back when I was a freshman already starting to bear fruit.”

I blinked. And blinked again. I was not sure how to take Madeline's random musing.

“Anyway, I just wanted to drop by and say, '' I'm sorry about what happened Saturday. I know you were looking forward to playing the role of Dotty. And even though there was a chance of rain, I totally did not expect that storm to slam into us the way it did. I was hoping that the storm would swing to the right of us, you know blow right across the Yazoo Ridge Line and then pass over Vicksburg and then right across the Mississippi River into Louisiana. Instead it blew right up the mouth of the Big Black River and drove right into us. And I think it dropped a good sixteen or so inches of rain. I think some of the field's my sister planted in Soybean's went under. The ones that are near the edge of Wilson and Short creek flooded out big time. And for a moment I thought our backyard was going to go under. I know Cerridwen said the bridge that connects the Hallow with the Highway got flooded out.”

Madeline paused at that point and sighed.

“Anyway I wanted to ask you something.” She paused. “But first let me start from the beginning. My older sister, who is kind of like my mom, is going to be putting on a summer party at our family farm. The whole town's invited out. We're going to have home-made ice cream, plenty of barbecue, hmm we're going to have games too and have special events. I think maybe a pie eating contest. I know for sure we're going to have a huge firework display at the end. Anyway, I was wondering if you would like to volunteer for something. We need a volunteer to work the 'Pie Toss' and normally I'll get one of my friends to do it, but Cerridwen's leaving for the gulf coast today. Jamie and Lily are busy helping with the food stuff. I'm kind of tied up playing hostess. Taylor's in the Hospital with a really bad case of Hay Fever. So.. could you volunteer?”

I blinked and blinked again. Madeline had just vomited a huge stream of words up on me. And I was still processing them.

“Sure.” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “I'll volunteer.”

“Thank you!” Madeline said rushing toward me, she quickly threw her arms around me and gave me and pulled me close to her. I could feel her breast pushing into my chest. I blushed, it was strange getting a hug from a total stranger. But then again in the south we love to hug. “You are a total lifesaver for me!”

And that was that, I dropped off the books, picked up a few new ones and darted out to the car. And that was that.

To be continued.