Name: kay_brooke
Story: Unusual Florida
Colors: Gold #6 (the easiest way for your children to learn about money is for you not to have any), Seafoam #2 (menu)
Styles/Supplies: Canvas
Word Count: 605
Rating/Warnings: PG-13; no standard warnings apply
Summary: Seasons in the Williamson house.
Note: Constructive criticism is welcome, either through comments or PM. Last Gold.


Summer is best.

The house is deserted during the day--Kristie’s tan-lined, sandaled feet haunting the fields and dirt trails outside of town, turning up at Hook’s Pharmacy in the late afternoon to drop a handful of quarters in the Coke machine to wash the dust out of her throat; Sam’s sketchbook growing fuller at the library; both of them home for dinner by the time the sun goes down.

Their father leaves when the sun rises, off to landscaping jobs, plentiful when the weather is nice. And their mom, down to part-time because the factory doesn’t need receptionist work when it’s operating at half-capacity, sits on the back lawn and reads, or goes out to coffee with friends. It’s easy, in the summer.

#

Autumn sees the beginning of school, Kristie shuffling reluctantly off in her sister’s old clothes, Sam counting down the minutes until lunch and drawing time in the school’s courtyard. The pollen is always bad there in the fall, aggravating allergies, and most kids avoid it even when the weather is nice. Some of Sam’s best work is done there, with the hazy sun beating down and silence ringing off the concrete.

The landscaping work trickles down to raking and yard clean-ups, and then to nothing as summer fades into the distance. But Christmas is just around the corner, and their mom gets as much overtime as she wants while the factory frantically pumps out what it needs for that most consumer-friendly of seasons. They all still meet for dinner, now in the dark as the days grow shorter, and with more grumbling about homework.

#

Winter is the worst.

After the holidays, the factory slows to a halt. No one buys anything in January, not after the bills start coming in. There is no landscaping when the grass is brown and dead and sometimes covered with a thin layer of snow (not common as far south as they are, but it does happen).

Colds and flus and pinkeye float through the school air, and Kristie and Sam just have to be careful because there’s no money for doctors or medicine. Sometimes when it frosts the power goes out, and they have to huddle under blankets. Sometimes they can’t afford to turn the heat on at all. Their dad jokes about moving further south, and his words fall leaden to the ground.

Dinner is more sporadic; Sam and Kristie stock up on what they can from the free school lunch, and their mom makes a lot of soup and ramen noodles.

#

Spring comes like a breath of fresh air. Sam and Kristie both have birthdays in April, and that’s always good for a bit of money from Grandma out in South Dakota. Sam hoards hers, tucking the well-worn bills in the back of a photo album where she thinks Kristie can’t find it. Kristie spends hers on what she can, Cokes and candy and hamburgers after a winter of cheap starch. Sometimes she even steals from the photo album that her sister doesn’t know she knows about, but only a dollar here and there, where Sam might notice it’s gone but convince herself she just miscounted the last time.

Landscaping starts up again, demands pouring in after winter left lawns wrecked and crying for new fertilizer. Their mom plans her garden, and Kristie helps. Finals come and school winds to a close.

There is dinner again every night, and the trees are green and the days longer, and their mom opens a window so they can all hear the crickets getting an early start on their summer song. And the good times start again.