Two female bus passengers sat down next to me while I rode the bus to my first day on a new consulting gig. Despite your notion of freelancing being free the first day is always nerve-wracking because the whole game is to not have to be trained for the job which is why people hire you as a freelancer, so you just have to start doing the work immediately without any sweet two-week orientation schedule. So I was anxious. The lady who sat down next to me was large, and she took up more than one seat, which forced me to look up and see her smiling sweetly. She had facial hair and was talking to a younger lady who was standing next to her in the aisle.
Younger lady:
You sendin your daughters to sleepaway camp?
Older lady:
No. I'm sendin my daughter to my mother's house for a minute. You sendin yours?
Younger lady:
I'm not sendin the little one but the older one.
Older lady:
They don't want to go!
Younger lady:
Oh she wanna go! She be tryin to get away from me. She be goin online and talkin bout me.
Older lady:
She be talkin bout you online?
Younger lady:
You know I may be movin out of state soon. So I told her, you going to go stay at your aunt's house if I be moving out of state cause I don't want to disrupt her by makin her leave her school in the middle of her sophmore year of high school, you know. And she said, "Can I go to auntie's house a year early?" And I be like, you don't even know what you're askin for cause if you think your life'll be easier at my sister's house you'll see, she be stricter than me! Ha, ha.
Older lady:
She don't like you?
Younger lady:
My daughter be goin on Facebook and sayin, "I don't want to live with her, I hate my mom, she don't let me do anything."
Older lady:
What she wanna do?
Younger lady:
She wanna be out on the street after school, instead of home. Ohh, you remember that little NayNay who be fightin with me when she come over to visit my daughter? Well I heard from her the other day, she called me, and I don't know why cause I don't like her and she knows that after she came over and caused those problems with me and my daughters. She be saying, "Miss, I saw your daughter today in the park and she was with boys and there was dirt on her knees." And I said to myself, well, let me just see. What she tryin to insinuate now? Dirt on her knees? "Well she was with some boys and then she went and hid with one of the boys and then she came back and there was dirt on her knees. I don't know." So I say to myself, okay, let me just find out what happened. I'll ask my younger daughter because she was with my older daughter in the park and you KNOW she's a tattletale.
Younger lady:
So I asked my younger daughter. I said, "What's up? What did you do today?" And she said, "Oh, mommy, we was in the park and we was playin, and some boys came, and we was playin' with the boys. They was askin' us do we like so and so or so and so and we was havin' fun mommy!" So I asked her, "Did Shenia go off and hide with one of the boys?" And she said, "No she didn't go off and hide. Who would watch me? I ain't stayin in no park by myself."
Younger lady:
So I said, well why did Shenia get dirt on her knees? And my daughter said, "Oh mommy they was playin. Shenia said to those boys that she don't like so and so and so they was draggin her all over the ground. They was laughing! It was funny mommy." I asked her what they talked about in the park. She tell me oh this singer and if we like so and so. So I ask her, does Shenia go with any boys? Who does she like? And she said she doesn't know, that Shenia don't go with no boy. So I said to myself, she ain't goin off and hidin with no boys. Why is this little thing callin me and tellin me stories like this?
Older lady:
She got something wrong up in her head.
Younger lady:
I could hear a small voice on the phone when she be callin me, sayin, "Shenia don't like me, she ain't nice." And then this other little thing get on the phone, she say, "Shenia got fresh with me today. I went to talk to her about my problem and she be tellin me not to talk to her because she don't care for me so she don't want to talk to me about my situation. She got fresh with me today. I want to be friends with her but she say she don't care for me."
Younger lady:
I know. Why is she calling me and tellin me Shenia be hiding with a boy in the park? I think she's just tryin to get my attention.
Older lady:
There's something wrong with her. There's something extremely wrong with her.