Violet
Boredom takes on a whole new meaning in the month of transition from
summer to winter. Especially when you live in a tourist town, and especially when
you help run your parents shop said tourist town.
There are still some people wandering around, those who don’t have to hold to the normal work patterns or average school hours, but with most of them heading back to their normal lives, the lull in the afternoon is absolutely killer.
I’ve been helping run Palmer’s Knickknacks since I was a little girl. My parents
opened it to sell interesting items from all over the world, since they couldn’t afford
to really do the traveling, they took to finding the items online and bringing them
here to sell to all the willing tourists that visit Aspen.
Now that the store is successful and people come to Aspen just to find the
goods, they can afford to do the traveling and go off on adventures all over the
place.
My parents are what you might call... eccentric. OK, I’ll just be blunt about it.
Hippies.
They are total hippies.
My mother believes in earth-walking and the medical miracles of Mary, Jane, and Anna. My dad believes that science is somewhat of a crock and you should rely on the spirits of the world to guide you.
I wouldn’t go so far as to label myself as a hippie. As much as I love my parents, it’s just not the kind of lifestyle for me. For one thing, I love shoes. It’s kind of a problem. I
have about twenty pairs of Vans shoes in my closet that I switch out every day. If I
had a more exciting life, one where social wasn’t just going down to the movie
theater with my two best friends or going through the outlet malls (where all the
shoes come from), I would own heels.
Now, I’ve never exactly worn heels— I know, what twenty-six-year old hasn’t
worn heels— but I do admire them.
In high school, I had a secret scrapbook all dedicated to cutouts of shoes. My obsession started young. And I always loved the way that women could rule their days and balance in icicles at the same time. Bad. Ass.
It was something that I hid from my parents, not that they gave much care.
While they were good parents, they were the opposite of helicopter parents. By
the time I was twelve, I knew how to make myself five different meals, do my
laundry, and almost all my homework without help. Thankfully that last part came
fairly easy to me.
My parent didn’t have me until they were in their forties, which nowadays isn’t
all that abnormal, but back in the nineties it was a big deal. What was an even
bigger deal is everyone we were related to were completely shocked that mom
and dad decided to have a baby, to which they replied, “We were just as surprised
as you are!”
Yeah, that was me. An oops baby. Thankfully, my parents never made me feel
unwanted. They loved me— sometimes a little too much.
“Viiiiiiolet, my dear!” My mom sings herself into the main part of the shop where
I’m sitting at the counter, balancing their books. I hate doing it, but between them
and me, it’s a better choice for me to be in charge.
Her hair is down and wild as always, it’s long enough to reach the top of her
butt and because she’s never once touched it with hair spray or a curling iron, it’s
healthy as ever. Mine isn’t bad but it suffered through high school right along with
my ‘I wanna fit in’ self. “Hey mom.”
“Darling, what are you doing inside? The day is beautiful! It’s time to get out and
smell the fresh fall air!” From the excited way she’s speaking, I can tell she has
been into her ‘medicine’ a little earlier than usual today. She almost made it to ten
in the morning. Go Mom.
“I wasn’t sure where you and dad were so I’m looking over the books. Figured
I’d watch the store.” Not that it matters, we haven’t had anyone come looking for
knickknacks today.
“Go on then, I’m here. Get some vegan fro-yo or something.” Vegan fro-yo.
What a contradiction.
I decide to take her word for it and quickly gather my faux-leather bag, heading
out into the cooling air. Down on the foothills, it’s still on the warmer side of things
but up here this high in the mountains I’m starting to feel that cool air much faster.
It makes me so excited for sweaters and boots.
Despite the fact that my mom and dad are hardcore vegans, I indulge in the
occasional dairy and meat products. They know this, but pretend that I don’t. I put
Up with it when I eat dinner with them but it’s not very often that I do. Than again, the
last time I went over to their house, I found them in compromising positions and I’m not
looking to do that anytime soon.
My roommate Amy and I usually take turns cooking dinner. She works at one of
the local lodges, and only has a full-time position because her parents happen to
own that one. Amy could easily afford a place on her own but thankfully she loves me and agreed to share a place so that I could afford to move out of my parents house.
Hands grab my sides from behind me and I squeal trying to move away from
them, I spin and find Hudson, my other best friend laughing so hard he can barely control himself. “Hud! You jerk!”
“I’m sorry—” he says between laughs. “It’s just too easy.”
“That’s the fifth time this week!” It’s becoming a bad habit really.
“Maybe that tells you how unaware you are of your surroundings.” He lifts a
brow.
“I’m perfectly aware of my surroundings, thank you very much. Right now I’m surrounded by a jerk.”
“Mhmm.” He throws an arm over my shoulder and leads us to the coffee shop
down the road. Hudson joined Amy and I’s little clique in high school. We’ve all
been friends for years even when we all went somewhere different for college. We
expected to never come back here, but somehow we all slowly found ourselves back in our hometown.
Hudson’s a talented photographer. His thing is nature and animals in the wild
so he’ll leave for long stretches of time to places practically unknown and we
never know when he’s coming back. For now, he’s on a two week break home to
make prints and settle accounts where he sells his work. Three galleries in Aspen
alone sell his stuff.
“How’s the land of knicks and knacks?” He orders us both a coffee and we go
Dutch. If there’s one thing we all agree on is; we always split our bills when we go
out. No questions of who owes who what.
“Oh you know, it’s good.” My false cheer doesn’t convince him.
“Vi, come on.” Hudson and Amy know that I don’t want anything to do with the
store, it’s not bad, really. It’s just that I’ve always wanted to be a sculptor. The
question has always been; sculptor of what.
The town is full of all different types of art from all over the place, from locals to some of the best artists in the world. I’ve always been into art and clay just worked for me. I sell some of my mugs and different things at the shop, but past that, I’ve never been able to push myself to do what I really want, which was start my own art studio.
“Okay, I admit. It’s a bit slow right now.” Our coffees come up quick and we both
doctor them how we like them. The best part about this place is they serve their
coffee in real mugs, it makes the experience so much better.
When we’re done, we each plop down on overstuffed chairs that are tucked in a corner. Since the town is more cleared out than not, its easy to get the best seats in the house at any given time. I’ll miss it when busy season comes up.
“When are you going to start dating?”
Hudson’s questions makes me pause my mugs ascent. “Dating?”
“Yeah, dating. You know, you meet a guy— or girl?” He raises a brow in
question.
“Still no.”
He shrugs. “Anyway, you meet for dinner or drinks. Discuss art or hobbies or
movies or what-the-fuck-ever and you bone.”
I choke on my saliva. “Jeez, Hud. We’re in public.”
“Don’t be such a prude. How is it your mother raised you?” It’s a valid question.
My mother is anything but subtle when it comes to ‘pleasuring your partner’, for a
while I didn’t know what she was talking about. Then middle school turned into
high school and... I wished I didn’t know what she was talking about.
“I don’t know. I block it out.”
“Seriously, Vi, you need to get out. Socialize.”
“I socialize.” I defend weakly. “You and Amy and I just went to dinner like three
nights ago.”
“Amy and I don’t count.”
“What?” I scoff. “You guys count.”
“Okay, fine, we count. As socializing with friends. I’m talking about the more
than friends category.”
“Amy doesn’t date...”
“Amy’s dad is a piece of shit who thinks he can talk her into an arranged marriage. She would if she could.”
“Well, what about you?” I counter saucily, tossing a piece of hair behind my shoulder and looking into his bright green eyes. Hudson was a handsome guy with beautiful bronzed skin and short cropped hair that he normally covers with a beanie. It’s kind of his thing.
He gives me a look. “Do you really wanna know?”
“Err...”
“I don’t mind telling you. Her name was Sally and she was blonde, and boy, did
she have the biggest set of—”
I raise my hand. “Okay! Okay! Never mind.”
He laughs at my discomfort, leaning back in his chair with his coffee. “What? I was gonna say eyes!”
“Sure you were.”
“In all seriousness though, I just want you to get out there. To really meet someone and be happy.”
“I’m happy, Hudson.”
“Are you?”
“Yes.”
He sighs. “Okay, Vi. I’m not trying to push. It’s just you haven’t dated anyone
since Dave and he was a real piece of work.”
Flinching, an unwanted montage of Dave filters through my mind. He was my
art school boyfriend and someone who I thought was going to be long term. Turns
out, the guy was not only with my just for my artistic skills, but he happened to have
not one but two side pieces. It didn’t end well and my confidence was shook. Guys
lying is a hard limit for me.
Then again, isn’t it a hard limit for everyone?
“I’m fine. I’ll find... somebody. Someday.” I can tell I don’t convince Hudson by
the look on his face. By the time we go our separate ways, Hudson’s little talk with
me is on the front of my mind.
I want to find someone. That’s true. I just don’t even know where to start. Dating
isn’t easy, and finding someone genuine, someone with good intentions, or even
just intentions to try to be a good, supportive partner is hard to do.
As much as I want it, it’s not like some guy will just magically appear.
Part 3 comes next week and our MC's finally meet!