Two Girls 2

Erin, a college graduate put her dark brown hair into a ponytail and adjusted her white t-shirt. Clipboard in hand, she walked down Harrison Street and spotted a large brown house that casted a long shadow. She sauntered over to it and rang the doorbell. No one answered the door.

In desperation, she cupped her hands and yelled up, “I’m selling magazine subscriptions and I need you to subscribe to one.” Still, no one answered, so she tried knocking.

“Sir or ma’am I really need you to buy one. I have Vogue and Teen Vogue-” she shouted before she heard movement inside.

A girl in a bathrobe and slippers opened the door.

“Hello, I’m Erin. Would you like to buy some magazine subscriptions? I have-” she asked as the girl slammed the door.

Erin left the house and walked down the street. She thought, I need someone to buy a magazine subscription. Someone needs to buy one at the next house. She walked up to a brick

and rang its doorbell. A red-haired woman answered.

“Hello ma’am, I’m selling magazine subscriptions. Would you like to buy one?” Erin

asked with a smile.

“No,” the woman said before shutting the door.

She walked over to the house next door, a little blue cottage. She knocked on its dark blue door. A woman with black hair answered the door.

“Hello, I’m selling magazine subscriptions. Would you like to subscribe to one?” Erin asked.

“What magazines subscriptions do you have?” the woman questioned, arm behind her with a hand on the doorknob.

Erin flipped to the last page on her clipboard and read through a list of the subscriptions she sold.

The woman sighed and said, “I’ll take a Vogue subscription.”

“Okay that will be fifty dollars for a year subscription and I only accept checks,” Erin said as she put her hand out.

“Sure, let me get my checkbook,” she said as she turned around. She walked back inside and returned. She asked, “Who should I make it out to?”

“Oh, to United Magazines,” Erin said sternly.

The woman finished writing out the check, ripped it off, and handed it to Erin.

“Thanks. Your first issue will arrive in six weeks,” Erin said as she folded the cheek and shoved it in her back pocket.

Erin rushed from house to house on Harrison Street, but did not receive any more checks. When she neared the end of the street she decided to return home. She called her mom, but she didn’t pick up. She decided to walk home. She took a right and spotted the “N Crawford Ave” sign that jut off the telephone pole. She crossed through Central Street. She continued on North Crawford Avenue until she took a left on Wilmette Avenue. She arrived at her home and stepped inside to find her mother and father fighting.

“Why don’t you just leave then!” her father yelled.

“No, I love you. Why would I do that?” her mother said in a calm voice.

“I just want to sit and watch TV!” her father shouted back.

“That’s all you ever want to do! Why can’t we ever go out?” She screamed as she gestured her hands out as if she wanted more.

“Mom? Is this why you didn’t pick up when I called you?” Erin asked as she set her clipboard on a table in the hall.

“Erin, we’ll talk later,” her mother said as shooed her away.

Erin walked upstairs, showered, and got dressed for her other job. She sat on her bed and pulled out her laptop to search job sites. Two hours later, she looked at the clock on her laptop and it read, “3:30 PM”. She walked downstairs and found her mother in the kitchen baking.

“Hey mom, are you ready?” Erin said as she walked around the kitchen island.

“Ready for what? Oh,” her mom said as she removed a muffin tin from the oven. She grabbed her keys from the rack on the wall.

“Bye honey, I’ll see you in a little bit I have to bring Erin to work and stop by the grocery store,” she said to her husband.

“Yeah, uh-huh,” he said as he waved his hand.

They left the house and drove to the diner downtown. They arrived at Clarke’s Diner and her mother dropped her off. Erin walked in, folded her apron, and tied it around her waist. She grabbed a notepad and took the nearest customer’s order. She thought as she walked over, Is that Mom sitting at that booth? That is her.

“Hi, honey!” her mother said.

“What are you doing here?” Erin asked, eyebrows raised.

“I thought I’d pop in to check on you.” She looked down. “Plus, I need a break from your father.”

“Why do you need to get away for him?” Erin questioned as she returned her notepad to her apron pocket.

“All he does is watch TV,” her mother said, “it’s as if he’s avoiding spending time with me.”

“I don’t know. Anyways, what are you orderin’?” Erin asked as took her notepad back out.

“Oh, I’ll just have a coffee,” her mother said.

Erin rushed over to the kitchen and poured the pot of coffee into a mug. She rushed back to her mother to set her coffee on the table. Erin took more customers’ orders and returned to her mother’s table. Her mother paid for her coffee and left.

The diner closed and Erin left to wait for her mother’s arrival.

Later at home, she changed into pajamas then ate dinner at the kitchen island.

Her father muted the TV and asked, “So, how was work?”

“Good, at the start of my shift Mom stopped by and ordered a coffee.”

“Really?” her father replied.

“Yeah, we talked a little and-” She paused as her father unmuted the TV.

She returned to eating. I wonder why he doesn’t want to talk about her. He doesn’t even want to hear about her, she thought.

The next morning her mother woke her up to buy furniture for her new apartment. After getting ready, she walked downstairs to see a stack of pancakes and a plate of bacon and eggs set on the dining room table. Her mother turned on the faucet and tossed pans into the sink. She thanked her mother for making her breakfast. Her mother still in her robe scrubbed the pans and set them in the dishwasher. Erin walked over to hand her dirty plate to her mother, who then washed it. Her mother sighed and walked upstairs to change. Erin sat and scanned her Facebook newsfeed as she waited for her mother. In a matter of thirty minutes, her mother walked down the stairs in jeans and a red blouse.

“Erin, you ready?” her mother said as she stood in the doorway of the living room.

“Yes,” Erin said as she put on her cropped black leather jacket.

They walked to the car, Erin buckled her seatbelt, and her mother started the car. They then drove to IKEA in Schaumburg.

“What up with you and Dad or should I say what’s not going on between you two?” Erin questioned.

“Nothing,” she said before clenching her teeth.

“Come on, you can talk to me. What’s bothering you?” Erin asked.

“No,” her mother simply stated. She tried to focus on the road and not her daughter, but she got lost in her thoughts. She drove halfway over the double yellow line.

“Mom!” Erin yelled as she grabbed the steering to straighten the car. “What going on with you?”

Her mother shook her head to leave her daze. “Sorry I don’t know what came over me.”

“Well, I don’t think you should drive if your distracted,” Erin worried.

“I’m fine. I just need to focus,” her mother said as she stared at the road in front of her.

They arrived at IKEA, bought a bookcase, a TV stand, and a desk with little conversation.

A week passed and Erin continued to work nightly waiting tables at the diner. The Wednesday of next week her boss at United Magazines called and asked how many magazine subscriptions she sold. She told him seven. She explained him that for a few hours every morning she went door to door on an entire street in Evanston. He wanted her to get twenty subscriptions a week or he’d fire her.

Thursday night, all three of them ate dinner at the kitchen table together.

Her mother slammed her fist on the table. “I can’t take it anymore. I don’t care if Erin’s in the room to hear it,” she stuck her hand out at her husband, “but I want to spend time with you. Do you not love me anymore?”

Her husband only pulled out an N sound, before tears streamed down his wife’s face. She then stormed out of the house. Erin rushed after her, but she drove away too fast. Her father dropped his fork on the table, walked out, and drove off.

Erin stood in the hall, the front door ajar, and froze in place. What do I do now? Is she coming back? What about Dad? I guess I wait, she thought. She sat back down at the kitchen table and continued to eat. After she ate, she trudged upstairs to her room to think. Hours later, her mother returned, but her father did not.

Days after, she received a text from her father.

Dad: I’m not coming back.

Erin: Why not?

Dad: I’m just not.

Erin: But why? Where’d you go?

Dad: I’m at a friend’s house. You can come visit soon.

She told her mother about her dad, but she didn’t care. She thought this would happen or she’d be the one to leave and never come back.