House Vignette

My house is like a Lego fort we kept on finding pieces for. We have always had the foundation but the kitchen came later. Riping out the old yellowing and facek wood my father replaced with cherry and oak. The tiles like a hop scotch around the island of sinks and dishwashers. Then the dinning room to family room was found hiding between two paintings in the garage. Bt before all that we could see the TV from the hallway by our rooms. Mom always sent us to bed at the same time even if we weren't tired and the sun was still awake. So we always snuck out with blankets and pillows to watch TV from 20 feet away. And thats how she would find us every night. Asleep in a row at the hall enterence.

That hallway got so much use from us. Zack used to take his mattress and stand it up so it created a barrier and then we would run at it and try to climb before it fell. But one time it got to close to the light in the ceiling and shattered it. Angry mom always put an end to that game. But she would always start a new one at the beach with a smile and a half deflated tube.

Photo Vignette

They always say 'Smile now, no not that way.' But this time I got it right. No more do agains. Besides Abigail's knees are boney. Zack and lizzy strain against their seat belts to get in the picture. Mom is turned all the way around with the camera like an owl in a tree. Lizzy was the one not smiling big enough this time. Dad makes us laugh. But shes been to cool to laugh now-a-days. Abigail and Zack still laugh when I put mudd cookies on Mom's bed and bring frogs to live in my room. Its to dark to look outside anyways. Just to see the trees. Sleeping is boring anyways. Dads stories are the best. Like the ones about the stuffed man he dragged across the road to scare drivers or the one about jumping off the roof into their pool in the summertime.

Name Vignette

My name means pleasant like some kind of blue. The number 5 - and winter. My mother chose the name first for my eldest sister, Elizabeth. But grandma Athena had her hand in that pot.

No grandchild of mine will have that name- she said.

So the first child was Eizabeth and the next Zack. And the next Abigail, another biblical name.

Once she had me, Athena was overwhelmed.

Shouldn't have raised you Cathloic- She would say under her breath as she hastily put her rosary back into her apron picket. Like the sight of Mother Mary would make another baby grow.

So my mother named me Naomi, pleasant calm. And average day. Average temperature. Average sky. Average life.

But to me, my name feels like it is unable to age. like it is supposed to be used by some heroine who dies young and is never able to have her years on this earth written on her face.