tales from new plymouth

i was eight years old and had just moved to new plymouth. it was the beginning of the year and we were all handed these wrapping papers to sell as a fundraiser for the school. it's not compulsory to sell them but it was my first month there and i didn't want to lose face. thinking back would an eight year old even know about face? i ask my parents to buy some but they decline, and suggest i try selling it to the neighbours. thinking back what parents let their child go door knocking sans halloween? so i go out and start door knocking asking whether people wanted wrapping paper.

i walked and walked door to door, before you know it i'm down some green valley with no direction of where i am. i knock on the door of a very nice house and an old lady opens up and greets me with her wrinkly smile, she asks me what i'm doing and i tell her i'm selling wrapping paper for my school, she chuckles and asks me to come in and i do. but i regretted doing so as soon as i stepped in. she gently shuts the door, then heads down the hall way while asking me whether i'd like some tea or coffee, i have no idea what they are so i reply 'no thank you', but she says, 'surely you must sit down' or something along those lines, words that invite you to their kitchen.

i look around and the house is so very nicely decorated, so lovely was the interior my mind starts to twist. i use to read all these fables of the west when i was growing up and one of them was about two siblings who get captured and fed by this evil old lady who plans to eat them. i start panicking and i didn't move from my spot near the door, i thought about rushing out, but she might be really fast or have a broomstick. so i freeze, just standing there while creating this elaborate tale of how i might die in my mind. she comes back down the hallway with her smile and keeps trying to shuffle me in the house more, i don't move a muscle because i'm scared.

she looks a little upset and goes away and comes back with her purse. she asks me how much for the wrapping papers and i tell her. she buys the whole lot and hands me the money. i say thank you and she opens the door for me, i walk out slowly but i start running as soon as i pass the front gates. thinking back the old lady was probably lonely and i wish i had stayed for a little while. funny how when you are a child your mind can run so far off the map.

when i am sad i stop being sad and be something else

the other day i was hanging out with my lover, we decided to get pizza for dinner, i wanted to eat it on the lawn outside the state library. but he didn't want to, because it was cold. i said i really wanted to, so he smiled his smile and agreed. we walked to lygon st and went to the first pizza place we saw, because we had walked a lot that day and didn't want to walk much further. the man at the restaurant said hi and we said hello. he asked us what we wanted and charlie chose, he then asked me if i wanted to pick another half. i picked tropical. i like my pizzas with not too many toppings and charlie likes pineapple. the man said 'you kids look like good kids, i give you special.' i laughed a little and commented he must have been having a good day. he looked at us and waved his arms into the air, 'everyday is a good day! you make it beautiful.' i smiled. i thought of charlie because he hadn't been having too many good days lately. the man continued, 'even if other people upset you, at the end of the day, it is yours and you make it beautiful. okay?'. i nodded as if knowing that was the greatest.