Fight to the Top

by S. L. Gape

  “Georgia?”

  “Yes?” she said looking at her.

  “While that was kinda nice, bar you referring to my daughter like she was some kind of monkey at the zoo that people come watch at ‘feeding times’. Do you always over speak? Is it a British thing? That was so long winded,” she said, shaking her head.

  Erika pulled into the service station, checking her gas. She looked up at the restaurant chain turning her nose up. “Hey,” she whispered. “Let’s stop somewhere better when she wakes up, I’m not eating here,” she said.

  “Ohhh, you’re such a snob. Yeah, I’m easy. That’s fine, but do you mind if I go first? I’m desperate,” she said.

  “Sure go. Oh, and Georgia?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I know you said you don’t really do much but work, but if and when you do, you really should stop saying to everybody that you’re easy. Guys will take that as the green light over here,” she said, smirking.

  Georgia went to say something, but stopped. It wasn’t really appropriate. She shook her head and grabbed her purse, running across to the toilets.

  ***

  Georgia had been driving for a while, and they were very tedious roads here. Luckily, she had found a great radio station in Erika’s car with lots of great old eighties’ and nineties’ tunes. It was unfortunate that she wasn’t able to turn it up loud and sing her heart out. Very difficult, with two snoozers in the car with her. She was humming along to a song quietly, tapping along to the wheel and eating a Twizzler.

  “When did you start driving, Georgia? You weren’t driving before. Watcha eating? Is that candy? Can I have some please? Can we put Frozen music on please?” she said all in one breath.

  Oh shit, Georgia thought to herself. She looked over to Erika, who was sleeping in the chair with her earphones in. Bollox, she thought. She didn’t know the answer to these questions. Was she allowed sweets? And dear god, she really couldn’t cope with anymore Frozen. Erika was right, this kid was obsessed. Okay, she could do this. Maybe? Hopefully. Josh always said that kids were fickle, so maybe that would work.

  “Hey, you?” she said, looking into the rear-view mirror. “How was your sleep? You okay? We need to speak quiet, your mummy’s asleep,” she said. Did you have good dreams?” She wondered if kids her age actually even had dreams.

  “Yuh huh. I dreamt that I was a mermaid and swimming with the dolflins?” she said eagerly. “Georgia, can I have some candy please? I’m hungry,” she said.

  “The ‘dolflins’ ehy? Wow, I’d love to swim with them ‘dolphins’ too,” she smirked. “Hey, Dulcie, are you allowed to eat sweets?”

  “What’s sweets?”

  “Candy.”

  “Yep, my momma lets me eat it when I want to. I love the red pencils, but my favouritist is the blues ones, or the spotty ones that make my tongue feel funny,” she said.

  Georgia found that hard to believe with how Erika came across. But she seemed to know an awful lot about Twizzlers, so she’d just hope for the best, and handed her one.

  “Umm, be careful with how you eat it okay?” she said concerned. Desperately willing Erika to wake up now, in case she had done something wrong.

  A new song came on. A song that took her back to her childhood. Late summer evenings playing out late with her brother and sister. Georgia was very reactive to the song, enjoying the reminiscing and dancing along to the sounds.

  “Is this your favourite song? What’s it called? You dance funny,” Dulcie said.

  “I don’t dance funny, I’m restricted because I’m driving,” she said, looking back to her. It’s called ‘Summer of Sixty-Nine’, and it’s a great song. It reminds me of being outside late with my brother and sister playing games,” she said enthusiastically.

  “I wish I had brothers and sisters. I don’t got any,” she said sadly.

  “Well, it’s not always great ya know? Plus, you’re still only young, maybe you will have some one day.”

  “I doubt it. My momma moved out. But, we are going to Nonna’s house. And there I have lots of cousins; cousins are mommy’s brothers’ and sisters’ children’s. I got lots of those, because mommy has lots of brothers and sisters,” she said lengthily.

  “Right okay,” she said concerned by the child’s words. No wonder Erika was so stressed. If she’s moved out of her house and left her husband she does need this job. Clearly that’s why she wanted to move back home. “So, are you excited to go and see your cousins?”

  “Yep, my mommy said that I needed to go to Nonna’s while she has to work and then I can see all my cousins and then my Nonna too. We can bake cookies and play games. I love my Nonna,” she said lovingly.

  Georgia couldn’t help but be drawn to the little girl. She had barely spent this much time with her own nieces, but Dulcie certainly was entertaining. “Wow, how exciting. I wish I could come do that.”

  “Well you can. We have enough cookies. My Nonna would let you,” she confirmed.

  Georgia and Dulcie spent a short while dancing along to the music and eating sweets together, before Erika eventually woke up.

  “Hey,” Erika said embarrassed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sleep that long. You should have woken me when she woke up,” she said seriously.

  “It’s fine. We’ve been getting to know each other, plus your daughter is now fully acquainted with ‘real’ music. We’ve gone back to the eighties’ and nineties’, haven’t we, Dulcie?” Georgia responded.

  “Yep. And we’ve been eating candy too,” she said.

  “Well, I hope you weren’t fibbing to me, when you said you are allowed to eat candy all the time, or you’ve just totally dobbed me in,” Georgia said questioningly.

  Dulcie was laughing hysterically, causing a sense of confusion to both Erika and Georgia. “Your daughter is crazy,” Georgia told Erika.

  “I think that’s actually your fault. You have put her in a sugar induced crazy state,” Erika said.

  “She talks so funny, it just creases me up,” Dulcie was laughing loudly, hitting her leg.

  Georgia rarely spent time with kids, and she was completely magnetized by her energy and how full of personality she was at such a young age. Georgia couldn’t help but laugh at her.

  “You know, we’ve already discussed this? It’s not me that speaks funny, it’s you,” she said.

  “Nuh uh, it’s totally you. My mommy says grandma’s been drinking when she speaks funny.”

  “Dulcie!” Erika scolded.

  “What you do?” Dulcie said simply.

  Georgia was trying to contain the laugh.

  “I’m sorry,” she said to Georgia. “Lady, I think you forgot your manners back in Houston. So, you hungry, or you all full up on candy?”

  “It’s okay. And I can assure you, little one, I have not consumed any wine or beer for… well,” she looked at her watch. “Like at least an hour,” she smiled goofily to a giggling Dulcie.

  “Can I please have some lunch? I’m kinda hungry now.”

  “No way. Clearly the fifteen Twizzlers didn’t fill the gap?” Georgia said, shaking her head. “You have some appetite kiddo.”

  “She did not have fifteen,” Erika said seriously.

  “Nooooo. But in my defence, firstly, I have no experience with kids. And secondly, in her words, “Momma lets me eat it all the time”. And, to the extent she pretty much named nine different types of the stuff, it was clear she wasn’t making it up. But apologies if I gave it to her before lunch. Alex would have battered me if I’d done that, but I didn’t want to wake you,” Georgia said.

  Erika went to say something but stopped herself. “Oh, she knows about candy alright, it’s fine. Come off at the next turn and we will find somewhere in the next town, rather than eating in some service dive. I’ll enter it into the navigation system and it can direct us someplace,” she instructed Georgia. “So is Alex your brother?” she asked.

  Georgia paid attention
to the road as she steered off and followed the sat nav in a different direction. “No, my sister. Alexandra.” She smiled. “My brother is Josh, Joshua.”

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Georgia pulled the car into a cute little lone restaurant. The car park was full, which always alluded to a decent place in her opinion.

  The three of them got seated and ordered food. It was an odd dynamic and an even odder concept for Georgia to understand. It was bizarre to be sat at a table in a restaurant with a five-year-old and her mother whom she barely knew. But equally, Erika and she would have to work quite closely to make this project successful.

  “Not really your idea of fun, huh?” Erika asked Georgia, referring to the situation.

  “Excuse me? Sorry I was miles away. No, not at all. I was just thinking about a conversation I had with my mum before I left. It wasn’t a particularly great situation and this…this situation, kinda made me think back to it,” she said quietly.

  “Look. I know this isn’t great for either of us, and I appreciate you’re not a ‘kid’ person. Which when we get to Fort Worth will be fine. But you are all the way over here, and I’m sure, as a mother myself, regardless of whether you have the best or worst relationship with your folks, you shouldn’t ignore it. Additionally, regardless of your age, they’ll still be worried about you over here alone. Seriously, I know parents can get…somewhat, ‘difficult’ when they get older, but it’s only because they love you. Take it from someone who knows, if you leave it too late, you have to live with that for the rest of your life,” she said sadly.

  “Wow. There’s a wakeup call if ever there was one,” Georgia said. “Thanks, I’m sorry to have made you feel that you needed to say all that. Additionally, I have no issue with this. And I’m guessing you have lost a parent? Sorry, to hear that. And apologies, that’s kind of a personal question.”

  “It’s okay. Yes, I did. My father. But how about we change the subject, young ears and such conversations, aren’t really the greatest.”

  Erika and Georgia looked down at the ringing mobile, noticing Julia’s name. Georgia said she’d call her back, she didn’t think it was right to do that just now.

  “If you want to take that, it’s fine. I’ll ask them to keep your food warm,” Erika said.

  “Who was that? Why aren’t you speaking with them?” Dulcie asked, looking up from her picture.

  “Baby, where did you get your nosiness from? You’re as bad as your Nonna. Stop asking questions that are none of your little button noses concern,” Erika said, tapping her daughter’s nose.

  “It was my friend from back home. And I’m not speaking to her because unlike you, I didn’t eat 37 trillion liquorice’s. So actually, I’m quite hungry and looking forward to my lunch,” Georgia said, smiling.

  “I did not eat 37 trillion, I only had this many,” she said, holding up four fingers spread apart widely.

  “Do you always talk back this much?” Georgia asked, giggling.

  Erika and Dulcie responded in unison, with their varying answers.

  The food was brought over to the table and Erika was right, coming off into a town had provided much better food than a petrol station would have ever offered.

  Georgia quickly picked up her phone and started a text to Julia to tell her that she would call her back later, she was just in the middle of it when Dulcie grassed on her.

  “Ohhh, Mommy, she has her phone out. That’s naughty. There aren’t no phones allowed at the dinner table,” Dulcie said.

  Erika looked apologetic, “Hey, Dulcie, those are our rul…” but before she could finish Georgia had already responded.

  “I’m very sorry, I didn’t know those rules. It’s gone, look? No more,” she said, putting it into her back pocket and picking up her knife and fork.

  Erika leaned over and whispered to her. “You didn’t need to do that.”

  “Look, if you are bringing your child up with manners and discipline, then I am certainly not about to throw a spanner in your works. It’s fine. Come on, let’s eat. It looks delicious.”

  ***

  They finished their food, all suitably impressed and stuffed, and made their way back to the car to get on their way again.

  Dulcie was in the car for a maximum of two minutes before she was already asking to put Frozen back on again. “Baby, I told you, we are not going to listen the whole way. Georgia doesn’t want to listen anymore.”

  Dulcie was visibly upset, her little lip coming out. Georgia turned around to look at her properly, “I thought you and I were going to dance now that mummy is driving? We have to have the music up really loud and dance together,” she said seriously.

  “But I don’t know the music,” she sniffed for added effect. God this kid was good.

  “You don’t need to,” Georgia said back to her, finding the station she was listening to before and turning it up loud. The next song came on and Erika was laughing, “I love this song,” she said.

  “I know! So, this is an amazing song called ‘Nothings Gonna Stop Us Now’. And this is brilliant,” Georgia said, dancing animatedly in her seat, making Dulcie and Erika laugh, before Dulcie followed suit.

  Erika was impressed that this woman who was so completely, not ‘kid friendly’ and didn’t appear to seem or want to be personable initially, would be so impressionable on her daughter. She was glad. Dulcie had so much instability in her life now and she didn’t want any more upheaval for her.

  Georgia and Dulcie spent a solid twenty minutes dancing and singing at the top of their voices, before the station changed and the news came on. It literally took a matter of seconds before Dulcie was on the case to put her Frozen CD back on again.

  “Shall we play a game instead?” Georgia said, turning around in her seat.

  “Yes, I love games. What shall we play? What games do you play in the car? We usually play I spy,” she said excitably.

  “Well, I rarely go in a car. But when I do, we play ‘mini, no returns’. I don’t think we can play that here,” she said, smiling to herself.

  “What’s that?” she asked inquisitively.

  “Not something we can play over here. I haven’t seen one mini since driving, and the cars are all humongous.” She smiled to the little girl. “I’ll tell you some other time. Hmm, let me think. I have a good game, how about you pay me money every time you make me listen to Frozen?” she laughed. “I think that’s a good one to start,” she winked, laughing to Dulcie.

  “No way, I’m not playing that game,” she said sternly.

  Georgia was laughing. “Ok, do you get pocket money?” she asked.

  Erika looked at Georgia seriously. “Please tell me you aren’t about to teach my daughter to gamble.”

  “Nahhhh, I’ll save that for tonight,” she laughed, raising her eyebrows to Erika.

  “Uh huh? Why? I’m not giving it to you though! And I’m not gonna give you money just to listen to my favourite song,” she said pointedly.

  Georgia laughed at her. “Oh okay, my bad. Right, ok, so how much?”

  “How much what?”

  “How much pocket money do you get?” She needed to think on her feet, she had no idea what game she was going to play.

  “Watcha mean? All my money goes in my pockets,” she said seriously.

  Erika laughed at her daughter’s innocence, “She calls it an allowance, not pocket money,” she said to Georgia.

  “Oooh, right. Okay that makes more sense. She is too funny.”

  “Okay, Dulcie, how much allowance do you get?”

  “I get one dollar a week, but my friends get more, though,” she said defiantly.

  “Well, I’m sure if you helped your parents you could earn some. You don’t just get money. You have to earn it. We had to. I’m sure if you did some housework for your mum, like help wash up, or tidy away your toys and clothes you could earn some more.”

  “See, I told you,” Erika said, looking at her da
ughter in the mirror. “If you do some chores you can get more.”

  “But the other kids don’t gotta,” she said triumphantly. “My mommy says if I do a couple chores around the house each week, I can get extra bucks, but my friends don’t. We’re just kids,” she said, crossing her arms across her chest.

  Georgia had to turn back around in her seat to stop Dulcie from seeing her laughing, because the personality on this little girl was incredible. She loved her nieces and nephews, but she couldn’t remember any of them being this way. Maybe if she spent more time with them she would realise they were.

  “Cut it out,” Erika told Georgia, shaking her head.

  Georgia turned back around to Dulcie, “But I bet they grow up and have to marry rich guys to buy them all the things they want. If you work hard you can be just like your mum and you won’t need a guy to do that. I know what I would prefer. I don’t want no man having to pay for me, I want to go out and buy it all myself.”

  “What you mean, like an Elsa?”

  Georgia looked over to Erika confused.

  “Well I think that’s maybe a different conversation for your mummy to have with you when you get older, but why not? Dream big kid,” Georgia said.

  “Really? Really?” Erika said aghast. “So you teach my daughter it’s okay to buy women by day and gamble at night? Sheesh, my kids gonna learn all sorts of bad habits from you,” she said, shaking her head.

  “What? She won’t remember that they’ll be something new and better for her to use her one dollar a week on,” Georgia smirked. She stopped herself from making any remark about ‘buying women’. It was certainly not good with a child listening and was inappropriate. Especially because they have had a mere twenty minutes only being nice and having a laugh together, she thought.