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Salomi (sa-low-me) Jane Squires was born at 12:11 am on January 25th, 1900. It was a cold night but her birth brought warmth to her father, Abraham Squires. 6 days later, her mother, Salomi Jane, was buried in their backyard on a cold day. However the sun was shining brightly. They both knew that she was watching over the both of them. Little Salomi, which is what Abraham called her, was a light whenever the days were gray. Without knowing it, this 7 pound baby was helping a grown man of 25 years get through one of the roughest times of his life.
He raised her as best as he could. However, they were dirt poor. They barely had any food for the both of them. Little Salomi was the priority. If there wasn’t enough food for the both of them, he would let her eat and he would go hungry. He sacrificed a lot for her. He even cut up a lot of his clothes to make them into baby clothes for her. Every day was a struggle for them, but they always got through it. Little Salomi was a fighter, just like her mother, that’s why she survived in the first place. Abraham believed in that.
He never left her side either. Since his wife’s death, he was afraid of losing Little Salomi, so he was a stay at home dad for as long as he could be. Little Salomi was his lung. He was there for her 24/7. He witnessed her first word, which was “Dah Dah”, her first baby steps and the first time she finally learned the concept of the outhouse. However, he needed to go back to work and make money for them so that they could survive. Once Little Salomi hit 5 years old, Abraham started working full time again. He got paid a measly 10 cents per hour working at a factory, but it did put some food on the table. While he was at work, Salomi would stay with their neighbors, the Millbrooks. This benefited her because their 6 year old daughter, Eveline, became her best friend and Mrs. Millbrooks was a teacher. Since Abraham couldn’t afford schooling, Mrs. Millbrook would teach Salomi for free.
Salomi was a quick learner and had a great vocabulary and memory skills for a young “uneducated” girl her age. However, she was also quick to get in trouble. She was the ringleader out of the two girls and would convince Eveline to try anything. She wasn’t afraid to get dirty and was a little bit of a tomboy.
“Thank you Millie”Abraham said as he walked inside their small house,”Now wheres my-“then he stopped when he looked at Salomi. She was missing a tooth,”What happened now?”
“They somehow constructed a wagon out of loose wood and some wheels that they found from who knows where”Mrs. Millbrook said,”Eveline said she got on it and went too fast and the makeshift wagon stopped,but Salomi kept going.She hit the ground and her tooth popped right out”
“Im sorry”Eveline said,getting teared up again
“Im fine”Salomi said to her and then she turned to her dad and held up her tooth,”See?”
“I see”he said
“I apologize,don’t think that I don’t watch them but its hard to do eight things at once-“
“Its fine Millie really. Every day its an adventure and its fun to try to figure out what she will get herself into”he said as he held Salomi’s hand,”I’ll see you tomorrow”
“See you tomorrow”Salomi said and followed her dad outside of the house and started walking to theirs.
“Hey you gotta make this easier ok? We cant have Mrs. Millie think that you are too much to handle. She babysits and teaches you for free. You got it made”he said to her
“Ok”Salomi said with a shrug.”Can I keep my tooth?”she asked him
“No,you gotta give it to the tooth fairy and then she will give you money for it”
“Really?”
“Yeah you gotta put it under your pillow when you go to sleep tonight”
Salomi smiled as she looked at her tooth, she couldn’t wait.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Early the next morning, Abraham woke up to find Salomi jumping up and down on his stomach and yelling,”Dah Dah! Dah Dah!”
”Ahhhh, Salomi that kinda hurts”he said to her but couldn’t help but laugh.”What has you so excited this early?”he asked her. Just like her mother, Salomi wasn’t a morning person and it took forever for her to get out of bed. She already had a late to bed, late to rise mentality.
“Look!”she said as she held up a penny.”The fairy came! How did she find me?”
“She’s magic, she somehow knows whenever a kid loses their teeth”he said to her,”Congratulations”he said to her, even though they were low on funds, he still took a penny out of their savings to fulfill this tooth fairy illusion,”You gotta spend it wisely”
Salomi shook her head,”No Im gonna keep it”
“Or you can keep it”he said and then looked outside. The sun would come up soon. “That’s my cue to get up”he said as he picked her up off of him and tried to get up.
However, Salomi wasn’t as excited,”I don’t wanna. Im sleepy”she said as she tried to lay back down. Then for the next 20 minutes, Abraham had to drag Salomi out of bed, just like any other morning.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Abraham heard whistles as he unloaded another truck like he did everyday. He looked up and saw his friend, Vernon Greene, wearing some nice work pants. The other guys noticed and were whistling at him, he just smiled and did a few spins for everyone to see.”Well look at you. I didn’t know that you knew how to steal from department stores”
“Very funny”Vernon said as he put out his cigarette,”No this is what happens when you do a lot of overtime and you spend and save your money wisely”
“Does your wife know that you spend your life savings on pants?”he asked him
“Abe, she loved the idea and she wasn’t upset…well not until I showed her the new dress I bought her”Vernon said,”I don’t know what it is about dresses but the next thing we knew we were in bed like teenagers again”
“Ok spare me”Abraham said. Whenever any of the men talked about what they did with their wives or just their wives in general, it would make him think of Salomi. They were just like that. When they eloped, they went to a cheap motel and stayed in bed for days. The guys would try to convince him that he needs to move on and find someone new but her death was still fresh in his mind, even 5 years later. He would never get over her.”Well I work overtime, just like you and Im not waltzing around with new pants”he said, he wore the pants that he wore everyday.
“Im just a very hard worker”Vernon said
“Hey Greene, stop modeling and get your ass back to work!”their boss said. This made the other guys laugh.
“Yeah yeah”Vernon said and started to unload the trucks along with everyone else.”But seriously, you just gotta find a way to work enough to get a lot of money. Save a little to the side and have a big stack for just anything. I wanna get outta here. I wanna go to New York, Charleston, London….”
“Me too”Abraham said, California wasn’t really cutting it anymore.
“I mean imagine this…surprising your little girl with a new dress or a doll or something”he said to him,”That would light up her day, hell maybe her year”
Abraham nodded. Salomi’s last five birthdays were not filled with presents because he could never afford to buy her anything. Mrs. Millbrook would always make her a cake, but that’s all she got. The day was a mixture of joy and sorrow since Little Salomi was born but her mother died on that day. He wanted a big party for her, he wanted to get her a rocking horse, hell a real horse and teach her how to ride it. But he cant. Poor old Abraham cant do that.
“Its all about money management”Vernon said
“You gotta have money to manage first”Abraham said
Vernon looked at him and was about to say something, then decided against it. They finished unloading the truck and he said,”Lemme know when you want a lunch break, on me”
“No you don’t have to do that”
“Abe, put your fucking pride aside and just say yes”Vernon said
“Ok”Abraham said.He never ate lunch because all the food went towards feeding Salomi and he would get whats left. He didn’t have a wife to make him lunch either. He sighed, not wanting to think about her and went back to the heavy lifting.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
“Eeew”Eveline said as she and Salomi stared at the frog. It was all green, wet and slimy.”Lets go”Eveline said to her
“No”Salomi said as she walked towards it and the frog jumped and then made a croaking sound.They both jumped back and laughed,”I wanna catch it”she said
“Eeew you cant, its all slimy and dirty and it hops too fast”Eveline said
“Not too fast for me”she said as she jumped on the frog but he got out of her grasp. Eveline squealed and then Salomi caught it,”Look!”
“Eeeew!Put it down!”Eveline said to her
“Im gonna show your mom, she’ll love it!”Salomi said as she ran inside
“Wait, no ‘Lomi! She hates frogs”Eveline said as she ran after her. But it was too late, Salomi didn’t hear her and she was a fast runner. She got inside before her and then a few seconds later she heard a scream. When Eveline got inside, her mother screamed at the sight of the frog and that scared Salomi and made her drop it. Then the frog started hopping and jumping all over the place and chaos broke loose. They were all screaming and her mother was trying to throw things at it while Salomi was trying to get it. However it disappeared and her mother wasn’t happy.
“Great, now we have a frog loose in our house! Its probably shitting all over the place!”Millie said,”You two, outside on the porch now”
“We didn’t mean to”Salomi said putting on her puppy dog face,”It was a present!”
“Well I don’t like it!”Millie said,”You should have known better Eveline”
“I tried to tell her!”Eveline said
“OUT!”she said to them. They both accepted defeat and walked outside and sat down on the porch. They hated sitting there because they couldn’t move, all they could do was watch wagons go by.
“Thanks a lot”Eveline said to her. Salomi didn’t say a word and they sat there in silence playing with the dirt with their feet.
Later on, her mother came out with the frog on the end of a broom and threw it, “There goes your precious frog”she said to them.”Now sit here and think about what you’ve done”she said to them
“Yes ma’am”Eveline said.Salomi didn’t say a word and they sat there longer. They didn’t know how long but soon Eveline’s father came home.”Hey daddy”
“What are you doing out here?”he asked them.Whenever they were sitting on the porch miserably, he knew that they got in trouble for something.
“Salomi let a frog in the house”Eveline said. Her father chuckled and ruffled their hair and walked inside.
He walked into the kitchen and saw his wife cooking. He came up behind her and tickled her, which made her jump,”I heard about a killer frog attacking the house”
“Jesus, James you scared me”she said with a laugh as she turned to him.”It wasn’t a killer frog…Salomi let it in”
“That’s not a crime.These girls are young and very curious, they are always going to get into something. Don’t punish them for it”
“Well when I was a little girl, we didn’t go around chasing frogs, we did what little girls do”
“And whats that?”
“Knit, sew, learn how to read and write, stay quiet-“
“Times are a changin’”he said to her,”It’s a new century.Little girls do things differently now”he said as he kissed her on her neck,”Is it still here?”
“No I threw it out”she said,”Stop!Abe is gonna be here soon and I don’t want them to see you put a hickey on my neck”she said.However, James kept on sucking. “James!”she giggled as she pushed him off of her,”I swear you are still 13”she said and then sighed,”Shit, look what you did!”she said as she pointed to a red mark on her neck.
“It looks great”he said to her with a laugh.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
“Great, what did you do now?”Abraham said to her when he saw them sitting on the porch.
“I let a frog in the house”Salomi said
Abraham shook his head and saw James come to the door,”Eveline, come in now, its time to eat. Hey Abe, how are you?”
Eveline got up and said,”Bye”to Salomi
“Bye”Salomi said to her
“Im good. Tell them you are sorry about the frog”Abe said to her
“Oh don’t worry about it. Millie is such a girl. It didn’t harm anyone”James said, “Just keep the animals outside”he said,”Hey did you two want to stay for dinner? I think we have enough”
“No we’re fine”Abraham said. Not really, they just would have bread and water again but it was good enough. “We’ll see you tomorrow”
“Alright then”James said and they started to walk away.
They got back to the house and Abraham went out to the well to get some water, when he came back in, Salomi asked him the weirdest question.
“Daddy?Whats a hickey?”
“What?”
“A hickey? Is it bad? Because I heard Millie say that she didn’t want us to see her with a hickey on her neck”Salomi said
“I’ll explain it to you when you’re older”he said to her as he gave her a piece of bread and water,”Much older”he said to her
*______________________*