Everyday Use

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As Dee pulled away Maggie looked at Mama and started to cry. What's the matter Maggie? Maggie looked at me red eyed and shameful and said " My whole life I've always wanted to be more like Dee, I wanted to look, dress and act like her, but now I realize that she's not the older sister I always thought she was. Dee has disrespected us and our family so much today I am ashamed to say that I am her sister. I used to look up to Dee so much, I mean, I knew she was kind of a brat and all but there was something about Dee that I always wanted, she was always so smart and so beautiful. But today her actions have spoken much louder than any words ever could. Mama, Dee has tried to turn our family name and traditions into an item or story she can tell to decorate her life and walls of her home with and she don't even know the true meaning of any of it."

Well I just looked at Maggie surprised at what she has just said. Maggie didn't never say anything like that before in her whole life. Maggie walked inside slowly just like I described earlier like a dog with its tail between its legs, tears running down her rosy checks. Me, I stood outside under the big tree for a while longer. I guess I was just trying to take in all that had happened today. The day had come and gone so quickly and so much had seemed to happen. For the first time ever I had told Dee "no." A word that Dee thought no one in the whole world would ever say to her, especially not her own Mama. I'm not too sure what pushed me to stand up to Dee like that. Maybe it was the fact that she tried to push us, me and Maggie, her own family away the whole time she was growing up and now all of the sudden she is acting like she wants to be a part of us. But that was just all it was, just an act for Dee to try and fit in with them people she's always been trying to fit in with her whole life. The people who live in them big ole houses in the city and making themselves lots of money, the kind of people who show up at parties just to show that they are something and they have made it. For Dee I think that is all she wants to do, show people that she has made it, made a life for herself, that is, because Dee never considered the life that me and Maggie live to be a real life. Well it was getting a little chilly outside, since night fall and all so I made my way up to the house. It took me a while to get there since early this week I had hurt my hip wrestling some pig to the ground, the darn thing had eaten all the food and there was none left for the others. As I made my way inside the house I saw Maggie sitting there in the middle of the floor in my bedroom with old shirts, pants and even some ole rags spread out all around her. Maggie looked up at me and said "Mama, call Dee and invite her back for dinner next week, and when she comes let her know she and I will start working on our own quilt, and this one she can take home and hang on her wall when we finish." For a minute I just stood there, I nodded and then made my way to the kitchen to make the call. Any other day I would have stood there in shock, but today had been such a strange one I just agreed. If Maggie was going to try and help Dee see the true meaning of family heritage then I would do my best to help out as well. I made the phone call and Dee had agreed just as I thought she would. Dee also apolized for the rude exit she made, but I wasn't quit sure she meant it or if it was again just another act of Dees, either way she had apolized and as any mother would I accepted. I then sat down on the bench in the kitchen and watched Maggie work to find pieces for the quilt her and Dee would make together. As Maggie worked I realized how blessed I was to have her in my life.