Cousins First, Then Friends 2

“Why aren’t there any women priests in our church?”

Without even looking up from her cup of wafers, she answered, “I don’t think there are any women priests in any church.” She was one year older than me, but I don’t think you would guess it if you didn’t already know it.

“Well, why not?” I questioned.

“I dunno. I don’t think the church likes women too much.” I rolled with laughter.

“Yeah, right. You don’t see the men walking around in those crazy get-ups! They make the women look like a bunch of penguins.” We both giggled then. Once we calmed down again, the conversation turned serious.

“I’m gonna be like Mother Theresa when I grow up,” I said to not really anyone in particular.

“I’m gonna be a model” replied Anne Marie.

After she thought for a few minutes, she said, “Why you wanna go and be that? I think you have to be real old. Mother Theresa has a lot of wrinkles.”

“I don’t know. It just seems like something I want to do.” I shrugged. Anne Marie shrugged, too.

“Okay, well, maybe I’ll give you some money to feed all those kids then. I’m gonna have lots of money! But don’t expect me to go out there with you because I can’t be all dirty and be a model.”

I cackled, “Who says you have to get dirty?”

“Don’t you see them pictures of those people. They are dirty!”

“They ain’t dirty. That’s their color!” I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, I don’t mind getting dirty.”

“I know you don’t, but I’ll have a reptation to uphold.”

It was my turn to be the priest, and I dunked the wafer into our grape juice. “Mother Theresa is a nun, Tammy. You gonna be a nun?”

"I dunno. I don’t like the ones at our school too much. They are pretty scary. Mother Theresa seems okay, though. I wonder if you can be a reglar person and still be a missionary?” My mind wandered off as I placed the wafer onto Anne Marie’s tongue.

Cousins First, Then Friends

Many times I would find myself over at Anne Marie’s house to play. She was my cousin. She was okay, even if she did like to play with dolls.

The first time I met her was when her mom brought her to my house. They thought we would get along nicely since we were so close in age. It might’ve been okay if she hadn’t brought those darn dolls with her. How sappy!

As soon as she walked through the door with her brown curls and those ugly dolls hanging from her hands, I knew I was in trouble. Yuck! I ran upstairs to hide, but my mom found me. “Tammy Marie, Annie has brought her daughter to play with you.”

“Aw, Mom, she’s gonna wanna play babies. I don’t like that sissy stuff.” I grumbled from underneath my bed, giving away my position.

My mom yanked me out by my leg with me protesting the entire time. “She can play with Bobby. He doesn’t know any difference anyhow. Moooom….”

Despite our rough start, we did grow on each other. She hardly ever made me play dolls cause she knew I hated it. Anne Marie had a chalkboard and school desks in her grandparents’ basement so a lot of times we would pretend to be at school. Only our school was cool. Not like the real thing. We would let our students, which were a mixture of stuffed bears and dolls, ask questions. A lot of times we would have really good answers for them, too.

If we weren’t playing school, we were pretending to be at church and took turns being the priest and doling out the wafers. Her grandpop would get bags of them from the church for us. Those things weren’t as tasty as potato chips, but we sure could put them down.

“Hey, Anne Marie.”

“What?”

(to be continued)