Van the Man

My mother hadn’t talked to her sister in 30 years, so when she ditched me too, I made friends with this "evil" sister 15 years later.  I didn’t see much wrong with her, the stories I heard must have been exaggerated.  She lived in Texas and I live in Illinois.  After we chatted on line for 2 years, she invited me to stay with her for a week. 

I am so horrible with directions, but I really wanted to go and see what she was about.  I had her book me a flight and that meant that I had to drive to St. Louis all by myself to catch my first by myself plane ride.  I have to admit, everyone thought I was going to get lost on my way to St. Louis, including myself.  But, I made it and I ran into the airport trying to catch my breath.  My hands were numb claws and I took the first seat I saw next to a shoe shine man.  His name was Van and he got up to get me some water and he pat me on the back.  He told me I was the first white woman to ever take a seat and start a conversation in all the years he’d been working in the airport. 

We had quite a conversation after that, I told him where I was going too and I guess it’s alot easier to spill your guts to someone you don’t plan on seeing again.  He asked me what the craziest thing I’ve ever done was.  I thought about the mail box flags so I told him I started collecting mother’s mail box flags.  He asked me why and I said cause she ditched me.  He asked me if it was hard to get the mail box flag and I told him the first three were, but after that if you get the angel just right they come off with a snap.  I told him I had 6 over the years.  He asked me if I was afraid of getting caught, if she knew it was me.  I said of course she knows it’s me, I’ve also let out her dogs and threw an egg at her house.  I’ve driven through her flowers and while I was puncturing a tire, she walked out and I ALMOST got caught.  I told him that’s the only thing that made me stop.  He said he was going to steal a mail box flag for me and keep it so he’d remember me.  I had hours to kill before my flight, I made it striaght there with no problem.  I asked him if he wanted to keep me company and he said sure thing.  He asked me to take a walk with him, he wanted to show me some things.  He asked me to pay attention to the older black men, they would glare.  He told me to pay attention to white couples, they would turn their necks to get a second look.  He said he realized slavery was a part of history, but he didn’t much like talking about it.

He told me about his son in the army, his daughter.  They were in their 20’s and I let him know that I thought black people were impossible to age.  I told him I’d assumed he was my age and that black people age beautifully.  He bought me lunch, spaghetti and prayed before he ate.  We went out for a cigarette and met a man from Australlia.  I asked him to say my name and we went back inside.  I had left my fucking tickets outside, but he ran around for me and found them.  He saved the day!  I asked him if he’d ever been called the "n" word.  He said never to his face, but people driving by would wip their heads out and scream it.  He asked me if I’d ever been called the "c" word, and I said yes, but never to my face.  Just from charming people on the internet.  He said he’d figure the two words meant pretty much the same thing according to the people shouting it.  I told him I liked my new pal and he said my plane was forming a line, and he gave me a big hug.

I went to catch my plane, and made it to Texas.  My Aunt has medical problems but we both met at the Olive Garden right on time.  It was my first cab ride by myself too, and he didn’t talk to me.  I saw Taxi Cab Confessions and was looking forward to an adventure with this driver, but he was boring and wouldn’t talk so I didn’t give him a tip.  I get inside and she hands me a phone.  She asks me to call my husband.  I coudln’t get over how much she looked like my mother.  I called Dan and said a talk dark handsome man bought me spaghetti and I found a new friend.  He said good to know, wish you would have called earlier, he was worried.  So we eat lunch and we go back to her house.  She kept telling me stories the entire week on how she was more evil than anyone else.  Mail box flags didn’t have a ray of hope with this woman.  She took me to a restaurant that served loaded potatos.  Huge potatos with meat, cheese, sour cream, I loved them.  I took naps every day with no sleeping pills.  I played poker with her and her friends, they were all 60 and I was the life of the party.  I met her cop friend and went shopping.  I took her little dog on a walk and I ripped off a mail box flag, I was going to be going back through St. Louis and thought I’d see my friend again, he’d get a kick out of it.  We went to a school she taught at and she lied to everyone and said that I was her daughter.  She said she loved me as a mother and everyone but one believed I was her daughter.  So she drops me back off at the airport and cries hard when I leave.  I was crying hard too.  I sat next to a man with no arm and he said it was easier to just remove the arm and put it in the bucket through security.  He started telling me how he liked swimming in the ocean and I asked him if that’s how he lost his arm.  He said no but wouldn’t tell me how.  I didn’t bring it up again, but he was wondering why I was so sad.  I told him if he told me how he lost his arm, I would tell him my sob story.  He said he got it stuck in a machine at work, and I told him it felt like I was saying goodbye to a mom.  I was crying so hard, that they let me get through security with tons of lighters in my purse, and a mail box flag. 

So we make it back to St. Louis and I get my luggage.  I look for Van and there he was!  I didn’t have much time this time, but I bought him a souvenior and I handed him this mail box flag.  He started laughing so hard and said that now he had two.  I told him that I don’t make friends that I can call to go out and hang with, but I know that I made a forever friend in him and he said yes mam you certainly have.  It was a pleasure meeting you and I just might remember you forever.  Years later Dan’s family took all of us to Disney World and guess what airport we went too!  Dan’s family looked so surprised when I hugged Van, but my man walked up to him and shook his hand, told him he’d heard so much about him.

My Aunt, she kept trying to ditch me over the years.  I kept chasing her, saying that we couldn’t be like our family and let go.  No matter what our differences were, we could stay family and love each other.  One night she told me I should ditch my sister because she had maids, pools, hot tubs and wasn’t a good mom.  I told her she was wrong, and I knew it.  I told her that my sister had to take her share of hardship for staying attached

to me while her mother and grandparents were against it, but she does it because we are family and we love each other.  Next day, she typed me a message saying that I was affecting her health by arguing and I forced her to be in a wheelchair.  That she couldn’t talk to me again.  That pissed me off, chasing her like I had and I typed back I’ll not chase you this time, I’ll not contact you again but know I love you and I’ll miss you.  It’s been a year now and I think about her.  She had to have been surprised that I didnt’ chase her this time, and I know she misses me too.  Van will last forever though.