Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS writer
Once upon a time there was a girl called Judith and a girl called Mary-Lou. They were best friends. They were inseparable at school and on the weekends. They shared sandwiches at lunchtime and swapped notes during class. They told the other kids at school that they were almost cousins. They shared a desire to express to the world how close they were. It wasn’t enough to be together on weekend sleepovers or afterschool play overs, they wanted to live together, share every waking moment together and then wake up in the morning and tell each other their dreams. Everyday at school whom ever came first would wait for the other at the school gate. One would not want the other to be lonely for too long.
Once they had disclosed their strong yearning to be one the best friends spoke for hours in a day, between classes and then after school dawdling home, chattering about how they ‘should have’, if God had been kind, been born as Siamese twins.
“But where in this perfect paradise,” Judith would say to Mary-Lou, “Where would we be joined?”
“Oh Judi Perdi, at the hip of course!” replied Mary-Lou all matter of fact.
“Oh of course, silly me.” Judith would whisper under breath, somehow her friend always had a way of making her feel stupid.
The girls would not be able to say whose idea it was as all their words jumbled together snowballing them along the path of witchcraft. Free time had meaning and over a course of a week between them they had collected rose petals, black lawn beetles, bull ants, empty snail shells, a matted fur dreadlock from Judith’s tabby cat Feral and fleas off Mary-Lou’s dog Douglas, a garlic bulb, soya sauce and brown sugar, fish emulsion, blood and bone, sand and pond water from the duck park across from Mary-Lou’s house. After the week of planning and hording the ingredients for the magical concoction they sneaked out Judith’s mum’s good Jamie Oliver mortar and pestle outside to the garden setting, down the side of the house next to the compost bin. Mary-Lou and Judith added all matter to the mortar. Mary-Lou took charge with the pestle and crushed away until anything alive was dead, black and slimy.
Mary-Lou sucked hard on her cola chuppa chup, then moved it swiftly with her tongue to the cushion of her cheek, “It’s about compromise Judith.”
A droplet of sweet dribble escaped her mouth falling into the mixture, she stopped pummelling briefly, weighing up her unforseen human error, she shook her head at herself, then looking her friend directly in the eyes, “That’s ok. Um anyway like I said, compromise. We will need to give up something of our self, if we want to be one with the other. It’s that simple.”
Judith felt a wave of anxiety creep into her armpits and her sweat tear up and slide down her arm, “I’m just not sure what I want to give up of myself. Is it forever? Can we go back to being how we are if we don’t like being one?”
“Oh Judi Poo it’s fine. I have been giving this a lot of thought and I’ve got this. You know how you are always complaining about being a blood nut?”
Mary-Lou takes the lollypop out of her mouth, she had more to say than Judith wanted to hear, Judith rolled off the concrete garden seat onto the ground resting her forehead on her arms like she did while playing heads down thumbs up at school. She sniffed at her armpits for B.O. and relaxed with relief at getting a whiff of Mum deodorant instead.
“Yes Mazza. You try having an orange fro and see how you like it.” Judith grumbled into her chest.
“It’s not a fro Ju. You’ve just got out of control curls, I’ve told you before you need to comb your hair with a rake not a bristle brush and use conditioner; the two in one doesn’t cut it. But it doesn’t matter anyway; this is why we are doing what we are doing, it is perfect for the both of us. You’ve got great legs, they’re really fast, you won last years Year 6 Champion Girl and I reckon you will do it again this year. And my legs are pins, they nearly snap in half walking down Monument Hill and Mum still won’t let me shave them and I’ve never had a bad hair day in my life. So we compromise, your head for mine.”
Judith looked up at her friend grinning from ear to ear, Mary-Lou shot her a wink and smugly plopped her cola lollypop back into her mouth.
“My arms sore, your turn.”
Judith pulled herself from the ground and took the pestle from her bestie.
“Wow you can’t even see any legs in here.” Judith bent down and peered at the black muck her nose an inch away, “or heads.”
“That’s the magic JuJu, it’s become one.” Mary-Lou shook her head marvelling at her own genius.
“I reckon it’s done Mazz.”
“Just another five minutes, it’s about the balance, the combining of us. Our energy.”
“Yeah but there’s not much of a balance in the end is there? When we are one ‘being’, we will be mostly me and only your head.”
“It’s in our intention. Mum said Wayne Dwyer says there’s power in intention and if we intend to be one and balanced and then that’s what we will be.”
Mary-Lou peered up at the sun, “Yup, that’s it. It’s ready.”
“Wow, so what do we do now?”
“ Easy there’s nothing to it. All you need to do is eat this.”
Judith didn’t have a strong stomach at the best of times. It’s why she always turned down her friend’s offer of a strawberry cream chuppa chup, not because her friend was making a subtle jib at her complexion but because she had really bad gag reflex. Judith heaved a little, “Me? Shouldn’t it be the both of us? Aren’t we going halves?”
“Well technically we aren’t going halves are we? We will be my head your body so that’s like one fifth or even one sixth of me compared to nearly all of you.”
“So you are saying I’m having most of it and your gonna have a bit.”
“Yeah yeah.”
“OK your right Mazza, fairs fair. So you will have to go first coz you’re the head right and you just have to have like a mouthful and I have the rest?”
“Yeah, that’s right you have all the rest.” Mary-Lou nodded excitedly, it was coming together perfectly, she couldn’t believe her friend was falling for her plan.
Judith picked the teaspoon up off the table and slowly stirred the concoction, she spooned the goo onto the teaspoon and swooped it to hover in front of Mary-Lou’s perfect lips, “You first.”