Tag: sisters

Let Me Know If You Hear Anything New

March 21st, 2025

Photo by Christin Hume

10/18/22 2:11 pm

Hey sis. Did you talk to dad?

Not today. Why? He ok?

uh… well idk. What do you know about what’s

going on with him and Bobby?

His neighbor? The pharmacy guy?

Yeah, him. Did you know they got into a fight?

About what?

Jessica

Oh. That doesn’t sound good.

I’ll call you later when I get off work.

yeah ok

10:56 pm

literally cannot sleep

thinking about what you told me about dad

I know. It’s awful.

I guess I’m still confused.

Like what is Bobby so pissed about?

Idk. From what dad told me, he’s just as confused.

Do you think Bobby’s just mad that Jessica asked dad

to get her the pills?

I mean, what was she gonna do, ask her own dad?

I wouldn’t!

haha. right?

I just feel so bad for Dad over it.

They’ve been friends for like what, a decade?

Longer than that. They worked together at that

Walgreens in 1998.

Oh that’s right. And then he bought the house next door

after the divorce

It was a really bad fight Amber. Mom is beside herself.

It’ll blow over.

You really think so?

it has to, right? I mean, they live next door to each other

Yeah but you know how dad always said

Bobby can hold a grudge

Maybe I would too if Jessica were my kid

Yeah. Maybe.

10/19/2022 7:14 am

You think I should call dad today?

About Jessica?

Yeah

I don’t think I can help really

but I want him to know that I support him

I think he’d appreciate that

I’ll let you know how it goes

Yes please. He wasn’t doing well the other day

when I talked to him.

5:17 pm

No answer all afternoon

That’s not really like him. Did you call mom?

yeah, I tried her too.

Yardwork maybe? It’s his day off. Maybe they went to a movie.

Idk but it worries me. Just because of … you know

They are both taking it really hard

Hard enough that they wouldn’t answer the phone for me?

oh! he’s calling back. just a min

6:25 pm

what did he say?

11:37 pm

Sorry Annie! Just got home. Dad asked if I wanted dinner

so I went over. We had a really good talk about it. No answers

obviously. Just speculating

He said something about this not being the first time

Jessica came to him. Did you know that? I can’t remember

if you said that yesterday. Mom was all up in arms.

She’d get a lawyer if she could lol

Maybe lol isn’t the right thing to say, but you know Mom

Dad thought that Jessica might have spilled all the beans

to Bobby and that’s why he’s so mad. I get it. I think I’d be

mad too if my kid kept going to my friend for something

like that and my friend didn’t say anything about it. But then

again, patient confidentiality? Idk. Sounds like he was in a

really tricky spot. idk what I would have done.

10/20/2022 9:01 am

Woke up to like 100 messages from you lol

I’m glad you went over. And no, I didn’t know

there were other times

Jessica is how old, do you remember?

like 15? 16 maybe?

eeeekk. yeah. this is a mess.

I think she is 16. I saw her driving out of the

neighborhood last time I went over to see

Mom and Dad.

Still

uh huh

I’m not as confident that this will blow over now that

I’ve talked to him

Why’s that?

Sounds like there was more going on with her,

and he knew about that too.

Stuff that Bobby didn’t know about?

yeah. Maybe her mom did, but idk. Dad didn’t say

Well if her mom knew, then why is Bobby

mad at Dad?

There has to be something we’re missing

Or maybe Bobby is just taking out his guilt

about it on Dad

what guilt?

Put yourself in his shoes for a sec.

Your kid, your high schooler, needs Plan B multiple times

and you’re a pharmacist, but instead of coming to you

to ask for help, she goes to the neighbor. And the

neighbor says nothing to you about it, even though

you’ve been friends for longer than your daughter has

been alive. Says nothing multiple times.

Okay, when you put it that way

I’d want to look in the mirror and ask what I did wrong

that she didn’t trust me.

I’m just spitballing. Obvi idk anything

Well, it makes sense

But I mean, what was Dad supposed to do?

He’s not under any obligation to tell anybody anything.

Plus like I said, there are laws about this stuff

HIPAA and whatever, yeah

So, he either betrays trust of his friend

or betrays the trust of his patient

Do you think he could have said something

discreetly?

How do you discreetly tell your friend that you

gave his teenager Plan B multiple times?

Well I meant more like – hey Bobby. you might want

to talk to your kid about the boys she’s been

hanging around.

I’m sure that would have led to a lot of questions

Yeah you’re right. Poor Dad

I’ll call him after work to check on how he’s doing.

I know he takes things really hard so I just want

to keep him close right now

I get that.

I’ll talk to you later. Let me know if you hear

anything new

I will

10/23/2022 8:22 pm

Hey sis. Mom just called me. She and Dad

are at the ER. Everything is ok. Dad just needs

a couple stitches in his chin.

omg! What happened?

I can’t believe I’m even saying this

He and Bobby got into a fist fight

In the driveway. While getting the mail. Bobby

punched him in the jaw so hard he fell over.

Cut himself on the mailbox flag

what.the.hell.

That’s basically what I said too

These are grown men. I’m seriously flabbergasted

Can you see it? Two pharmacists in their 50s

fist fighting like teenagers in the driveway? If

it wasn’t our dad, the whole thing would be kinda

funny. Like, in an absurdist sort of way

It’s absurdist anyway. I don’t even know what to say.

I thought they were better friends that this.

They are! Or, were? at least, yeah. Their

friendship should have been able to weather

some conflict. After all they’ve been through.

One would think

Mom said she watched it all happen from the

living room window. She heard yelling so she

looked outside, and she decided she would

intervene when it started to get even more

heated, but then they started shoving each other,

and she just stood there frozen. She said it was

like watching a train wreck

I’m sure it’s like a train wrecked through

her whole life

Yeah. Dad has been morose for days

You think now that they’ve had their fight

they’ll get over it?

Lot of hurt or a lot of anger is what makes you

punch somebody else

Hurt is usually what’s underneath anger though

Fair point

10/24/2022 11:31 am

Dad’s not going to his bowling league tonight

Really? Because of Bobby?

He says he doesn’t want to see him right now

Don’t blame him. The guy sent him to the

ER yesterday

Mom told me she got a call from Cindy. She’s

somebody else’s wife. Gary maybe? Idk but she

said Cindy has heard about the fight because Bobby

called Gary to let him know he wasn’t coming either.

Wait. So, then why isn’t Dad going?

Stubborn? In case Bobby changes his mind?

Embarrassed about how his face looks?

oh I bet that’s it. Doesn’t want to explain.

Can’t believe that Cindy called Mom to get

the scoop

lol yes you can

ok fine. I can believe it. I just don’t understand why

people can’t mind their own business

Well, when you’re in a bowling league with the

same 8 guys for 10 years, I guess your business

is everybody’s business

I think she was calling Mom to see if they needed

another sub

They are so serious about their bowling lol

Well Mom said that Dad was on the fence about it

But it sounds to me like he did want to go

until he found out Bobby told everybody

well, he told Gary

If he told Gary, he basically told everybody

Right

So now they’ll both just be at home instead.

In their houses next to each other lol

It is a little funny

Still feel bad for him though

I mean, I still think it’ll blow over

I thought you said you didn’t think so

now that you’d actually talked to Dad?

ok hear me out

The whole thing hinges on Jessica right?

And Bobby HAS to know that there was no real way

that Dad was ever gonna violate patient confidentiality.

The whole thing is just a mask for what the real

problem is. Which is that Jessica needs some

help with her … decision making. Or impulses

Or whatever. I’m not judging her.

Bobby could literally just put her on the

pill if he wanted to. And then the “problem”

goes away

I mean, yeah. but the hurt of not knowing doesn’t

But if Jessica is like “Dad, come on. It’s okay.”

yeah, but what kid is gonna do that?

Kinda makes me want to go have a chat with her

No way. You can’t do that.

I know. I’m just saying

I hear you.

Well, just let me know if you hear anything

new. It’s a mess that’s for sure

Yeah it is.

9:14 pm

ok guess what

what?

I ran into Jessica and her mom at the grocery

You did not

I did!

What’s the tea?

Well

Her mom knows everything

She’s the one who told her to ask Dad to prescribe

Plan B

You’re kidding

Cuz she knew that Bobby would freak out

Why didn’t they just go to any other

pharmacist in the city?

Apparently, they always go to Dad

Really?

I had no idea either

Okay so, this wasn’t just Dad keeping a secret

This was multiple people in on some info

That Bobby just didn’t know at all.

Which makes it harder for him to handle?

Yeah, I guess so

Kinda makes me feel bad for the guy

Yeah, me too

10/25/2022 8:17 pm

Dad wrote him an apology letter. put it

in the mailbox

hang on

He’s the one that got punched in the face

He’s the one that needed stitches

and yet he wrote Bobby an apology?

You know how Dad is. He always blames

himself for everything

How’d you find out?

I texted him to see how he was after missing

bowling last night

Dad is a better person than me

lol me too

And Mom. She wants to press charges

he could if he wanted to

He won’t.

ha! nope. He wrote an apology instead.

How was he otherwise?

He’s down for sure.

He said they were both out mowing the grass last

night and it was awkward lol

hahaha. I bet.

He said he keeps thinking about Michelle Obama’s

“when they go low, we go high.”

Like I said. He’s a better person than me

And he kept telling me that Bobby is a better person

than this too

He would know better than I would

I’ll check on him tomorrow

Today 5:28 pm

Mom said Bobby wrote a letter back

He also put it in the mailbox lol

Really? That’s a good sign!

haha Just knock on the door and have a talk

yeah, apparently it was a nice letter

Did she tell you what it said?

She said it was an apology for hitting Dad

and for taking his anger out on him about Jessica

Woah. That’s introspective

It’s good that he recognizes it

Yeah, I think that’s a good thing

Mom said Dad has been reading it over and over

But he’s not sure if he’s gonna reply to it

I’m sure he’s still really hurt

He is. He won’t be forever. But he is for now

Poor Dad. I hate this for him

Me too.

I feel good about the apologies though.

It’s a good first step.

For sure.

Just let me know if you hear anything new.
The Chew Witch: Part 1

August 2nd, 2024

Photo by Kody Dahl

The chew witch lived up in the hills, on one of them dirt roads that never had any gravel on it in the first place, because nobody had the money to spread it or care enough to. Her real name was Clara Lou or Lou Claire or something like that but everybody called her the chew witch because my cousin Kathy Jo once called her that when she was five and didn’t know better, and it stuck better than gum up under the railing at the grocery. Our grocery, that is, where I spent many a summer afternoon bored to near death, picking paint and gum off the railing outside. Or trying to anyway. Some of that stuff was stuck tighter than the nickname that Kathy Jo gave poor old Lou Claire….or you know, maybe it actually was Clara Lou. It was definitely a double first name just like almost everybody I knew who comes from the holler. In my family there was Mary Sue and Jenny Kate and me, Peggy June. Our Momma and Daddy ran the only grocery for about 15 miles round, at the base of one of them smaller hills that’s not quite one of the mountains of Appalachia, but pretty darn close. We sat outside that grocery store at the railing for half our lives it seemed like, waiting for anything exciting to happen. Nothing ever did.

Unless the chew witch came in. That’s the only place I ever saw her. She never came to church or went to get an ice cream cone or a soda across the street at Pete’s, and who knows how she put gas in the rickety old black pick up. I never saw her at the gas station up by the state highway. That truck was missing a bumper and three hubcaps, and looked like it might just shake all to pieces, it’s pistons and hoses flying out from underneath it all over the road if she hit a bump too hard. It was mighty sight to see, the old chew witch working that clutch as she came down the hill in to the grocery store parking lot, truck belching more than my uncle Alvey, who was always sneaking away when Momma wasn’t looking to have another beer in the cooler. She’d slide that big old pick up-and when I say, old, I mean that truck was probably older than my daddy-nearly right up to where our toes were hanging over the railing, and she would climb down and just give us the dirtiest look, like we were in her way. Kathy Jo called her the chew witch because she was always chewing when she came in, and she looked mean as a snake. Kathy Jo was old enough to run the register when me and my sisters were still too young to do anything but sweep up and stay out of Momma’s hair, which is why we spent so much time outside at the railing, just watching for something to happen. If the chew witch showed up though, we would quickly find something very interesting inside, so we could watch her as she shopped.

She never bought anything that looked like she could make a meal from- just odd ends and bits and part that maybe sorta might go together if she was hungry. Looked like she was hungry all the time, honestly; she was such as skinny old crone. Mommas said it’s because she chewed too much tobacco and didn’t eat enough food and I believed her. She always left a big steamy pile of nasty tobacco spit in her parking space before she climbed back into her truck. I didn’t know hardly any ladies that chewed tobacco, so it made send to me that Kathy Jo would have noticed that at age five, and fixated enough on it to make it part of her no so pleasant nickname. And as for the witch part- well, let’s just say nobody ever liked a weird old lady who lived alone.

I was maybe 12 or 13 years old when she came in the store on blazing hot day in July. She bought two cans of beans and a bag of flour. It was one of the small bags too, not the big five pound one like most people bought. I had been watching her from behind the rack of potato chips when Momma spooked me by whispering in my ear to mind my own business. I knocked the rack over when I jumped, and then I had to clean up that mess, Momma fussing that I might have crunched up all the chips. Jenny Kate and Mary Sue laughed, but Kathy Jo just gave me a mean look, like I was doing something wrong. When the chew witch left the store, I went up the register to fuss at Kathy Jo to mind her own business, but before I could say anything about it, Kathy Jo began lecturing me, like she was in charge or something!

“There’s nothing special about her, Peggy June. She’s just an old lady who lives up the holler. Why do you spy on her?”

“‘Cause she’s a weird old lady that live up the holler!” I said, feeling my face flush. I didn’t like to be corrected or embarrassed and I’d been both in the last five minutes.

“Well, maybe you ought to get to know her then, and she’ be less weird,” Kathy Jo grumped at me.

“Maybe you should get to know her,” I said, crossed my arms as I pouted. I didn’t have a better come back than that. Kathy Jo was a bit smarter than me, so even if I did, she’d have been clever enough to turn it back around on me in some way that would make me look worse than I already felt.

“Well, maybe I will! Besides, she told me just now to tell you and the girls to knock it off.” Kathy Jo always called the three of us sisters that girls, like she was an adult or something. She wasn’t. She was only 3 years older than me.

“Oh?” I said, putting my hands on my hips. “What’d she say?”

Kathy Jo leaned over the belt and looked at me pointedly. “She said, ‘tell your cousin that she can follow me around all she wants, but she won’t see anything really exciting unless she follows me home.’”

I didn’t know if it was a threat or an invitation or something else. But it did put an idea in my head.

Tag: sisters

Let Me Know If You Hear Anything New

The Chew Witch: Part 1