Juliet in Frozen Food

She can't remember
Which of them likes turnip greens

How sad is that?

Her own children
Only three of them

And she can't remember which likes turnip greens

She only knows
That since she's been integrating turnip greens
Into the nightly meals
Because of their nutritional value
Someone has been eating all of them
While the other two leave them untouched
But she didn't think to check
Who it was that seemed to like them

She thought about calling home
And just asking

She wouldn't need to buy as many turnip greens this week
And if Charles was the one who liked them
She wouldn't need to buy them at all
Because Charles was in D.C. with her husband
For the National Geography Bee
And she was very proud

Juliet wasn't even aware
That there were National Geography Bees
But she was certainly pleased to know
That her son finally had something to excel at

Her daughter Tiffany was a brilliant young artist
Who had already been asked to display her finger paintings
In the lobby of the Advanced Learning Center that she went to
And her son Dover fancied himself a playwright
Already completing a five-act play
During recess the other day

His teacher told her that he was the most creative student at Winston Prep
And that the rest of the fourth graders were developing insecurity complexes because of him
Which made Juliet incredibly proud

And then there was Charles
Who always seemed tormented by something
Ever since he was a child

He wouldn't cry, exactly
But he wouldn't smile or laugh
He'd just look up at her, his mother
And scrunch up his face
As if the very sight of it
Gave off an unpleasant odor

Up until he was selected for the Bee
His life had was that of a background actor's
In a big budge action movie

Juliet could see him, always see him
But he always seemed to be reacting to what was going on around him
Rather than engaging in any of it

It worried Juliet, but she talked to her husband about it
He told her that it was unreasonable to assume
That all their children would be gifted

It was almost as if he were saying
'Best two out of three'
And though this offended her
She was not going to try and make a father
Understand the worries of a mother

Instead she went back to reading the book from her Book Club
Until her husband turned off the light
To go to sleep

She picked the peas out of the freezer
And the broccoli florets
Not the cuts

One time she'd bought the cuts
And the kids had howled in agony

Broccoli cuts were just chunks of something
That tasted faintly like broccoli, but overwhelmingly so
As opposed to the florets, which were fun to eat
Because it was like eating little men
With hair from the 70's

Tiffany could eat a bowl of the florets
With a little extra virgin olive oil on top
As an after school snack

She mentioned once that her friends got to eat cookies after school
But one look at a website showing the effects of too much sugar on tooth enamel
Was enough to send Tiffany running right back to the broccoli

She was fascinated with the story of how her parents met

Juliet found it sweet, but she was sad that it wasn't more of a story
So that her daughter's romanticism could be satisfied

'We met in Italy.'
'Italia.'
'Yes, Tiffany.  Italia.  Those classes are really paying off, aren't they?'
'Grandpa?'
'No, Grandpa wasn't there.  He didn't support your father marrying me.  And my parents didn't like your father or his family.  That's why we don't speak to them anymore.  It's for the best though.  They were toxic people--the lot of them.'
'Cookie?'
'All right, Tiffany, I see we're going to be spending a lot of time on Google this afternoon.'

Dover reminded her of her father

The way he'd spike his hair out at the ends
So that he looked like that comedian who smashes watermelons
Or that professor she had in college
Who used to read every word of Heart of Darkness out loud during class
At eight o'clock in the morning
Stopping between each sentence to know--

'How 'bout that, huh?  Huh?  Wow.  Okay, let's keep going.'

Dover didn't seem to like his father
Maybe that was why he reminded Juliet of Big Roy, her daddy

In his latest play--

(Selections of which were presented by the fourth grade class on 'Express Yourself' night)

--The protagonist slaughtered his father mercilessly in front of his mother using a broken plastic sippy cup that his father had taken away from his as a child while his mother watched and laughed maniacally.

The dialogue was a little stiff
But the lighting was superb.

All the same, Juliet was glad her husband had to work that night
He wouldn't have understood the implications of the production
But he would have wanted to know the play's ending
And Juliet was convinced that it probably wasn't very pleasant

'Did you ever take Dover's sippy cup away from him,' she asked her husband that evening
'Dover never used a sippy cup,' he said, 'He used to like having his liquids poured into a eye dropper, remember?'
'Oh yes,' she said, 'His baby bird fixation.'
'These pillows are too big.  I feel like I'm going to fall off the bed.'

Juliet let that be the end of the discussion

As she was contemplating whether or buy the frozen onions
Or get fresh ones in the produce department
Her phone rang

'Hello?'
'He won'
'What?'
'He won.  He's the champion.'
'Charles?'
'The National Geography Bee Champion.  There are photos.'
'Oh--oh--my--oh--'
'Online.  I think they're online by now.  They just took them, but nowadays--'
'How is he?'
'What do you mean how is he?  He won.'
'Does he look--?'
'He looks like he's always looked, but at least now, he's a winner.'
'I suppose.'
'Look, I have to go.  They're doing an interview with him.'
'An interview?  Who's--?'
'I have to go.  I'll call you tonight.'

Her husband had gone with him
Because if he had the option of taking care of two kids and not missing work
Or missing work and only having to worry about one
And get a trip to D.C. out of the bargain
He'd happily be the chaperone

Now she felt a little envious
That she wasn't there with Charles
Getting to experience his victory with him

She grabbed the frozen chopped onions
And threw them in her shopping cart

Juliet felt badly that she never has time to bother with fresh produce
But between school and extracurricular activities
And studying and reading
And making sure that every piece of paper the children used
Got recycled
She just always seemed to wind up in frozen food

And when the door to the freezer shut
She could see herself there
Reflected onto a bag of carrots

And when she tried to determine
Whether or not she looked sad

She determined that doing something like that
Was ultimately a waste of time

And her cart carried on