Louie's Mom

When I was about six, my parents and I moved to the "new" side of Tinley Park. Across the street from us was acres and acres of farm land, owned by one family -the Camps. With-in a year or two, our sub-division was fully developed, I had two new siblings and there were kids galore to play with in all ages and sizes. Our front yard, or anybody's yard on the block, became the place to hang out. Kids were always knocking on eachothers doors, leaving sweaty forehead marks on the storm door while trying to peer inside to see if someone could come out to play. The sidewalks were an obsticle course of big-wheels, bikes and sports equipment, and parents encouraged us to stay outside and play, even in the front yard. There were things you could count on, like a ball game breaking out in the middle of the street at any given time, highly competitive foot races, and oh yeah - Louie's mom.

Louie was the holy terror on the block, for us as well as his parents. At least three times a day you could count on Louie's mom to walk the sidewalk, screaming LOUIE!! at the top of her lungs. If we had any trees in our new subdivision, she would have scared the birds right out of 'em. Louie's mom always looked tired, never saw her in anything other than sweat pants, and I'm not sure she ever took her hair out of it's ponytail or her feet out of her slippers. Sometimes, when she'd walk the streets screaming for Louie, her other son Anthony would follow, echoing her every shout. Occasionally, without even realizing it, she'd give her Louie cry and we'd say it back, then we'd look around to see if anybody noticed.

On the rare occasions we actually saw Louie, he was usually riding his bike away from his house and his screaming mom. Sometimes he'd ride up on the sidewalk, disturbing an intense game of running bases, or he'd park right in front of us while we were trying to watch the guy across the street cutting his lawn in a speedo. Either way, Louie was a brat. I'm not sure whatever happened to Louie, or his mom for that matter, I hadn't given them a thought since I moved out of my parents house almost 16 years ago. So why did I think of them today? Aidan was having a tantrum on the trampoline, beating up on his older brother, so I marched out to the backyard, still in my pj's and slippers, hair like a wild woman, not sure of my last shower - and screamed. AIDAN!!!! He ignored me. I did it again - AIDAN!!! Then, not bothering to walk across the back yard yelled for him to stop what he was doing or get in the house. Mission complete, I turned to walk back in, and caught a glimpse of myself in the door's reflection. The thought just popped into my head - "holy crap, I'm turning into Louie's mom!".