From Peanut Town to the Big Apple

“I think I’m ready!” exclaimed, excited yet nervous Maybelle. “Honey, we’re gonna miss you.”, said her sniffling parents. They were nervous about sending their child, who was only eighteen, across the country. 

The Millers were from the small town of Kinsey, AL. Which is right outside of Dothan. Maybelle was the youngest of four kids. So, all of her brothers had already moved out. 

Maybelle had recently been accepted to The Juilliard School, In New York. She had an astounding voice. She could play the piano and the guitar. She would always remember the day when her acceptance letter arrived. 

It was June seventeenth, a scorching hot day with not a cloud in the sky. She had just got home from working at her aunt’s flower truck. One of Maybelle’s favorite things in life. She loved explaining what it was to people. “It’s like a food truck, but with flowers!”, she would say. 

So, she had just got home from work. She was exhausted from standing in the heat for hours. “Maybelle Miller is plumb tuckered out!”, she exclaimed as she walked through the door. Then, just as she sat down the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it!”, she yelled as she headed to the door. “Oh hey Patty”, Maybelle said. Patty was the Millers’ next-door neighbor. “Here’s some of yall’s mail that got delivered to my house.”, said Patty “Good Lord in the morning!”, Maybelle shrieked “What?” screamed her parents, who were red in the face because they had rushed out of the house. “I got in, I got in, I got in!” Maybelle declared gleefully “I’m so proud of you baby,” said her mom in joy. Everyone was super hyped about Maybelle getting into one of the most prestigious music schools in the country. Even Patty who never once had anyone seen smile. 

“Wait, huh, what,” said befuddled Maybelle. “What is it, sweetie?”, asked her dad “M-m-m-m my flight, it leaves in three days. The information packet says students coming from far away have to move early to help them adjust better.” “Oh wow”, said Patty “This is terrible!”, exclaimed Maybelle “I was going to help Aunt Tilly for the rest of the summer!”, shouted Maybelle “Calm down Mays, it’s gonna be okay”, stated her dad “Well, I guess I better start getting packed”, she said and then stormed back to the house. 

The next three days Maybelle had the same routine pack, sulk, eat, pack, sulk, eat. The time had finally come, Maybelle and her parents arrived at the airport in Atlanta, GA. Over the three days, Maybelle had developed a bubbling excitement and desire to move to New York. “I think I’m ready!”, said excitedly yet nervous Maybelle “Honey, we’re gonna miss you”, said her sniffing parents, and just like that Maybelle boarded the plane. After a two and a half hour flight, the plane finally landed. “At last”, said Maybelle as she took a deep breath in. “Eww, what is that nasty smell?”, she said to herself. “Smells like I’m trapped in an oven that has been rotting in a sewer for five years!”, scoffed Maybelle 

She headed towards the side of the road. “Taxi”, she yelled as loud as she could Maybelle confidently hoped in. Then when she caught a glimpse of the driver she screamed. “Let me guess, first time in the big apple?”, a greasy, dirty, overweight man in all black asked her with a strong Boston accent “Thant’s right”, she answered. “Can you take me to- she paused to look at her map 1347 Figure Avenue?” “Whatever”, said the driver. When they arrived Maybelle was very iffy about the looks of the apartment complex. “Hopefully the inside is better”, Maybelle said in her head 

“Ok, now I need to find floor five-room five hundred sixty-three,” she said “I wonder if my roommate is nice. I wonder where she is from.” she thought. When she got to her room she was so afraid to open the door. So many thoughts filled her head. Finally, she slowly opened the door, she peaked her head in. At first, she didn’t see anyone, but when she walked in there was one girl. She had dark skin brown eyes and was about five-foot-six. She was wearing a neon orange crop-top, black cargo pants, black combat boots, and a black and orange striped bandana. “Hi, I’m Maybelle, I’m from Kinsey, Alabama”, she said nervously. “The name’s Talia, I’m from the Bronx”, said Maybelle’s new roommate “Cool”, Maybelle said trying to make small talk

Maybelle and Talia were very different in many ways. Maybelle was raised down south, she got a good education, and she came from a wealthy family. It was the opposite of Talia. They had different tastes in fashion, for example, Maybelle was wearing a baby blue silk dress, pearl earrings, white pumps, a baby blue, pale yellow, and white blazer, and a white Chanel clutch. Talia was wearing neon orange, black, and combat boots. 

That night Maybelle really wanted to get to know Talia a little bit more. The first thing she said was, “I know this is a random question, but what is your favorite food. “Umm, Mashed potatoes”, she said. Maybelle loudly gasped, “I love mashed potatoes. They are like my favorite food ever!”, she exclaimed “I kind of have an addiction”, Talia admitted “Me too”, whispered Maybelle. 

About two or three hours had passed and then Maybelle said, “What if I and you went to Walmart and got broke by wiping out Walmart’s entire stock of instant mashed potatoes”, piped Maybelle “I’m totally down”, said chill, Talia. They road a taxi to Walmart, and neither of the two said a word. 

When they got to Walmart the girls headed towards the back of the store where the instant rice and instant mashed potatoes. It turned out Walmart had just restocked instant mashed potatoes only seconds before Maybelle and Talia had come. Unsure, Maybelle looked at Talia and said, “Are we really doing this?” “Oh yeah baby”, said Talia The girls ended up with ninety-six boxes of instant mashed potatoes and a new lamp for their apartment. “Well, that is a dumb thing I did when I was your age”, said Maybelle to her eighteen-year-old son, twenty-five years later.