Sugar Magnolia

Maggie came to Felicita for the most practical of reasons, though it was also, she thought, through the hand of serendipity.

Hannah had been dating Tom for months and wanted to show her love for him with a gift to remember. When Tom opened the box and saw Maggie, he was thrilled. He oohed and aahed over her before he turned his attention back to Hannah. They made out for a while until they heard a blood curdling scream coming from the living room.

“Uh oh,” said Hannah as she looked over and realized that Maggie had left the room.

They ran to the living room where Tom’s mother continued to shriek. She was standing on the couch literally freaking out. Crying and barely able to speak. Hannah went over and picked up Maggie saying “Mrs. Endicott, she’s perfectly harmless. Look how cute she is.”

Mrs. Endicott definitely did not think Maggie was cute.

“Isn’t she great, Mom? Her name is Sugar Magnolia. It’s my birthday gift from Hannah.” said Tom.

“Hannah, it’s very sweet of you to give Tom such a...unique… gift, but that ..creature.. cannot stay in my house. “

“Moooom? She’s mine! I want to keep her.”

“I’m sorry Tom. Hannah, maybe it can live with you. Tom could come to visit and help you look after it. Now, please, get that thing out of my house.”

Hannah and Tom took Maggie back to the bedroom and packed up to get ready to go.

“It’s ok, Tom. Like your Mom said, I’ll just keep her at my place for when you come over and then when we go to university, we can bring her with us.”

A week later, Hannah and Tom broke up. Hannah dropped Maggie off in the box at Tom’s house saying it was now Tom’s problem.

Once again, Tom’s mom ordered Maggie out of the house.

Felicita had left home a few months earlier. Things had gotten a little out of hand and she had spent most of the last month sleeping over at different friend’s houses. Hannah told her that her dad owned a building down on Daly St. and needed a caretaker. Felicita agreed to take the garbage out and sweep the stairs once a week in exchange for reduced rent on the upstairs apartment.

The apartment blew her away. It was just a few blocks from school. Ostensibly a studio apartment, the layout made it seem like a one bedroom, with the bed hidden at one end under the sloped roof. It had deep windows, stone walls, and loads of light. It was just about the best place she had ever seen. She couldn’t believe her luck.

Hannah mentioned Maggie.

“No one else can keep her. You’re the only one that doesn’t live at home. Do you think you could just take her for a few weeks until Tom can figure something out?”

Felicita agreed and Maggie moved into a corner in the living room. At first Felicita mostly left her alone, reaching in to show her off only when people came over. But she felt sorry for Maggie stuck in that aquarium all the time. She started letting her roam around the room sometimes. Maggie would just slither around and find a place to curl up in. Sometimes she would wrap herself around Felicita’s neck to feel the warmth.

Maggie proved to be an amusing roommate. When her aunts came by for a visit they went over to Maggie’s aquarium, exclaiming at the idea that a Boa Constrictor was residing in Felicita’s living room. Maggie was in her little aquarium box at the time so they couldn’t see her. Or so Felicita thought. As they chatted and sipped tea, out of the corner of her eye Felicita spied Maggie slithering across the living room. The aunts were looking the other way and Felicita was able to distract them long enough for Maggie to make it across the room and under the bookshelf.

Often Felicita would lose track of Maggie for a day or two and begin to worry. She always turned up. Coming up the fire escape one day she encountered Maggie on her way down it. Or the time she had to entice her out of a hole in the wall – seemed she had been visiting the neighbours.

A few times Felicita would find her in ways that were slightly more alarming.

Once Felicita felt something hard in her pillow when she was going to sleep and upon lifting her pillowcase Maggie came sprawling out all muscle and squirm. Felicita couldn’t help screaming.

Maggie liked the bathroom; steamy like the jungle she really belonged in. The bathtub in the apartment was an old clawfoot with a shower curtain wrapped around it. Behind the curtain against the wall was a shelf that held the shampoo and conditioner. On one memorable occasion, Felicita, squinting open her soaped up eyes found herself nose to nose with Maggie who was poking her head out from behind the curtain. Felicita screamed again.

Tom kept telling her that he was going to come to retrieve Maggie as soon as he had a place of his own. Until Tom decided he had to sell Maggie.

“She’s actually worth quite a lot of money,” he said. “Hannah was always very generous.”

About a week later, Tom called to say the guy who was buying Maggie was going to come to take her away that day. He gave Felicita instructions on how much money he had agreed to. With mixed emotions, Felicita got Maggie into her aquarium and made sure everything was clean and neat.

Luckily, Maggie had eaten just yesterday. The procedure for feeding Maggie was always harrowing but that week had been particularly strange. She had put Maggie into her aquarium along with the hamster (try finding small cheap rodents to feed to a Boa Constrictor!). Normally Maggie would just lie still for a minute and then in a blink that you could miss if you weren’t watching carefully, she would strike the hamster, wrapping it in her death grip until the poor little creature’s eyes would bug out and its tongue would begin to loll. The fascinating part was after the kill when Maggie unhinged her jaw to swallow the hamster whole.

But earlier that week when Felicita put Maggie into the aquarium with the hamster and sat down to watch the kill, Maggie didn’t move. Felicita waited for an hour or so and gave up.

Approaching the aquarium in the morning, Felicita expected to see the bulge in Maggie’s side and the funny smile she had after a feed. Instead she saw the hamster scurrying around the aquarium, seemingly oblivious to Maggie’s dangerous presence. Eventually, Felicita felt guilty enough to feed the hamster some salad bits. The hamster sat happily chewing with its buck teeth, completely unaware of Maggie’s stare. This went on for days. Felicita took to taking “Hammy” out of the aquarium to play with him and then putting him back in with the almost immobile Maggie. She figured Maggie was either sick or had just gone off hamsters. She considered her options. That’s all she needed, a Boa Constrictor and a Hamster.

Six days after Hammy’s arrival, Felicita saw Maggie move. It was over before the hamster could even register any alarm. At least, thought Felicita after getting the call from Tom, Maggie would have a full stomach going to her new home.

When Felicita opened the door to Maggie’s new owner, she tried to keep an open mind. Gunner, as he introduced himself, was wearing military style lace up boots, jeans with a chain in the pocket reaching up to his leather vest with a black t-shirt and skull on it. On his head, was a red bandana.

“Yeah, so I came to get the snake.” Gunner said.

“Oh,” said Felicita. “Right. Have you had snakes before?”

“Yeah sure. I had a snake before. I took him everywhere with me. Like I would take him on my bike to the store and just have him wrapped around me. People would totally be freaked out.”

“So, you still have him?”

“No, he got some kind of fungus and died.”

Felicita shifted from foot to foot. Gunner was standing in the hallway between the kitchen and the door blocking her way out. She was nervous but wasn’t so keen on Maggie being used by a biker dude as some kind of a prop.

 “Fungal infections are caused by unclean environments. Did you clean his aquarium regularly?”

“What are you saying,” Gunner asked. “That I can’t look after my snake?”

“No, no, “responded Felicita. “I was just asking. Anyway, Tom called and said to tell you he had decided not to sell the snake after all.”

“You shitting me? I rode all the way over here. Why didn’t he tell me sooner? Can I use your phone? I want to call him.”

“Sorry,” said Felicita, “My phone is out of order right now. I don’t want to get in the middle or anything, but you guys need to sort it out. I have to go now though.”

She picked up her bag and moved towards the doorway, motioning Gunner to leave with her. He led the way muttering at her and threatening to sue Tom. She kept saying how sorry she was as she watched him get on his bike and drive off. She ran back upstairs and called Tom. He was pretty annoyed.

“He was going to pay a lot for her,” whined Tom.

“I know Tom,” argued Felicita, “but he couldn’t look after Maggie. She’s a pet. A living animal. Not a prop.”

“Ok fine. I’ll find someone else to buy her.”

Felicita never heard from Tom again. She didn’t mind. She and Maggie were meant to be together.