Mama Welsh

I opened the door to a young woman who was just a few inches shorter than me. She had bright pink hair, cut short into a pixie style. She smiled broadly at me showing perfectly straight teeth that had a large gap towards the right side from one badly chipped tooth. She had piercings twice in her lip, once in her nose and once in her eyebrow. It was then that I saw her eyes. They were easily the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen. They were a deep emerald green and sparkled with an intensity that demanded my attention. I stared at them as I felt myself melting. Time stopped as I continued to look into the vortex of...

".....Hey, you ok there?" I heard her say in the same musical voice I had heard over the phone. I blinked.

"Oh sorry...what did you say?" I blushed and shrunk into myself.

"Are you Tara?" she asked still smiling and seemingly unphased by my awkward staring. "I have a medium pepperoni with double the pep and double the boring," she cocked her head to the right and winked. I looked up as I laughed so as not to get lost in the pools of her eyes again.

"So you are the girl I spoke to on the phone?" I asked," I didn't expect you to also be the delivery girl."

"Oh I do it all,"she said excitedly." I take the orders, cook the pizza, deliver the pizza, and take the payment. I am your pizza girl." she smiled brightly.

"Oh yea! The payment! I am so sorry. Give me one second, please." As I turned to grab my wallet I heard a loud crash from the unit above mine. "OH SHIT!" I yelled," Mama Welsh!"

I ran past the pizza girl and quickly took the stairs up from my basement unit turned left towards the turquoise painted door to Mama Welsh's unit. I opened the door knowing it would be unlocked.

"Mama Welsh where are you? Are you ok?" I exclaimed as I started scanning the rooms in her three bedroom apartment.

"I'm in the kitchen Tara!" I heard the crackly, old voice yell out.

I ran into the kitchen that was at the other end of the hall. as I entered, I saw red splattered everywhere. the bright yellow cabinets were saturated with the dripping red liquid. In the center of the kitchen I saw a short, plump figure hunched over a shattered, glass baking dish that had held some sort of tomato based dish. The dish itself was what was caking the walls and countertops.

"Well shit," the old lady crowed. "I've gone and fucked mine and Toady's dinner."

"Oh Mama you about scared me to death! Are you alright?" I asked as I strode over and bent down to take over picking up the shards of glass. I shooed Mama Welsh away as she tried to continue to clean up the ruined dish. "Now don't you try to clean this up Mama, you will cut your hands. Go sit down. I will get this cleaned up.

"Alright dear," she shuffled over to the oversized recliner in the living room adjacent to the kitchen. "Oh!" she exclaimed," Aren't you a fine looking gal. Is this a new girlfriend Tara? I am so glad to see you meeting people again."

I looked up and saw the pizza girl walking toward me. She set down the pizza she was still holding on the dining table. "Hi there. I'm not Tara's girlfriend," she winked at me for a second time before stopping at the armchair Mama sat in and shook her hand," I am just a lowly pizza girl, but I am an expert at cleaning up messy marinara disasters" She smiled. " Mama Welsh where are your cleaning towels? I will wipe down the cupboards."

I watched her as she made her way to the hall closet that Mama directed her to. I was awestruck as she walked into the kitchen and started wiping away the mess. She acted so comfortable, as though she didn't just walk into an unfamiliar house to help one stranger clean up another stranger's mess.

"Oh you are just the sweetest thing," Mama cooed." what's your name dear?"

"My name is Prudence Rose Williams, but please, just call me Rose." she looked up at me from the sink where she was rinsing out the sauce covered towel"Hey you. You're staring again. I know I am cute, but we should finish cleaning up this mess. You still need to pay for your pizza and I need to get back to the store soon."

My face turned red as I realized I had been staring at her this whole time instead of cleaning up the glass. I quickly picked up the largest pieces and tossed them in the waste bin next to the fridge. I went to the same closet that held the linens and grabbed a broom, dustpan and mop. "Mama you can eat some of that pizza. I was gonna have leftovers anyway. and there is extra pepperoni on it so you can pick some off for Toady."

The old brown chair squeaked as Mama Welsh pulled herself up. she slowly hobbled her way to the table. She grabbed a plate from one of the four place settings and dished herself a slice and picked five pieces of pepperoni off the remaining pizza still in the box.

"Toady! Come here my angel" she called. I heard a dull thud as something heavy hit the floor. A rather fat, black and tan dachshund came slowly waddling from the bedroom and straight to the dog bed set up next to the faded lazyboy.

Rose and I finished cleaning the kitchen within five minutes. I wrapped two more slices of pizza in some plastic film and placed them in the fridge for Mama to eat later I gave the old woman a tight hug and kissed her on the forehead before warning her not to scare me again. As I held the door for us to leave I caught a whiff of apples mixed with pizza as Rose passed me. I smiled.

I hurried back downstairs I stepped into my unit. I grabbed my purple wallet off the end table next to the door.

"So you live in the duplex under your mom? Isn't that basically the same as living in your parents basement?" Rose giggled.

"She's not my mom She is way too old!" I laughed,"She is just a long time family friend. This duplex is actually owned by my sister-in-law. She inherited a bunch of properties from her grandparents so she let Mama Welsh move in rent free when Mr. Welsh, her husband, died about 4 years ago. I moved in a few months after that. I check up on her a lot and help her out with cleaning and errands. She's like a grandma to me but since we were young my brother and I always called her Mama Welsh."

"I'm sorry that I rushed off and left you here without paying," I said as I handed her a twenty."Thank you for helping me and Mama. Please keep the change."

"It was no trouble really." She smiled. Damn she was cute."Please tell Mama Welsh that if it keeps her from making dangerous dishes, she can always call my work and I will give her a special discount on whatever pizzas she wants! Here is two business cards. One for Mama Welsh and one for you." She took a pen out of her front pocket and scribbled something on the back of one of cards."This one is yours. she handed me the card she had written on. That's my cell. I'm new in town and need people to hang out with. You seem like a fun girl, even if you do have boring taste in pizza."

she winked at me one last time before she turned on her heel jogged off toward the bike she had propped up against the chain fence surrounding the property. She waved at me as she hopped on and quickly peddled away.

Who was this girl?