Stepfordized: Part 2 (Patreon)

Back on the reservation, running was a thing that many of the adults claimed was an important thing to do growing up but not something many people did. Kids grew up playing games and running around the schoolyards and neighborhoods, then once they graduated high school they just sort of…stopped. From there life became a cycle of chores, tv, drinking, and eating whatever was easiest to make at the time. Ahanu had grown up with loving but remarkably unhealthy parents that took care of her and her siblings but not themselves all that well. And being the youngest of seven kids she was fully aware of what would have awaited her if she had just stuck around the rez forever.

(1)

Her eldest brother Robert had been the star of his high school baseball team before he got his own home and spent most of his days either at work or drinking. Her eldest sister Kimimela had big dreams to be a singer, but after failing to pass her American Idol audition at 18, she found herself back at home and 50 pounds heavier by her 19th birthday. It’d been the same for all of them. The girls ended up fat, pregnant, and diabetic while the boys just ended up fat and diabetic. Only the second youngest: her sister Macha had avoided diabetes, but did so by running every day and losing all the weight she had gained as a teenager before she left to go to college. Ahanu had been conscripted to be her running buddy early on, and that had built both a strong bond and good habits between the two girls. While their other siblings were lazily smoking and drinking their lives away, the babies of the family made a pact to keep themselves healthy and fit while they established themselves and used their successes to build up businesses and opportunities on the rez for other kids growing up.

The difference between Ansley Park and the reservation though was that the roads were better paved and there were many more trees to provide shade. That and there was virtually no wind…..And there were streetlights…..And you were less likely to get hit by a drunk driver….And there were sidewalks…
It was just a better place to run, really. On a strong and personal Ahanu knew that it was because the area was owned and run the very same rich white people whose ancestors ripped apart Native American families and threw them onto shit land with few prospects and told them to stay there, but at the same time it just made her wish that there were more things like this back home. She jogged lightly up the street, controlling her breathing as she mentally replaced white families with Dakota ones and imagined longhouses where open plots of land sat empty. It was a nice place, she thought. If only it were being used by the people it actually belonged to. 

Still, the thought of giving her family and tribe a better life akin to the ones enjoyed in Ansley made her smile.

As she continued around the bend of her usual circuit she slowed to a brisk walk to catch her breath. She was leaving the neighborhoods and moving more towards the more urban center of town, which meant fewer empty sidewalks and more stoplights. Ahanu came to her normal crossroads just as a particularly energizing song came on over spotify that she’d never heard. Normally she would turn left and follow the sidewalk up a hill, past a gas station, and then make another left which would send her back into her neighborhood and home. Today however felt different. She was energized and felt great. The overcast sky was silvery and bright, limiting the summer heat to a cool and crisp morning temperature that was just short of chilly . It really was perfect running weather and as if prompted by nature and music together, she smiled and turned right.

She jogged a ways down the street before coming to what the signage told her was the Ansley Park Community Center. She knew it existed but had never actually been there partly for reason of not knowing where it was and also because she didn’t really know what they offered other than maternity yoga and daycare. Even so, the building was nice and the courtyard was well forested on one end and had a modern, urban look on the other. Ahanu wandered along the sidewalk just watching the kids play on the playground in the back, astounded at just how many children were in the city in general. It seemed that almost every house in every neighborhood had at least three little rugrats running around or at very least a pregnant woman wandering in and out with groceries.

There was a sound coming from the sidewalk that alerted her to her surroundings. A very out of place black woman was blasting some kind of punk music from an large speaker plugged into a phone sitting on top of it. Ahanu removed her headphones and stared with intrigue at the woman, instantly deciding that she was absolutely NOT from Ansley. She was dark skinned and scrawny skinny with a slight tracing of abs beneath her clearly visible ribs. Her hair was a wild tangle of dreadlocks and the sides of her head were partly shaved, adding even more to her punky goth aesthetic. She wore black jeans, a black tank top, black lipstick and black glasses. The only things on her that weren’t black were a pair of large hoop earrings and a black fabric necklace filled with pins, charms, tags, guitar picks, safety pins, and all manner of other dangly bits and widgets. Ahanu grinned, completely transfixed as she read the “Fight the Patriarchy” and “Pregnancy ≠ Slavery” signs that she’d obviously pounded into the grass next to a small building at the end of the property near the sidewalk.

(2)

“Oi! See somethin’ you like, luv? Or you just starin’ fa’ funsies?” The black woman called out in a slightly deep cockney accent that only made Ahanu’s smile widen.

“Sorry!” Ahanu yelled over the music. “Could you turn this down please?”

“Fuck off!” The woman yelled back, scowling venomously at the request.

“Sorry!” Ahanu called again, now with the intention of trying to explain. This was the edgiest, most non-stepford woman she’d seen since moving to Ansley and thus was the last person she didn’t want to not like her. “I didn’t mean it like that! I think you’re awesome! Can I ask your na-Oh.”

She’d reached over and lowered the volume on her phone before Ahanu could finish asking her question, causing her to pause.

“Yeh? Wot’s up then? I like your ‘air by the way.” The woman said as she lit up a cigarette.

“Oh, thank you! I just wanted to say you’re awesome. You’re like the first person I’ve seen here that wasn’t pregnant or like...-“

“Steppy?” The woman said, finishing the statement before the Native girl could.

“Yeah, exactly! This place is mostly all big boobed baby factories so you’re like…You stand out in a really cool way.” She said.

The black girl nodded rhythmically with a slight grin, not looking at Ahanu at all. “Cat’le. S’wot they are really. S’wot I call ‘em. You got a name, braidy bunch?” 

“Ahanu.” The nerdy runner replied, extending her hand for a handshake.

“Eliza.” The woman responded, slapping her hand like a low-five instead of shaking it.

Ahanu was absolutely charmed. She’d known that she was bisexual for years but had never really had a particularly strong attraction to a woman in person before. It figures, she thought that of course her first major heart-fluttering girl crush was the least feminine woman in town. She smiled, feeling the apples of her cheeks scrunching up to her eyes in a blushy, almost painful way.

“Oi. You’re starin’. What, fancy me already?” Eliza said, grinning smugly with a cocky lift of her chin.
Ahanu’s smile dropped instantly, panic gripping her at the thought of being too obvious. What was only moments ago a warm and giddy racing of her pulse became an icy heaviness in her chest and a fit of nausea in her stomach.

Eliza just chuckled silently, taking a drag of her cigarette and blowing it playfully at the flustered girl.
“Relax, braidy bunch. I’m not offended. If anything I’m fla’ered to see a lil cu’ie all chuffed up over lil’ ol me.” She said in heavily accented English before leaning in closer and taking on a much more serious expression. “But I swear if you eva tell me to turn down The Clash ever again, I’ll put me boot in your arse, savvy?”

Ahanu stood frozen in place, unsure of what to do or how to react. She wasn’t sure if this girl was joking or not and thus couldn’t tell whether it was okay to laugh or dismiss what was said. Eliza just burst out into a delighted grin, showing off a set of surprisingly white teeth for someone who smoked.

The two spoke for a while, introducing themselves better and sharing bits of history. Ahanu spoke about life on the reservation and Eliza matched her with stories about growing up in the South End of England and running through the streets of Portsmouth while getting chased by the cops. Apparently, her parents had sent her to David Grant as a way of reforming her and getting her back on track to a “proper life.” Naturally, she was using her time in America to protest the standards set not only for her as a person, but for those set for women in general.

“The name says it all really.” She ranted, talking over her own music after having raised the volume again. “David Grant Women’s Academy. Got a bloke’s name on a woman’s college. S’brainwashin s’wot it is.”

Ahanu was nodding in agreement when she happened to glance over to see a portly redheaded woman waddling towards them. She wore her hair in a short bob and had a dress that would have been considered conservative had it not been for the plunging neckline that displayed a vast valley of droopy cleavage adorned with a christian cross necklace. The woman walked up with a saccharine sweet smile on her face but both Ahanu and Eliza knew she wasn’t there to offer them fresh baked cookies.

(3)

“Hey there ladies!” The redhead called out, waving a thick, flabby arm.

“Fantastic.” Eliza muttered under her breath. 

“Mummy wants attention now. Just ignore her and maybe she’ll go away.”

“Hey. Hi. Excuse me. Um. Hi.” The woman said, waving over and over in an attempt to get either girl to look at her. When they didn’t, her expression soured slightly and she plunged her hands into her doughy hips and stared at them authoritatively.

“EXCUSE ME, LADIES.”

Ahanu looked over at her momentarily with an unamused expression. She was well accustomed to the behavior of entitled white women at this point and despised dealing with it. She imagined that this woman was going to assume that because she was older than her that she believed she had some kind of power or commanded a level of fear in the younger woman that she didn’t. Instead of looking away, Ahanu took the more confrontational approach and glared directly into the woman’s eyes. She’d meant for it to scare the woman into backing off or at least for it to communicate that whatever she wanted wasn’t happening, but it seemed like all it did was validate her speaking.

“Hey there! So um. I’m Miss Cassie and I work over in that building over there? The one full of kids?” She said accusingly.

Eliza continued staring off into the distance casually, taking a drag off of her cigarette as she did and refusing to look at the woman. “Ay, good for you. Really makin’ a dif’rence, you are. Proud of ya, love. Carry on.”

“Oh, how cool! You’re British. Ow’ Lovely!” Miss Cassie said, faking an awful English accent at the end. “Well, I came over because as much as I’m down with ‘the cause’ and fighting The Man and all that, there ARE a bunch of little kids in my class trying to have fun playing outside right now so I would really appreciate it if you kept your music down and maybe stopped smoking right in front of them?”

“Sod off, steppie.” Eliza said bluntly and blew a plume of smoke directly into her face causing her to cough slightly.

“Okay. Look. I know you think that I’m one of the ‘stepfords’ around here, but I’m telling you I’m not like that. I used to be just like you guys, always protesting or fighting against something. But you know what? Once I realized that taking care of people was more important than standing around outside for hours and holding signs that frankly no one’s even going to read, I started making more friends having more fun.” Miss Cassie gushed, a dreamy smile filling her expression as she seemed lost in her own reverie.

 
“I mean, I used to have no one but myself and now I’m part of a community, I got married…..I found GOD. Hm? That’s always good, right?” She said, emphasizing her religious revelation as if she were an old lady trying to entice a little kid with candy or a trip to the park or something, completely oblivious to the fact that no one else found those things even remotely tempting.

“Soooo……Which god would that be?” Ahanu asked cheekily, garnering a small, impressed grin from Eliza. Miss Cassie however seemed completely taken aback.

“Wait, what do you mean?” She asked seriously.
“Are we talking like Anpo or Wóhpe, or since you’re clearly of European descent is this a holy message from Odin or like Zeus or whatever? Perhaps you’re a Buddhist? Or an acolyte of Dagda?”

Ahanu’s pantheon-spanning questions did not sit well with Miss Cassie who was becoming more and more red in the face as she kept trying to butt in only to be offered more mythological figures.

“You don’t peg me as a Roman enthusiast. Perhaps you’re into voodoo or something?” Ahanu continued, looking mockingly thoughtful.

“I think you know what I mean.” Miss Cassie said indignantly. “And I don’t appreciate you mocking my spiritual beliefs or disrespecting me while I’m just trying to have a friendly discussion with you.”

“Roight. You were just discussin tellin a Native American to fuck off your land innit? Is that cool? Is that a *cool* thing that you’re doin, mum? Wot’s yer plan I wonda if braidy bunch an I decide to plant our arses roight ‘ere for the rest of the day? Fuck it, we might as well grab a bot’le a Jack Daniels and ‘ave ourselves a bloody good time, hey? Let the lit’lies see wot fun’s all about while you sway them with a passionate sermon or some such. See ‘oh wins.” 

Eliza said, flicking her cigarette into the street and looking at Cassie for the first time. She stared threateningly through her glasses and advanced on the woman menacingly, causing her to back up several steps before making another attempt to stand her ground.

“Look, I’m not trying to be a stick in the mud here. I mean it when I say I know what you guys are about but I’m just saying that this isn’t an appropriate time OR place to be doing that stuff! I don’t want to fight with you, but I HAVE to ask you to leave for the sake of the kids.”

Eliza took another step forward. 

“And if we don’t?” She asked, a menthol-infused wickedness coming through her smoky-smooth voice. 

“Well then…If you don’t leave then I’m going to have to call the police!” Miss Cassie threatened, folding her arms across her fat breasts, a cocky, overly sweet fake smile belying a sense that she had already won the confrontation.

Eliza was completely unbothered and continued approaching the dowdy redhead. 

“Well. Throw the darkie in jail izzet? You’re battin’ two fo' two, luv.”

She began rubbing her narrow chin with her long, spindly fingers.

Well, I ‘ave to say, that does sound a bit scary…. But wot ‘appens if I beat your arse before you eva’ get to call, eh? Wot if a snatch that cute lil’ phone roight out’cha hand and stomp it into the ground? Wot then? You fact’a that I to you’re li’le plan?”

Miss Cassie gulped visibly and began to tremble as her eyes went wide and her breathing stiffened. Whereas before she had some semblance of backbone, now it seemed that she was slowly being paralyzed with fear as the advancing punk seemed unaffected by her posturing and threats of authority. Her heart began to race and her hands were charged with nervous energy, shaking wildly with the fear that she was about to get the shit kicked out of her.

“Cassie!” A cheery, beautiful voice rang out from the main building like the chime of a glass bell.
All three women turned to see a dazzlingly beautiful woman clad in a soft pink skirt and a white turtleneck blouse. She was thin and blonde, but had a generous bust and long, smooth legs that complimented a more competent aura about her than Miss Cassie did.

(4)

“The kids are coming back in for Arts and Crafts time now, so I need to you to come on back in, alright?” She called out.

Miss Cassie stared at Eliza for a moment before taking a deep, shaky breath in and turning to waddle back inside as quickly as she could.

The pretty blonde looked over at Ahanu and her new friend before smiling brightly and waving to them. She lingered only for a moment and then walked Cassie inside, dropping her dazzling smile for only a second before turning away, leaving both girls with the final impression of a hard eyed glare that was infinitely more dangerous looking than anything the redhead had done.

“Shit.” Eliza said after both of the pastel-clad ladies had gone inside. “That one’s trouble. You prolly wanna steer clear of her for a while, braidy bunch.”

Ahanu felt the heat coming off the blonde woman as well, but that had really only spurred on her anger towards the locals. 

“Nah. She doesn’t scare me. I do have to go though.” She said.

“Ahh, well. I’ll prob’ly pack up then meself. Don’t wanna tango with the fuzz all by me lonesome if the tomato lady decides to make good on her threats.” Eliza shrugged.

“But uhhh…before you go…..” She mumbled into a black purse as she rummaged around inside of it for a moment, holding the lip by punching it between her neck and chin. She handed Ahanu a receipt from Target with her number hastily written on the back.

“Gimme a ring sometime, hey?” 

Ahanu nodded and blushed again, her wide smile pushing her cheeks up again as she turned away without a word. She put her earbuds back in and turned on her music, bounding energetically down the street effortlessly. Her breaths became giddy and gleeful as her eyes widened and mouth puckered inward with the realization of what had just happened.