Willesha Willesha, little star...

Okay, so since the Friday after the hurricane, I've been volunteering at Elzie Odom, a local rec center in Arlington where some of the New Orleans folks came on the buses. I guess this Friday will make that two weeks ago. Crazy. Anyway, going up there consistenly lends itself to getting to know some of these people/families pretty well. One of the families consists of William (dad), Shawn (mom), William (son), Courtney (daughter), and Willesha (daughter, see: title of this post). They have another older son that I've never seen, and who's name I don't know, unfortunately.

Well, I go up there to say hi to my peeps this Monday evening, and after a while and as I'm on my way out, I find Willesha playing on the computer. I go up to give her a hug - being careful not to poke my eyes out on her dice ponytail holders - and she promptly greets me and asks me if I can take her for a drive. I told her that I really didn't have anywhere to drive her, and she proceeded to beg me while pulling on my arm to take her somewhere, ANYWHERE, just to "get away for a while." Now, mind you, she's 11, but as I soon discovered, she is wise beyond her 6 grades of formal education. So, of course, I consent, we go ask mom and dad, sign her out, and we're on our way to nowhere in particular.

--I'm going to have to scrounge up a picture of her and edit it in here when I find someone who has one, because she is sooo freaking cute!--

Their whole family knows everybody volunteering up there but can't remember anyone's names to save their lives. She didn't remember my name, and I was trying to see if she remembered my friend Jennifer, who's been up at the rec center EVERY day after she get's off school at 12:00 and I was describing what she looked like, and Willesha was just sitting there with a very "thinking hard" look on her face, then all of a sudden she goes, "Oh, she's the one who's 22, she was going to get married, but then they felt like God told them to wait, but she still wants to get married, and she looks like a party girl." But no name?

Anybuns, I decide to drive her to the house I just moved into with Candiss and Levi. She went to their church, Shady Grove, the Wednesday after they all got here, so I was explaining to her that Levi was the guy singing and playing guitar during the youth service. Then as I was calling to let them know I was bringing over this little bundle of joy, she kept asking me, "Was that the rock star? Is he gonna be there when we get there? 'Cause I'm gonna ask for his autograph!!" Then when she asked if we lived in a nice neighborhood, I told her that it was nice, but that we weren't rich or anything.... (because I had anything to do with their getting approved for a home loan?) and she said "Oooooh, he sure seems rich the way he all singing up on that stage!"




So we're driving and there's a ridiculous amount of traffic on 360, and to make a long discovery short, the police and firemen had both sides of the highway completely stopped because this girl had climbed up onto one of the huge exit signs and was threatening to jump. People were standing out on the highway and people had come out of their houses to watch. Willesha and I were both experiencing our surprise and hoping that she wouldn't jump when she brought this little gem to the conversation.

"Oh, she just wants attention, she ain't gonna jump. If she wants attention, she just needs to get herself a man, he'll give her plenty of attention."

You know what Willesha? You're right. She does need to get herself a man.

Oh, and she didn't jump - the girl on the exit sign. On the way back from my house, we saw that she had come down via the fire ladder. Maybe she found a man instead. *shrug*