Tomorrow someone is coming to take our beds. My little sister Jenny and I have slept in them for as long as I can remember. The scratchy brown rug that we fought and played on is going too. Someone bought all of our bedroom furniture to use in there summer cabin down in The Lake of the Ozarks.1
I don't think I have ever been so sad, except when my brother Willie ran away last fall. My Mom screamed and cried until the police found him sitting on a park bench in St. Louis and Dad got on a bus and brought him back to Kansas City. 2
It was three days after Christmas and Willie was back, but it didn't feel like Christmas, with no presents or decorated tree. Then Mom baked a big turkey dinner with all the trimmings. It was a good thing she did because Willie is six feet three inches tall. That's big for a boy of fifteen, but Willie is big in height only, with a long bony body and a face that is pale against his black hair and those dark eyes, that don't tell what they know.3
He didn't talk much after coming home. He starred out of the dining room window a lot. Looking at that big Spruce tree in front of our house. Tense like a cat watching a mouse, readying himself to pounce. He was looking at something hard, looking at something we couldn't see. It was a long cold winter this year, with a lot of ice inside as well as on the outside of that house of ours.4
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Finally, it's early Spring and I am in the shed putting more seeds in pots to wait on a window ledge. Soon warmer nights will come and I can free them into the garden. I smile to myself thinking of those warm nights ahead. While refilling the watering can to feed my thirsty plants. Something makes me look up, and there is Willie standing still, with his face out of the light. I freeze, he ducks his head and moves so I can see those silent eyes thawing into tears spilling on the dirt that's soaking up the water from my waiting plants. 6
"Hi squirt", Willie's voice cracks like a dried seed and then he pours out his story so fast I have trouble holding on. It feels as if I'm a rock hard dried creek bed, trying to contain a flash flood. I listen. 7
"It was sometime I had out there. I didn't know you could get so hungry until after about four days off that Greyhound bus. That was when I found myself in an alley, looking through a garbage bin at the back of a restaurant..... Hey squirt did ya hear me? I'm telling ya it's no place for a nice girl to be goin to". 8
"Anyhow, here I am standing in this alley with one hand down in the garbage lookin' for somethin' to eat, scraps maybe, wrapped up and kind'a clean". 9
He sighs , I guess for a breath and then starts right back in. "I was just lifting the lid off the next bin and wouldn't ya know, that's when the kitchen door opens, lighting me up, like a silhouetted idiot standin' on a stage who wasn't told the curtain was up. So squirt, ya no what I went and did? I acted like I was just waitin' for this moment, as if was thinking it was a naturally funny part I was cast into. Ya know what, I really did feel that way, I really did sis". 10
"So I says with a grin on my face and one hand coming out of the garbage, how about a smile pal? And I let go of the lid with a crash ,Uh, that was sorta' accidental, but the lid spinning at my feet seemed an effective prop. Well anyhow it worked, this guy laughed like I was the best act he'd caught in a long time and then he lit me a cigarette". 11
"Well it turns out his name was Jake and he ran the place. So he says to me.(come on inside and I'll give some food, if you can manage to wash that garbage off first). "Well now I've got to admit that cigarette made me so dizzy, that when I tried following him into the kitchen the door slammed me right back into the dumpster. Well darned if Jake didn't think this so hilarious that he came back out and slapped me on the back, pulling me out and back into the kitchen". 12
"I sat down inside the kitchen on a small stool til I could stop coughing". Willie looked at me kinda funny and said real slow like he was weighing his words carefully. "Jake sure was strong, strong enough to take on Dad. I expect. I guess I have to tell ya sis, next to hunger the only thing I felt, right then, was a sorta awed fear of Jake, and all." 13
What did you think? Please comment!
Comments
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That is not true .
This is a story written in old country talk used by farmers in the mid- wetern-southern part of the U.S. and if I truely did it with only their words no one would understand, unless they had a father like mine, and then most would be mad at me for most of what I say. I was not being foolish with deleteing it.
I am sure a perfect poem ,in a language I did not know and was translated poorly , would not have much meaning to me. This is not a perfect anything; well I guess it is most likely written for myself, unless I can edit it without losing the meaning and flavor of the people they represent. (The old Bible belt) of the U.S. I have found it important to me because it formed me. Please thank you for telling me the truth. I truely appreciate , Annie -
I did not understand this one bit but I guess I am inept..or below average or totally ignorant about what is the context in which this is written..anyway my brain is small and my cranial reserves depleted--Shubs
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Oh thank you for your comment. I am Trying to get it on-line as fast as I can. My goodness I write long hand to start and that is fun,,but this is hard on my back. How do you do it? I have written two nights and then lost it all to the little nasty god of internet space. I am going to write some more now and will see how far I get tonigh, it is still chapter one--- part 3 now.
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Oh yes! Silly me went and read your chapter one, part 2 first. Only having read the prologue, I had a high old time trying to find where I had wandered to.
This is a good story - really held me interested throughout. I know I've read part II, which now, of course, makes sense (it started in a peculiar place methinks although I understand now) but now I'm just itching to find out how this story goes.
Enjoyed the read, Annie, don't keep me in suspense.
Edited on Aug 19, 2:16 p.m. because ''cos it didn't make sense!'. -
Thank you, I am having trouble getting it online. It really is a much longer chapter and I am doing it in small pieces. I am hoping to download it without this long rewrite but so far I don't know how. When I can get more on, I have four chapters written, I will be hoping for some true critical looks at it. Truefully right now I am full to the brim just trying to get it posted. Thank you for your remarks of kindness.
Edited on Aug 18, 11:30 because 'typo'. -
ohhh my goodness. I am very in awe..I just love your ability to story tell..It's really really nice,..i am once again amaxed.. because most of the things ive read from you have been very full, constructed poetry, but this is just so fluid in a very different way. You've REALLY captured the caracters..I mean, willie seems like he's a lot older than fifteen what with his experience and everything and youve portrayed that so well..ahhhh the relationship between everyone mentioined is crafted sooooo well, thats all i can say, and I only want more..
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This story is very detailed in your memory laine and it's very powerful heart felt ..emotional story filled with sadness and teen age fears when kids run away and stuff this is a brilliantly written story thank you for letting me read it hope there will be more to this..
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thank you for reading I have more but I am afraid I will lose it if I put on more.
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Wow; I'm not sure how to go on about this. It's very intense even as the story unfolds. You really just went straight into the point of the story it seems and I like that. I can see many ways you can take this story and I can't wait for the next chapters to come along. Great job! Keep em coming!
Janea~
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