July 16, 2009
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I got there first but when my youngest sister, S, showed up I gave her the chair and I took the bed. My mother was in the wheelchair with her back to us. When I plopped down on the bed it seemed to give way with a sound like it was breaking. We all laughed.
My mother was gazing out the window, intently surveying the parking lot. It was noon and the news was on. All kinds of interesting things like videos of a bank robbery that only took 1:49 minutes and a motorcyclist who crashed going 80 and just up and walked away from the scene, she ignored. Even lunch, which she refused, was of interest because of the peach cobbler but she never averted her eyes from the window more than a few seconds, keeping her chair at odds with the rest of the room.
“Tell S. about your good news,” she says.
“Remember that woman from court reporting school that we ran into that day at lunch? Well, she called me yesterday and wants me to go to work for the school, teaching theory.”
“Would you even remember that stuff?” S. sounds dubious at the idea of me working.
“I never threw any of it away. I even kept my machine.”
My mother interjects something we don’t understand, something about when the tutor threw me on the bed. I look at S and she doesn’t get it either.
“When did someone throw me?”
“When the bed made that plunking sound.”
“This bed?” I try not to sound incredulous.
“Yes,” like what other bed would we be talking about.
“Well, who was the tutor?”
“The woman you were just telling S about.”
“Hmmmm,” S says in the tone she uses when stuff is just too weird to comment on.
Comments (3)
i love these short looks… and i’m with S- that’s what i do when stuff is just to weird to comment on!
I must say that “on increasingly infrequent occasions” is pretty hilarious. And even with a sound mind, my brain might go from typing school to throwing me out of bed. You’re doing so well with this. The way you write so detach-edly just breaks my heart (it’s so effective!).
I agree with Emily. You have a unique way of writing about this and it is letting the reader put her own feelings into it. I keep thinking about you though. Hoping you are okay. It is very complex.