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.Mama’s health had been declining for years.She had to quit work at the beauty shop because most days they had her coming in, she couldn’t make it, and when she did, she chased business away because of her attitude.I don’t know if the death of my father triggered it or if it was going to happen all along, but somewhere in the long trail of her DNA, something came loose like laundry from the clothesline.And once a sheet gets caught by the wind, there is no telling where you will find it.I woke up one winter day and found her outside in the snow in her slippers.Her feet were red from the cold and she was walking along the edge of the hill I’d finally made a down payment on, moving from one tree to another calling for a childhood dog.I hollered but she said not to come closer, that no dogcatcher would take her beloved Sugar away.By then I knew better than to try and convince her that I wasn’t the dogcatcher.She was crying when I caught up.“I can’t find him anywhere.And he gets so cold.I’m afraid I’m going to lose him.I’m afraid he’s not going to make it.”She scratched the living daylights out of me when I picked her up and carried her back to the house.Her nightgown was wet—and not just from the snow.It is one thing to drive your mother to the doctor.It is quite another to clean the mess when her bowels let loose.In the steady decline that seemed to accelerate after that, I knew some hard decisions had to be made.I asked Macel Preston to come by one day the next November.She was the wife of the local sheriff, and my mother and I had known her from church for years.She spoke to my mother kindly and sat in the rocking chair, listening to her carry both sides of the nonsensical conversation.“You remember back before we moved to the creek, how hard it was to get persimmons off those trees over at the Fizers’,” my mother said.“No, Arlene, I don’t remember,” Macel said.“Why don’t you tell me?”And she would.She’d just take off on a thought and turn a corner and pretty soon she was on politics or something she’d seen in the newspaper or something about spaying and neutering Bob Barker’s cats.Macel listened until Callie Reynolds drove up.Callie worked at the post office and delivered our mail.Every now and then she’d bring us dinner.We went to the same church, but since Mama had gotten so bad, it was hard for me to do anything but get to work and back every day.I usually spent Saturdays and Sundays at home.Callie lived in a trailer on the other side of the Dogwood County line.Because of that we had gone to different schools, but I’d gotten to know her a little.We were about the same age, and she had taken an interest in Mama and helping out.She was a tall woman with a wide nose and teeth that had a mind of their own.One eye wasn’t set right and she had a way of looking at you but not looking at you at the same time.It was a bit unnerving to have a face-to-face conversation because when she stared right at you, it was as if she was looking at something behind you and you always wondered what was so interesting back there.She wasn’t heavy, but she walked without a lot of grace, as if her arms were tree limbs.She was just a common, good woman.I tried to pay her for her time with Mama, but every time I’d shove a twenty-dollar bill in her hand, she would get offended and say she wasn’t doing it for money.People from the hills are like that.I think it springs from a heart that believes a good turn deserves another.If you have felt that kind of love from God in your life, you want to pass the grace along.She came in and put a casserole dish in the oven and fussed over Mama.I told her I was going to walk Macel to her car and run an errand or two, and Callie said that was fine; she’d take care of things.Macel stood in silence by her car and just stared at the hillside.It reminded me of all those years ago when my daddy died and how people just seemed to stand and stare off.“Billy, you’re going to have to do something hard one of these days,” she said.“She’s not going to leave that house,” I said.“She can’t stay here by herself.It’s not safe.She’s going to hurt herself by trying to make a fire on that stove, or she’ll go out and climb that tree on the hill thinking she’s making a deposit at the First National Bank.”“Callie is helping me out as much as she can, and I stay with her full-time on the weekend.”“Callie told me you tried to pay her and that she wished you’d stop doing that.”“She’s been a big help.”“Unless they’re paying you more than I think down at the radio station, you don’t have that kind of money.You’re still working for the local station, aren’t you?”“I work part-time at WDGW, but my full-time work is down in Huntington.”“From what I’ve heard of the owner here, he’s more tightfisted than a monkey with a banana in a jar.I hope they pay you well at the other one.You chief engineer now?”“Makes it sound like I’m a train conductor, doesn’t it?”She chuckled.“You always had a knack with electronics.I used to love hearing you play that mandolin, too.Do you ever pick it up anymore?”“Sometimes when it’s bad with Mama.It’s just about the only thing that will soothe her.It’s like David playing for King Saul, only King Saul didn’t wear a nightgown from Walmart.”She opened her car door and threw her purse in.“Billy, sometimes love looks a lot different than we think it should.”“Ma’am?”“You have the idea that to love your mother well, you have to do everything for her like she did for you when you were a baby, and if you don’t, you’re a failure as a son.And I’m here to release you from that prison you’re building.”“Bible says if you don’t take care of your family—”“You’re worse than an infidel; that’s true.We’re to take care of those who took care of us.But there is not a person on the face of this planet who has cared more for their family than you, Billy.I don’t know who has been accusing you, probably some voices you ought to shut out.You do not have to listen to them.You have been a model son [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Mama’s health had been declining for years.She had to quit work at the beauty shop because most days they had her coming in, she couldn’t make it, and when she did, she chased business away because of her attitude.I don’t know if the death of my father triggered it or if it was going to happen all along, but somewhere in the long trail of her DNA, something came loose like laundry from the clothesline.And once a sheet gets caught by the wind, there is no telling where you will find it.I woke up one winter day and found her outside in the snow in her slippers.Her feet were red from the cold and she was walking along the edge of the hill I’d finally made a down payment on, moving from one tree to another calling for a childhood dog.I hollered but she said not to come closer, that no dogcatcher would take her beloved Sugar away.By then I knew better than to try and convince her that I wasn’t the dogcatcher.She was crying when I caught up.“I can’t find him anywhere.And he gets so cold.I’m afraid I’m going to lose him.I’m afraid he’s not going to make it.”She scratched the living daylights out of me when I picked her up and carried her back to the house.Her nightgown was wet—and not just from the snow.It is one thing to drive your mother to the doctor.It is quite another to clean the mess when her bowels let loose.In the steady decline that seemed to accelerate after that, I knew some hard decisions had to be made.I asked Macel Preston to come by one day the next November.She was the wife of the local sheriff, and my mother and I had known her from church for years.She spoke to my mother kindly and sat in the rocking chair, listening to her carry both sides of the nonsensical conversation.“You remember back before we moved to the creek, how hard it was to get persimmons off those trees over at the Fizers’,” my mother said.“No, Arlene, I don’t remember,” Macel said.“Why don’t you tell me?”And she would.She’d just take off on a thought and turn a corner and pretty soon she was on politics or something she’d seen in the newspaper or something about spaying and neutering Bob Barker’s cats.Macel listened until Callie Reynolds drove up.Callie worked at the post office and delivered our mail.Every now and then she’d bring us dinner.We went to the same church, but since Mama had gotten so bad, it was hard for me to do anything but get to work and back every day.I usually spent Saturdays and Sundays at home.Callie lived in a trailer on the other side of the Dogwood County line.Because of that we had gone to different schools, but I’d gotten to know her a little.We were about the same age, and she had taken an interest in Mama and helping out.She was a tall woman with a wide nose and teeth that had a mind of their own.One eye wasn’t set right and she had a way of looking at you but not looking at you at the same time.It was a bit unnerving to have a face-to-face conversation because when she stared right at you, it was as if she was looking at something behind you and you always wondered what was so interesting back there.She wasn’t heavy, but she walked without a lot of grace, as if her arms were tree limbs.She was just a common, good woman.I tried to pay her for her time with Mama, but every time I’d shove a twenty-dollar bill in her hand, she would get offended and say she wasn’t doing it for money.People from the hills are like that.I think it springs from a heart that believes a good turn deserves another.If you have felt that kind of love from God in your life, you want to pass the grace along.She came in and put a casserole dish in the oven and fussed over Mama.I told her I was going to walk Macel to her car and run an errand or two, and Callie said that was fine; she’d take care of things.Macel stood in silence by her car and just stared at the hillside.It reminded me of all those years ago when my daddy died and how people just seemed to stand and stare off.“Billy, you’re going to have to do something hard one of these days,” she said.“She’s not going to leave that house,” I said.“She can’t stay here by herself.It’s not safe.She’s going to hurt herself by trying to make a fire on that stove, or she’ll go out and climb that tree on the hill thinking she’s making a deposit at the First National Bank.”“Callie is helping me out as much as she can, and I stay with her full-time on the weekend.”“Callie told me you tried to pay her and that she wished you’d stop doing that.”“She’s been a big help.”“Unless they’re paying you more than I think down at the radio station, you don’t have that kind of money.You’re still working for the local station, aren’t you?”“I work part-time at WDGW, but my full-time work is down in Huntington.”“From what I’ve heard of the owner here, he’s more tightfisted than a monkey with a banana in a jar.I hope they pay you well at the other one.You chief engineer now?”“Makes it sound like I’m a train conductor, doesn’t it?”She chuckled.“You always had a knack with electronics.I used to love hearing you play that mandolin, too.Do you ever pick it up anymore?”“Sometimes when it’s bad with Mama.It’s just about the only thing that will soothe her.It’s like David playing for King Saul, only King Saul didn’t wear a nightgown from Walmart.”She opened her car door and threw her purse in.“Billy, sometimes love looks a lot different than we think it should.”“Ma’am?”“You have the idea that to love your mother well, you have to do everything for her like she did for you when you were a baby, and if you don’t, you’re a failure as a son.And I’m here to release you from that prison you’re building.”“Bible says if you don’t take care of your family—”“You’re worse than an infidel; that’s true.We’re to take care of those who took care of us.But there is not a person on the face of this planet who has cared more for their family than you, Billy.I don’t know who has been accusing you, probably some voices you ought to shut out.You do not have to listen to them.You have been a model son [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]