In My Mother's Time (4 page)

be
the
potatoes”
Mom
giggled
from
her diaphragm.

I
shook
my
head
with
a
grin
and
trotted off to the gigantic wood door
with three single strips of what was sure
to be
lead
paint
and
a
large
lion
head
door knocker.
Mom
put
praying
hands
to
her nose grinning and shaking her
head
with
delight
she
said,
“Would
you
look at
that!”

I hadn’t seen her so
exuberantly pleased in half a decade.
Her
enthusiasm never failed to excite
us. Though it needed a
tremendous amount of work we had all the time
in the world. The house was three
stories high had a basement and a
large scrolling
staircase
that
had
survived
the centuries
beautifully.

Amelia and Theodore
were completely enthralled in the idea
of having
a
room
with
a
bed
and
so
was
I.

“Bones mom, good bones” I said,
“I’m in.” I
smiled.

“I knew you would be” She
said playfully.

This simple house wife built us
a house and a brick wall to surround
it complete with a garden that she
tended to every afternoon sometimes until
the sun
went
down.
We
lived
like
kings
we had everything we needed and
wanted
for nothing, well except
electricity running water and
sewage.

The point is that we lived better
than the people I used to see in
movies struggling to survive. We
were struggling to remember other
people. She
did
her
best
to
keep
our
spirits
high

and keep us intellectually
stimulated. My mother wanted us to be
smarter than any other surviving children.
She believed
brawn
would
lose
to
wit
every time.

The house mother built was painted
it brown, the same color as
the surrounding earth. It was
wonderfully revived, and when she got bored
she would add details to each room
like chair rails and hang paintings we
had done our
selves.

Mother
had
said
once
that
she
believed
the house was a forgotten
historical relic
due
to
the
silver
and
gray
mile marker nearby, that she had
removed upon finding the place. She
had thought the sign would
attract attention. Mother thought someone
up in heaven would be pleased she   
had

used
its
old
bones
to
create
a
fortress
of peace and
safety.

Every
once
and
a
while
she
would
just lay
in
bed
and
stare
at
the
window.
She silently wept in her heart, I am
certain she found time to hide away and
cry but we never saw it. My
mother
eventually
built
a
huge
barn
and
stables we helped paint it brown the same
as the
house.

Mama said barns are red but in
the end of times they are brown.
She would find time to build a
wraparound porch for our house and terraces
from a few rooms the house was starting
to look like a mansion from an old
black and white picture
show.

The days and nights seemed to
blur together for her. Teaching us
biology mathematics and social skills
in everything that she did she could
find knowledge anywhere. My mom
was the smartest. We were so thankful
to have someone so soft and yet firm
to guide us through the days
following the fall of men. We thanked her
and God every day for protecting us
and making us feel
loved.

Chapter
six

One
morning
we
were
outside
playing as
my
mother was pulling weeds
from the garden when we heard
chickens clucking. Puzzled we all arose to
our feet and looked around.
Immediately my mother knew which direction
the sound came from and darted
toward the entrance to our
compound.

Our home was not impregnable.
My mother tried very hard to make
it painful for anyone to come across
our brick
wall
with
broken
glass
and
bits
of sharp metal jutting out but she
knew with determination and something
as simple as a mat or sweet shirt
an
attacker
could
easily
get
in
and
take
our house.

I saw the man approach the gate
with a cage. But I did not know who it
was all I remember is
my
mother
stopping as if she’d ran into an invisible
force field
and
dropping
to
her
knees.
I
ran
to be next to
her.

“Mommy!” I shouted shaking
her shoulders, “are you alright?” I
asked.

Her hand shaking approached her
lips. Her eyes were wide as tears
streamed
down her face and snot dripped
from her nose.

“It’s your father.” She
breathed.

My head jutted around and to
my
amazement the closer
proximity allowed better inspection and I
too recognized
my
father.

“Daddy!” I
screamed.

My brother ran over to the gate as
my
mother stumbled to her knees like
an old drunkard and she unlocked
the chain. She stepped back and
leaned
against the wall allowing me to
open
the gate for
my
father.

“Hi.” My dad smiled his cheesy
smile,
“did ya miss me” he
laughed.

“You asshole where have you
been?” my mother cried clinging to his
neck.

“Baby your choking me.” He said,
all the while clutching a few chickens
and one
roaster.

“How’d you know where to find
us?” my mother
asked.

“Ah come on you know me baby.”
He smirked.

It was as if god parted the
literal screen of reality pushed him
threw right at our door and sewed it
shut.

“Thank you god!” she said under
her breath.

My
mother
closed
and
locked
the
gate as
we
all
talked
his
ear
off
struggling
to get as close to him as possible
without knocking him over whilst trying
to make it to the
house.

We kissed and hugged and
laughed and
my
mother made
my
father
some food.
She
gave
him
a
glass
of
water
and kissed his for head, and when
my
mother turned around he slapped  
her

butt and laughed as she jumped
and squealed.

We spent several hours
exchanging our version of the night we
were separated. My mother didn’t say
much she just told him we got in a
boat floated to his work and then came
here and waited. After he ate we sat by
the fire in the living room. My father
just stared at us with smiling
eyes.

“You did good mama” he
said.

“I know” she said coolly back
curling her long brown hair on her
fingertips.

My father laughed,” son come
here.” He pointed to
me.

I rushed to be near him as he
reached into
his
bag
and
pulled
out
a
Lionel Hudson train. I remember the
feeling of home spreading, peace rushed
over me father looked at me with   
kinship

and a promise we will run
trains together
again.

He
ruffled
my
hair
and
sent
me
to
bed just
as
he
had
when
I
was
but
a
toddler, train in hand. He pulled out a
beautiful ruby necklace and smiled at
my
sister. She was next even though she was
the oldest.

“This is your birth stone” he
said softly.

“I know” she said, “mom had this
ring on when we
left.”

It
was
a
three
heart
ring
and
in
the middle of each heart was a ruby
she had
said
that
she
had
daddy
buy
it
in
an antique shop when Amelia was a
baby. She bought it in hopes of giving it
to her one day.

“That’s
my
girl so smart” he
said kissing her head and sending
Amelia off to
bed.

“Daddy I thought you were dead!”
she shouted tears pouring from her
eyes. My father grabbed Amelia with
one big hand and hugged her tight he
said, “I would never do that to you
baby girl.”

Amelia squirmed from his firm
grasp and ran to bed, she cried herself
to sleep. Amelia wasn’t unhappy he
was home
she
was
upset
it
took
him
so
long to find
us.

“She’s right you know”
my
mother said, “Just when I’d given you up
for dead you walk up to
my
gate.”

“You should have known I
wouldn’t die” he
said.