Page 36 - Contrast2005
P. 36
les's funeral. Mom-Mom Sylvie this and wait one second for me."
had shot him in self-defense. She handed me a faded
I can remember the phone pink umbrella with tiny purple
call we received several morn- polka dots on it and went back
ings before. Mom answered and inside. I stood there a few sec-
all she heard was: "les ain't onds and watched as the dark-
mean anymore, Brenda, not ness of the entry enveloped her
anymore," and then silence. figure as she made her way to
the back of the house.
I made the slow, bumpy turn
into Mom-Mom Sylvie's muddy "Okay," I whispered to
driveway and parked alongside myself. I pressed the release
her Pontiac. Goodness only button on the umbrella and it
knew the last time it had been flew open with a whoosh. I stood
driven or if it even was in work- on the steps, watching the open
ing condition. I climbed out of doorway that Mom-Mom Sylvie
my car and zipped my coat as I had not shut, wondering what she
made my way up to the back was doing and if she was coming
door of Mom-Mom Sylvie's back. The rain was beating
rancher. I wasn't sure if I should down hard on the flimsy fabric of
knock or just let myself in. I the umbrella. I turned my head
decided to try knocking. I raised toward the lawn. It had retained
my right fist, but before it made a slight hue of green, but it was
contact with the splintered wood, mostly a blunt brown. I could see
the door opened and my arm no single blades of grass. It was
fell aWkwardly down at my side. all just a slimy mesh, a slick wa-
terslide. Fortunately, the smell of
"Yes?" asked my grand- rain washed out any trace of
mother, looking at me in the saturated trash from next door
eyes. and whatever unsavory fumes
may have been wafting from the
"Oh, well ... um, hello there. plant. I turned again toward the
It's Jack, Mom-Mom," I stam- empty threshold, hoping to see a
mered out. glimpse of my grandmother. I
wondered if she even knew who
"let's come out here a mo- this boy was, standing on her
ment. I was just on my way out back step.
here to sit a spell," she said
softly. "Here we go," I heard a
distant voice say.
"What? In the rain?" I
asked, beWildered. I could slowly detect the
yellow of Mom-Mom Sylvie's sun-
"That's why the good folks
down at the Woolworth's in-
vented umbrellas. Now you take
34 Contrast 2005
