“Why the sweet little old lady shape?”
“Sit down child,” she said.
I did as she told me. Her hands flashed as the knitting
needs clicked against one another. She didn’t say anything.
“Nice morning,” I said. “See we had some rain last night.
“All things come in their own time,” she said.
“Uh,” I said. “Want to give me a hint of what you’re up to.”
“Just reflecting,” she said. “You know what today is, don’t
you?”
“Saturday?”
“It’s been 44years since we first took notice of you. The
day you took your ‘giant step for mankind.’”
“The first moon landing?”
“We thought you were all so cute.”
“I suppose we were. It was a great day.”
“Well what the bloody hell happened?”
I almost spilled my coffee.
“Oh, excuse me,” she said. “I forgot where I was for a
moment.”
As the modern mystery books say, I sat in stunned silence.
“It’s just that you have been such a burden to us all since
that day.”
“Since that day?”
“We thought at the time that you had the capabilities to get
past some of your shortcomings.”
“Shortcomings?”
“Pigmentation preoccupation and
such.” Her fingers flashed with silent fury.
“I’m not sure I follow you.”
“You have such a capacity for
love, on occasion,” she said. “Why when that little girl out in Colorado was
murdered that time, the whole country went into mourning.”
“I seem to remember.”
She studied her knitting for a
few seconds, then looked up at me. She spoke softly. “Then the whole country
seems to stick its head up its ass and wonder why the lights went out.”
“Something troubling you?”
“Pigmentation preoccupation,
like I said.”
“As in?”
“Why doesn’t it bother some
people when a young man with black skin gets murdered for walking down the
street not bothering a soul?”
“I don’t know.”
She stopped knitting. “Your
species calls it, I believe, schizophrenia.”
“And what do you call it?”
“Just being assholes.”
“C.W.,” I said. “I think you
may be having one of your cases of, what is it you call it, role warp?”
“Oh child,” she said and
offered me a smile that would have melted hardened steel. “I’m just picking up
bad habits from your species. You can be so sweet at times.”
“And?”
“And then you can be totally
fu…”
“Shhh,” I interrupted her. “My
wife may walk in at any time.”
“ … funny beyond belief at
others. What’s wrong with you?”
 |
| In Grandma's day, a good dose of Senna Leaf Tea in the spring cleaned all that meanness out of you kids. - C.W.Add caption |
I sighed in relief. “Oh
nothing.”
She smiled again and resumed
her knitting. “Oh child, she said. Poor sweet child. You can make me so proud
at times.”
“Yes?” She was beginning to
make me feel warm inside.
“Then sometimes you make my
ass crave a dip of snuff.”
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