The room is dark and smells of disinfected pee with a hint of vanilla. Eleanor Barney must be here. Most of us have been wheeled into places and parked facing the screen but younger people with red ears are crowded onto folding chairs, noisy with outdoor talk, coats in their laps. Later I will count how many. These two by my side keep looking at me and touching my arm. They must want Christmas bonuses. The movie is something old somebody old must have chosen. When somebody new sits down and isn’t careful the chair shrieks against the floor. Three rubber feet it has but one is missing and behind that fourth foot the tile is menacingly scraped. There will be trouble over that. Shavings of linoleum curl in smoldering ringlets ahead of the foot. They smell of hot plastic. Tomorrow I will check to see if anyone has swept this floor. A black and white snow is falling on a black and white city neighborhood. I beg the camera to turn right with the trolley and show me my old street. I dash up the front steps and race to the kitchen shedding snow from my shoulders and snatch a cookie from the shelf and bite it firmly in half. I run to the bedroom I share with my brothers and steam the window with my breath looking out. Snow has whitened the windowsill. Tomorrow I will make a snowball with this snow. A huge overcoat with white beard fills the screen. Someone is whimpering. Look out! These two by my side are asking me if I’m all right. There will be trouble over that cookie. I cover my head to protect myself from blows that bluster down. If I’m given another chance, I’ll eat the other half.
Copyright © December 31, 2007 David Hodges
3 comments
Comments feed for this article
December 31, 2007 at 7:49 pm
briseis
This is adorable, David! It’s sad, and it’s sweet, and it is – as all your writing – beautiful.
That just makes it all worthwhile, Briseis. Thank you.
–David
January 2, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Wizzer
“..disinfected pee with a hint of vanilla” That raised a smile before the real sadness set in. We’ve met this narrator before (in a restaurant?) I seem to recall or at least another with similar traits. I particularly like the beautiful detail, such as “Shavings of linoleum curl in smoldering ringlets,” which contrast so well with the confusion over bigger issues.
We’ve seen this stage of life before, yes, Wizzer, in “Carry the Zero” and “Alphabet Soup,” even, to a degree, in “Box of Ice.” I hope they resonate with one another instead of seeming repetitious. Thank you.
–David
January 2, 2008 at 1:37 pm
grantman
..that person at the mercy of others, whose mind is alive and fresh and very much intact, while the rest of their body has fallen into disrepair. yes we have seen this person before. It is a theme we all need to carry with us, when we have the least inclination to dismiss those that are infirmed by whatever reason…. PS. care homes are open all year, not just at christmas!
grantman
So they are, grantman. Thanks for understanding.
–David