Crybaby Ranch by Tina Welling

Author:Tina Welling
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2010-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

The Florida sky looks tarry an hour before dawn. Coral hibiscus blooms beside the driveway; just above the highest blossom rests a paler coral moon. Creamy breezes fold my nightgown hem around my calves as my father loads suitcases and fishing poles into the trunk of his car. Then headlight beams hop from palmetto bush to oleander to bougainvillea to the mailbox at the end of the drive. I am alone with my sleeping mother.

I wonder why I felt compelled to wake at four thirty to wave my father off this morning, why Dad sneaked his suitcases out of the house last night and hid them in the bushes in case Mom woke before he left. She doesn’t recognize the uses of anything inedible now. Like a toddler, she aims all items toward her mouth. As for me, I’m still engaged in an imaginary competition with my mother for title of Daddy’s Best Little Girl.

Too late to go back to bed, too early to hope for the Sunday paper, so I sit with a cup of coffee in the screened porch and watch the sky lighten over Bessie Creek. How am I going to make it through the next seven days? Since my last visit, my mother has become a stranger, and caring for her all alone scares me. She has acquired a fear of moving air, fans, and breezes. Those picnics I’ve planned, those strolls along the river walk in old town Stuart, the beach—all of it would make Mom cower with fright. She won’t allow an open window in the house and won’t come out to the porch anymore. The first day looms unendingly ahead of me.

“Addie?” My mother is padding down the hallway. I can’t tell, is she calling my father by name or calling him Daddy?

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.