Gone to Pot by Jennifer Craig

Author:Jennifer Craig
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Second Story Press
Published: 2017-02-21T18:14:26+00:00

14

The plan for the next Crones’ meeting was to discuss books we were reading. Swan had got me Indoor Marijuana Horticulture, but it didn’t lend itself to discussion in that company. I arrived with a copy of How Green was my Valley instead.

There were twelve of us, each armed with a book and ready to sit in a circle. Ed dropped Eva off as usual and Maggie helped her in while Joan fussed over Nina.

Some Crones attended meetings regularly, whereas others were sporadic. The latter group included Thelma, an eighty-four-year old former ballet dancer. I smiled when she arrived. Thelma was always good for a laugh. She once had us all lie on the floor to see how far we could lift a leg and extend it over our heads. Most of us thought we were doing well to lift a leg at all, but Thelma could practically touch the floor behind her head. It was her smirk as she reviewed our prostrate, panting forms that made me chuckle.

We started every meeting with a check-in on how people are doing. Sometimes this activity took most of our time, as it did on that occasion.

Joan reported on Laura. “She’s at home being cared for by a niece, but she keeps going to the hospital wanting more tests.”

“Have they found out what’s wrong with her?”

“No. Something neurological they say, but they don’t know what.”

“Has anyone been to see her?”

“I went when she was in the hospital,” I said. “She wasn’t so good; couldn’t walk or even stand for long.”

“If she got herself off those damned drugs she’d be a lot better,” Maggie said. “Especially the statins. She’s showing typical side effects. But she won’t listen. Speaking of drugs…” Maggie got up to hand everyone a cup of coffee.

The church basement was quite bright in the summer as the sunlight streamed in a row of windows and gave the indoor-outdoor carpet the appearance of grass. I wanted to get out a deckchair. It was certainly warm enough as the church always cranked up the heat for our meeting, even in the summer.

“I’ll do some baking and take it to her,” Jane said when we were all settled with a cup.

“She won’t eat.”

“What? Not even when the doctor tells her to?” Jane rolled her eyes. “I’ll try anyway.”

When it was my turn to report I said, “I’ve followed up on a couple of jobs. One was quite promising—looking after an elderly gentleman while his daughter is at work, but they only wanted to pay five dollars an hour.”

“What?” Maggie said. “That’s disgusting. How are you expected to live on that?”

“There are always people who want something for nothing,” Jane said.

Claire chimed in with, “That’s patriarchy for you.”

She never mentioned she’d seen me at the food bank, bless her, so she could mention patriarchy as much as she wanted.

“They either don’t want to pay or they want someone younger,” I said.

One value of the Crones was to be honest with each other and keep what people said confidential.

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