Needlework by Julia Watts

Author:Julia Watts
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Three Rooms Press

Chapter 13

IT’S AMAZING HOW MUCH A THING as simple as having a vehicle has changed my life in the last seventy-two hours. As soon as I got it home on Sunday, I got the hose and a bucket and some rags and washed off all the dirt and leaves and bird poop that had built up from the car sitting in Jay and Tiff’s driveway for so long. I scrubbed off the “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” and “FRIENDS OF COAL” bumper stickers that Jay had put on the bumper. I’m not an enemy of coal, but I’m not a friend either. I don’t feel like I can be when my papaw died of black lung.

Yesterday I skipped school because Mommy felt like she needed one more day at Nanny’s with somebody staying with her. In the afternoon I drove her to the Dairy Queen for a cone, and we rode around with the windows down, and even though Mommy couldn’t finish her ice cream and lit a cigarette instead, somehow just driving around with her like that felt hopeful.

And this morning I didn’t have to wake up before the roosters to catch the school bus. I slept an hour later and drove myself.

It’s hard to explain, but I feel like other than Papaw’s old record player, this ugly old truck is the only thing I’ve ever had that’s really for me. So what if they’re both hand-me-downs? They’re mine now, and that’s all that matters.

Now I’m driving back to the head of the holler to pick Mommy up for her meeting. I honk the horn, and she comes out looking like she’s actually made an effort to be presentable. Her hair is clean and brushed, and she has on clean jeans and a cream-colored top. She’s started wearing earrings again, little silver studs.

“You look nice,” I say when she gets in the car.

“That’s good to hear because I feel godawful,” she says. “TMI, I know, but I spent the whole day on the toilet. I knock out one symptom, and another one pops up to take its place.” She lights a cigarette. Her hands are shaking. “I reckon having the trots keeps you from relapsing. I can’t go buy dope if I can’t get off the pot.”

I laugh. “Are you okay to go to this meeting?”

Mommy nods. “I’ve got to go to it. I’ll wear a diaper if I have to.”

I sit in the car while Mommy goes to her meeting. I’ve learned my lesson about going to the park. Remembering I have a signal since I’m in town, I take out my phone and text Macey.

Me: Hi Sis.

Macey: Hey bro.

Me: Caleb calls me that sometimes.

Macey: I guess I can call him that when I meet him.

Me: Yeah. He’s real different from me. He made me play ball with him the other day. He says I throw like a girl.

Macey: Like that’s a bad thing

Me: In my case it is. Hey my uncle sold me his truck for almost nothing. It’s a beater but it runs.

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