Rowe, Peggy - About My Mother by Rowe Peggy

Author:Rowe, Peggy [Rowe, Peggy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Forefront Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

At about this time, I had two close calls that put an end to my crime spree. One evening when Dad was at Lions Club, my mother sent me around to Baker’s Store for a loaf of bread. On the way, I rang some doorbells, jumped over the railings, and scampered off like a common criminal. Coming home, I gathered handfuls of pebbles and threw them onto our neighbors’ roofs, then lurked in the shadows as porch lights flickered on. When I opened our kitchen door, my mother was on the telephone.

“No, Mrs. Smith, we haven’t had any problems with the neighborhood children. Well, I’m sure you’re mistaken. Peggy wouldn’t do anything like that, but I’ll ask her if she knows who did.”

Without looking at me, she took the bread, the receipt, and her change.

“Mrs. Smith says somebody has been throwing stones at her house again. She thought it might be you.”

I shook my head no and frowned at the very thought.

“I told her she was mistaken.” And then my mother looked deep into my eyes. “Because it would hurt your father to hear that you had done something like that. And I know you wouldn’t want to hurt your father.”

Saying nothing, I ran up the stairs where I fell onto my bed crying. Everything was wrong. I longed for Chico and Maresy Doats, to brush their coats and feel the warmth of their breath on my cheek and to canter around the field. And now, the thought of hurting my father was too much to bear. As usual, my mother had seen right through me and forced me to take a look at myself. What I saw wasn’t pretty. When I remembered the trash can I had overturned in the street minutes earlier, I felt a new shame.

One thing I was sure of: I had thrown my last stone, rung my last doorbell, and dumped my last trash can. I had already thrown my last tomato at a car the night I hit my target, and a man slammed on his breaks and chased me down the dark alley. He was quick as lightning, but I knew the neighborhood like the back of my hand and lost him when I skirted a barbecue pit and jumped a fence on Linhigh Avenue. Still, I had lain awake all night with my eyes wide open.

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