The Hundred Story Home by Kathy Izard

Author:Kathy Izard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2018-05-15T04:00:00+00:00

fifteen

HOME ALONE

Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.

—James Baldwin1

The Neighbors at the center no longer felt like strangers now that I was there every day, learning their stories. Chilly Willy regularly greeted me in the parking lot. Like Jay, Chilly Willy used alcohol to drown voices and memories. On a good day he would proudly say he was going to be a sober man, but on a drinking day Chilly Willy could keep a person tied up in his dysfunction. One day it was clear that Chilly had been attempting some serious drowning, and his buzz was wearing off.

Sitting with him on an outside bench, I didn’t really know where to start with Chilly Willy, but I knew he needed to be heard. The only details I knew about Chilly’s life I had learned in pieces from his brother, Johnny, and from Liz. Chilly once had a girlfriend who was killed, but I didn’t know the specifics. That day Chilly Willy willingly filled in those blanks and many others with unnerving honesty.

“You know my daddy was a preacher.”

I was stunned. “Really?”

“Yep.” Chilly shook his head and looked away. “He didn’t know what to make of me.”

We let that sit between us.

“I had a wife once too. Her name was Crystal. She was two months pregnant when she was hit by a car and died. Some days, all I want is a good Christian woman and a guitar,” which he pronounced gee-tar, with a thick southern accent and a laugh. “But look at me, what good Christian woman would marry me?”

We were quiet a moment. It was hard to imagine this gentle bear of a man pining for love could also be the same guy who had gone to prison at seventeen.

“Mom!”

My twins, Maddie and Emma, now teenagers about to enter high school, were headed toward us from the parking lot. Their summer job was volunteering for the UMC: organizing mail, filing records, and serving during lunch. Today, they were finishing up a mural they had painted in my office. The entire wall facing my desk was now a giant kaleidoscope of color leading to these words in the center: Amazing! Keb’ Mo’.

They decided to paint that reminder on my office wall so I would never forget that first True Blessings and that first move-in day.

“Hey, pretty girls!” Chilly Willy said. “Can I have a hug?” Maddie and Emma smiled and dutifully gave Chilly Willy a one-arm hug with one twin on each side.

“This your mama?” he asked.

“She is!” Maddie told him.

“You do like she tells you,” Chilly Willy told them solemnly. “I didn’t listen to my mama at your age and look how I turned out.”

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