The Trouble with Truth: A Memoir by Elizabeth Stephenson

Author:Elizabeth Stephenson [Stephenson, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2014-03-19T22:00:00+00:00

icolas Sanders (everyone but Myrna called him Nick) was wheelchair bound when not secreted in his gloomy bedroom. He wore white long-sleeved polo shirts that hung on his narrow frame. The shirts and his shoulder-length hair, a singular pumpkin shade, conspired to lend him an anemic pallor that stood in stark contrast to his sunrise eyes that lit up at the slightest excuse. Howdy Doody freckles splashed across his upturned nose and an occasional elfin grin that belied his dismal circumstances. He radiated an inner peace I wanted to understand.

Problem was, if I tried entering his room, Myrna would appear as if from out of nowhere and step between me and his closed door, flaccid arms crossed protectively in front of her scant bosom. Barging in would be an unthinkable breach. “Scram,” she’d say, flashing me the look Sam called “Myrna’s evil eye,” slip in, and shut Nick’s door behind her. From the hall, all I could hear were muffled voices, very faint, a kind of low, atonal humming, like bees. Myrna and Nick belonged to an exclusive mother/son club. No one else allowed. Not even Sam Senior.

It seemed, too, Myrna liked bugging Sam. She’d watch him like a cat its prey, all eyes and appetite, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. “Your brother needs your help,” she’d scold, “if you think you can spare a minute,” or, alternately, “Why didn’t you ask Nicolas?” if we went out without Nick, this latter question being her preferred shame bomb. If, however, Sam did ask Nick to join us, she’d wave her hands like a traffic cop, a look of triumph on her sunken face, and say in a shrill voice, “Nicolas is too tired. You kids go on your own.”

Man. That old lady had passive-aggressive nailed. My ears burned, my forehead flamed when I thought about her. No matter how I steeled myself, though, I hated her for the way she treated Sam.

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