This Ain't No Promised Land by Tina Shelton

Author:Tina Shelton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kregel Publications
Published: 2024-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Christmas morning, we woke up to a decorated tree like the ones in the stores on the Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago. We were used to our plastic tree with tinsel tackily thrown on the limbs and ornaments wrapped in yarn that didn’t quite match our red velvet couch. And our lights were multicolored, which was cool, but not as classy as Miss Mabel’s tree that matched the decor of her living room perfectly with white lights carefully spaced like sparkling stars. We opened our gifts, which were mostly clothes we knew her sisters had given us, and the latest gym shoes which didn’t really fill us with the excitement it would have given us a year ago. We were sad, actually, because it never occurred to us to get Miss Mabel anything for Christmas—not a card or a jewelry box or anything. We all looked at each other, coming to the same realization. We sucked at thinking of others and giving.

“We didn’t get you anything, Miss Mabel.”

“Oh, that’s okay, girls,” she answered, her hands resting on her knees. “You have no idea how much of a gift it is to have you here.”

“No.” Francine shook her head. “We’re so selfish. We should have gotten you something.”

“Well …” Miss Mabel spoke while looking to the ceiling, thinking. “If you could have gotten me anything, what would it have been?”

“Ooh!” Francine raised her hand like she was in class. “I would have gotten you some big gold hoop earrings ’cause you wear those a lot.”

Miss Mabel smiled.

“I would have made you a batch of snickerdoodle cookies and wrapped them in a pretty box with a bow,” Joanna said.

“Oh.” Miss Mabel touched her heart. “That would have been lovely.”

And then it was my turn. “I would have gotten you your own pretty journal, so you could write at night, just like you taught us to do.”

Miss Mabel dabbed her eyes around the edges. “Oh, Gracey.” She sniffed. “I would have loved that so much. I feel like I’ve received these gifts from you girls for real. It’s the thought that counts, truly.”

At the table that night, we ate in silence with two dinner candles adding light to the rack of lamb and vegetables and rolls. It was our last supper together with Miss Mabel.

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