Verklempt by Peter Sichrovsky

Author:Peter Sichrovsky
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DoppelHouse Press

The Aunt

IT HAPPENED on a Sunday morning in May. The beginning of May. I don’t know the exact day anymore. That can be determined. It was 10:30 in the morning, and I was already half an hour late.

“Hey! Where are we going?”

The nurse stood in front of me the same as last Sunday and the Sunday before that. She must work the night shift. Did she ever have Sunday off? I had run up the two flights of stairs, taking two steps at a time.

“I have to go see my aunt –” I gasped and couldn’t breathe.

“So he wants to go see his aunt, does he? And what is his aunt’s name?”

She had a broad face, and everything about her was big: eyes, lips, even her ears, and of course, her breasts. “My aunt Martha, Martha Wiener, Room 16. You know me – This is the second floor?”

“So he would like to go see his Aunt Martha, would he? Such a nice boy. And the flowers are probably for her?”

I took a step back. My eyes wandered slowly from her short blonde hair down to her legs, which stuck out from under a white, buttoned coat. You could see her firm round knees. Damned beautiful woman. Too young, too beautiful and too naughty for a retirement home. When she grinned, her mouth opened so wide that you could slide a slice of bread between her teeth.

“You’re the nephew, aren’t you? Your name’s Jurek?”

“Yes, I am. We’ve seen each other many times, but how come you know my name? Does she talk about me sometimes?”

“Of course, every day. Your aunt loves you as much as it’s possible to love someone.”

The way she said that: Love! It was like in a TV movie.

“That’s nice. Who loves anybody these days anymore?”

She stood in front of me, and we didn’t know what we should do. Every Sunday we exchanged a few words and went our separate ways. A few times I was thinking about asking her out or something, but it had never happened.

For a while neither of us moved. One of us would have to take the first step. She looked into my eyes, and I felt she had caught me thinking the dirtiest thoughts. Then she took my arm. “Come on – Your aunt’s not there now, she’s with a doctor.”

“What’s wrong with her?”

“Nothing special. She can’t sleep, just like everyone else here. You can wait with me for now.”

She grabbed me by the arm and pushed me across the aisle to her room. These were simple quarters with a table, a few chairs and those typical cabinets with glass doors where you can see boxes of medications. In one corner was a bed with a gray blanket and a white pillow.

“Sit down –”

I pulled a chair away from the table and sat down. “How is my aunt?”

“Just fine. Better than most here. She can at least go to the bathroom by herself and doesn’t have to go in her bed –”

She

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