Butterfly Arising by Landis Lain

Author:Landis Lain [Lain, Landis Y.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brown Girls Publishing
Published: 2018-08-23T04:00:00+00:00

CHERISHED

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving,

This morning, Mother Jones called me and asked me all pitiful like to come over her house to help her cook because her ‘Arthur-it is’ was acting up something fierce. Mama loaned me the car, so Ricky and I went. I chopped so many vegetables for dressing my fingers were as raw as my soul. But I was thankful to feel safe, for even one day.

They cooked all day. Sasha felt nauseous from all the sampling she had done. She and Ricky had licked the cake batter from the bowl and tasted cornbread for dressing. She’d sampled bananas, vanilla wafers and pudding. She’d eaten the little bowl of leftover sweet potatoes from the sweet potato pie filling and devoured the fried corn. The greens weren’t quite done, but Sasha sneaked a taste of them, too.

“So, how is school young lady?” asked Mother Jones. Her children were arriving from various airports late tonight, so Sasha was Mother Jones’s only help.

“Difficult,” said Sasha.

Sasha sat at the kitchen table shelling pecans for the pecan pie. Mother Jones peeled apples for apple cobbler. Ricky was sitting in an ancient high chair, resurrected from the attic. His neck was swathed with a hand towel. He sampled food, crowing when he liked something or spitting out the food that did not agree with his baby palette.

Sasha put a nut into the nutcracker and squeezed hard. “I didn’t realize college was going to be so hard.”

“So, you ready to quit school because it’s difficult?”

“No, ma’am,” said Sasha, squeezing harder on the nutcracker. The nut shot out of the nutcracker and rolled across the table, uncracked. “Why don’t you buy these nuts already shelled?”

Mother Jones snorted. “Young folks always want to take a short cut.”

“It would be easier,” said Sasha. Her fingers were feeling a little raw, from squeezing the old-fashioned metal nutcracker.

“True,” said Mother Jones, sucking her teeth. She finished coring an apple without breaking the peel. She sliced off a few small slivers and put them on the tray in front of Ricky. He crowed his appreciation and crammed a piece into his mouth.

“This baby sure likes to eat.”

Sasha nodded. “Mmhmm.”

“It might be easier, but it is also more expensive. My daughter, Angel, sent me these pecans from Georgia, express mail. Georgia pecans make the best pecan pie. Why would I buy old pecans from the grocery store when I can get them fresh from the shell for free?”

Sasha kept cracking nuts.

“I might give up a little flavor for convenience,” she said.

“You want diamonds and mink coat results with t-shirt effort.”

Sasha chuckled. “Is that another way of saying I want something for nothing?”

“You said it, Missy,” said Mother Jones, smiling. “Still want to be a doctor?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“You know you have to go to school for eight more years and then work for pennies while you do a residency?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Why don’t you take a short cut?”

“I don’t think there is one,” said Sasha.

Mother Jones nodded with satisfaction. “Exactly.”

“Okay,” said Sasha, wrinkling her nose. “I’ll quit whining.

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