From the Moon I Watched Her by Emily English Medley

Author:Emily English Medley [Medley, Emily English]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Religion, Family
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group
Published: 2021-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

15

“KATHERINE, I SNUCK IN MOTHER’S purse and found these. What are they for?” I asked.

“They’re for her psychosis,” she answered plainly. “Now go put ’em back before she notices they’re gone and get your clothes out for church tomorrow.”

Tomorrow was Mother’s Day.

“Nobody ever told me Mother is taking these pills or was psychotic,” I said.

“That’s because you’re her baby and you never ask, Stephanie. Just hide your eyes and stay in your own little world with her. It’s where you both belong anyways,” she said.

“Katherine, I don’t belong anywhere.” I followed her down the hallway to the bathroom. She went in and shut the door.

We went to church as usual, dressed and pressed, and our congregation honored the mothers by giving them all corsages. The elder handed ours to me so I dutifully pinned it on my mother’s white suit lapel. She looked distant today and had chopped all her hair off into almost a buzz cut and had shaved the back with her disposable razor so it left little red bumps and scrapes.

“Here you go. Happy Mother’s Day,” I said as I pinned it on.

She didn’t smile.

After church, we all came home and sat down for lunch in our pink wallpapered dining room. We sat at the table in our Sunday finest, the four of us, and the clinking of our silverware was the only noise. Our parents sat at the heads of the table and ate without looking up.

“Happy Mother’s Day, Mother,” I said again. “The sermon was good, wasn’t it? I thought Daddy Black did a good job.”

“Yes, Happy Mother’s Day,” Katherine echoed hopefully. Amazing that after our time in Galveston Katherine was still trying to get Mother’s approval. “I thought you had the prettiest suit in the crowd today, Mother. In the whole crowd. The prettiest.” Katherine looked at me pleadingly and I looked back at her like I didn’t know what to do to help get Mother to talk, because I didn’t.

Silence.

The time had come for someone to make a change. We could not go on this way.

My mother finished chewing her bite of food, took a delicate sip of her iced tea, and laid down her crystal goblet. She folded her napkin and placed it across her plate. Dad sniffed and put his elbows on the table and looked at her and waited for her to speak. He had shimmering tears in his eyes and his face was peaceful. She looked across the long table and matter-of-factly said to him, “Paul, I have hated you for seventeen years. The girls don’t need me anymore. They’re thirteen and fifteen. They are grown. I’m leaving you today.”

He pushed his peas around on his plate, took another bite, and chewed slowly. He wiped the corners of his mouth with his white lace napkin and didn’t look up, but instead looked as though he were talking to his food. “Okay, but, Lily, we just bought a new iron last week. I mean. What are we going to do

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