Hot Flash by Carrie H. Johnson

Author:Carrie H. Johnson [Johnson, Carrie H]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2016-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

The next morning we were on the road by seven o’clock, on the way to John’s mother’s house.

As I drove down Curve Street in Newton, an ambulance parked in front of Ama’s house pulled away from the curb, followed by a police car.

The one-way street was lined on both sides with older colonials, capes, and ranch homes of various sizes and colors squashed together for a neighborly effect. His mother’s house was a gray colonial with red shutters and shared a common need for paint with the other houses. A young woman and the twins ran from the porch to the street, as the vehicles were driven away.

The twins jumped up and down, crying, screaming, and waving. Their heads full of braids bounced in every direction, making them look spastic. As we got closer, I recognized the young woman as John’s baby sister, Debbie. She struggled to catch the twins’ flailing arms and avoid having her face slapped in the doing. She had barely gained control of them when they caught sight of our car and ran into the street to greet us.

One twin ran around to my window. The only way to tell the two apart was a tiny scar Rose had under her left eye, a battle scar from defending Helen against a playground bully in preschool. Helen was at the window. I told her to back away until I parked. I pulled into the driveway and could barely open the car door and get out for their crowding and jockeying for position.

Rose won forward space. “They took Ba to the hospital, but she’s gonna git better,” she said.

Debbie caught my eye, making shapes with her mouth to communicate they did not know about their father. The twins bounced up and down in front of me, trying to wrap their arms around my neck. They were almost as big as me, so there was no picking them up. Instead they wrapped their arms around me, one on either side, and we two-stepped our way to the porch and up the stairs.

The wide porch, encased by windows, led into a darkened hallway. To the right was the living room. Farther down on the left, a stairway went halfway up and turned the corner to the second floor. The hallway emptied into a small kitchen with counters on three sides and a round table set in the middle, leaving little room to move between the sink and stove. The twins released me once we were in the kitchen, and I plopped down in a kitchen chair, spent and sweaty. Dulcey gained Debbie’s permission through sign language of sorts, then opened and closed cabinet doors until she found glasses and brought me a glass of cold water.

“Auntie, are you sick?” they said in unison, which on a good day worked on my sanity and sometimes made me want to put the little darlings out of their misery—in unison. This was anything but a good day.

Travis gained their attention. “We finally meet.

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