Like Trees, Walking by Ravi Howard

Author:Ravi Howard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

After we laid Mrs. Calderon on the table, Maurice brought a stack of eight-tracks from the utility room shelf. My father played gospel music while we worked—Mighty Clouds of Joy, Jackson Southernaires. When he wasn’t there, I played what Daddy called Monday-to-Saturday music to pass the time. Despite his aversion to grown-folks music, Maurice liked to find something he thought the departed might like. He thought they might be looking down on us while we were looking down on them. Might as well make them comfortable.

“Bobby Blue Bland or Little Milton, which one you think she liked?”

“Bobby.”

“Everybody likes Bobby,” he said. “Especially folks in Chicago. What part?”

“South Side. Her niece said she taught junior high school for thirty years,” I told him. “Five children. Four girls and a boy. Six grandkids.”

“A shame,” Maurice said, looking up at the clock behind him. “I guess we better get going if we want to get her on that train.”

Before Maurice pushed play, he looked back at Mrs. Calderon and offered her a prayer.

“May the Lord bless you and keep you; may the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.”

Shortly after the amen, the horns from Two Steps from the Blues came through the speakers. Once we finished the restoration, I rolled in the silver casket. Maurice looked at her face and made the sign of the cross. Before we loaded her in, I took the paperwork on the counter. Among the papers, an Amtrak cargo slip for her journey.

“When she took that train down here from Chicago, I guess she never figured she’d be going home like this,” Maurice said. “I suppose we all have to get home some kind of way.”

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