The Antelope Wife by Louise Erdrich

Author:Louise Erdrich [Erdrich, Louise]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Fiction, Literary, Cultural Heritage
ISBN: 9780061767968
Publisher: San Val
Published: 1998-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Sitting in a rocker

Eating Betty Crocker

Watching the clock go

Tick, tock, tick, tock

Shawallawalla

Tick, tock, tick, tock

Shawallawalla

ABCDEFG

Wash those boy germs off of me!

The twins are smacking their hands together and singing and rubbing off boy germs. They are not interested in what the grandmas will be angry about or what foods they will tell everyone they prefer—the burnt heart of the turkey to the white breast meat, cranberry sauce made from fresh berries only. Mincemeat pie gives Giizis the runs. Pumpkin stops Noodin’s bowels. Wild rice must be prepared with no salt, and garlic gives both an instant cramp.

Misty snow, plump clouds, occasional breaks of sun. Ice on the sidewalks slick and treacherous under the white dusting. Rozin is just returning from a long emergency run to a convenience mart, when she sees her cousin Cecille back Frank’s delivery truck with expert care into a space across the street. Inside the truck, both grandmas are sitting high and proud on grass-blue vinyl, their stunning Miss Indian America profiles on display in the watery dark of the window. The truck is white. The snow is neat, a new fall outlining the shoveled walk and steps. Rozin breathes blue air stepping out of her car to meet them.

“Take this. Here!”

Giizis opens the truck door. She holds a casserole pan in her lap, a meat-fragrant oblong warming her knees through her red-and-white trader’s-blanket coat. Rozin takes the food carefully. There is the night before Thanksgiving meal to feed everyone and Giizis has arrived with her famous wild rice and duck hot-dish. The grandmas don’t even get out of the truck—they’re too busy reminding Booch Jr., Cecille, and Rozin of their complex digestive needs, which change every year.

“Noodin takes no salt. I eat the whites of eggs only, yolks will kill me. Plus Noodin’s got that sugar in her blood. She craves it, though. Try not to tempt her,” Giizis whispers. “Don’t leave the cookie plate alone in the kitchen. She’ll make a pig of herself behind your back and then she’ll lapse into a coma. Me, you know I’ll eat whatever.”

“No you won’t,” Cecille tells her. “You’re picky as your whole family put together. And the yolks of eggs will not kill you! Rozin has already fried the onions and celery for tomorrow’s stuffing. You’ll have to divide it out.”

“She is making the stuffing already? That’s ours to make.”

Noodin is nervous about her appointment and scurries into the house. She locks herself in the bathroom. She only has a few minutes, Rozin calls through the door. They are going to be late unless she hurries.

“I am hurrying,” shouts Noodin, her voice thin with anxiety.

“Don’t pressure her,” says Cecille. “After all, she’s never been to a gynecologist before. She’s very upset about this.”

“It’s unbelievable,” says Rozin. “Well, I’m taking her to Doctor Carr. He’s very nice, really. I have seen him a couple of times.”

“Him? I would never have a him.”

“How ridiculous,” says Rozin sharply. “They are professionals. They’ve seen a million of ’em.”

“ ’Em?” Cecille laughs.

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