West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge

Author:Lynda Rutledge [Rutledge, Lynda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

. . . “Pops?”

Someone’s knocking on my room’s door again. This time, it jars me from these scribbles enough to make me all but jump out of my skin.

“Leave me be for the love of GOD!” I yell, patting my heart as the orderly marches right in like the rest.

Catching my breath, I pull myself off the Memphis road to take a good look at him. “You’re Black.”

“Nothing wrong with your eyes, Pops. I was told to come check on you, since you hadn’t eaten all day.”

“Who are you?” I say.

“Ah, Pops, you say that every night.”

I’m not anybody’s Pops and sure not his. But he reminds me of Seventh Son, so I don’t growl at him. “I stayed at a colored motel once,” I tell him. “It was nice.”

“O-kay,” he says.

“The giraffes liked it, too. Didn’t you, Girl?” I say toward the window.

He frowns. “You seeing an old girlfriend right now, Pops?”

“No, my friend Girl.”

“You mean your girlfriend.”

“No. Girl.” I point back over my shoulder at her.

“O-kay,” he says again, looking right through Girl like she isn’t there.

“She’s a giraffe,” I say. “You’re staring right at her. She’s in the window.”

“Pops—” He screws up his face like he doesn’t have good sense. “We’re on the fifth floor.”

“Yeah?” I pause. “Yeah.” I turn toward the window.

Girl is gone.

“Listen,” he is saying, “maybe you should take a break from whatever that is you’re doing. You’ve got to pace yourself at your age.”

My age? I look down at what I’d just wrote.

It’s my birthday.

Wait. No, it’s not.

It was.

My heart stutters again as I remember.

I’m over one hundred . . .

“If you promise not to attack the new TV, we’ll let you come down to the rec room if you want. Nothing’s worth making yourself croak, right? Pops?”

With a glance back at the empty window, I start writing again.

Faster.

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