| — FAQ |
|
A Story By Jan Watson
The old woman stood at the door and studied the package laying on the front porch. Where had it come from? She hadn't heard anyone ride up. Of course, she couldn't hear it thunder, but usually the cat would run and hide if someone came around. Finally, she pulled her old ragged sweater closer to her body and went out to retrieve it. Sitting down in the rocker in front of the heater, she put the package in her lap and looked at the black writting on it. There was her name-J-A-N-W-A-T-S-O-N. This meant, according to the girl, mean old woman. "Well, forsure it's for me." There were other letters in the same line, but the old woman couldn't worry about them right now. Taking her switchblade out of her apron pocket, she cut the gray tape holding the package closed. Her rummy old eyes grew larger. What in the world? A beautiful shawl! She picked it up and found it wrapped around something. Oh, Lord in Heaven! The most beautiful box the old woman had ever seen. A tin box colored pale pink and white with a gold lid on it. And on the lid- a bird the old woman did not recognize. Her work worn hands lovingly caressed the bird. "What you reckon it is?" she asked the fat, gray cat. Two books were also in the package, but the old woman didn't know what they were about. Sitting silently, the old woman thought for awhile. Finally it hit her. The package was from God and these was the burial stuff he had sent her! He had been watching and listening when the old woman was talking about her funeral. The shawl was to be the only pretty thing she would be wearing over her faded overalls and the box was to put her ashes in. "Why, Lord, I sure do thank ye, but it is really more than I could have ever expected." For years, the old woman had been paying on a burial policy with "We'll put ya in ground with hardly a sound" funeral home.The old woman didn't want to be put in the ground and had made other arrangements with Mr. Moldy. For the past long time, she had got up ever morning and after milking the cow, stoking up the fire in the middle room and kitchen, starting breakfast and feeding the cat, she gathered the eggs, washed them and put them in the basket for the girl to take to the store. Always 12 eggs. She knew how to do that. The girl has showed her. One for each finger and two for the large mole growing under her chin. The girl took 12 eggs every morning except Sat. and Sunday, so on Monday she took 12 eggs counted three times. Let's see, 12121212121212-that was a lot of eggs. Anyway, every week the girl would reach in her purse and present the old woman with a shiny quarter and two dimes! Once a month, the old woman put all this money in an envelope and mailed it to Mr. Moldy. She'd been paying a long time, and the stamps kept getting higer. Maybe now that she had an ash box, she would finally get Moldy paid off. "This box sure is heavy," she remarked. "Might be something in it." COOKIES! My word! The angels had baked cookies. These must be to serve the guests that come for my funeral, she thought. Tough! Anyone that showed up for her funeral didn't deserve any cookies. "I'm going to eat just a few of these now, Lord." Maybe a few more till they are all gone she laughed silently. What a morning. She got up to hide the cookies. She'd show the girl the beautiful shawl and the books, but the cookies was to be her secret. That young'un would be happy to know that she would have a pretty box to look at everytime she thought of her mother. Of course, the old woman didn't kid herself, she knew she would end up in the attic, but what the hey, everybody gots to be somewhere! |
More Old Woman Stories! E-Mail Jan! JEFFREY SOMMERS, jsommers@ngcsu.edu, www.zmag.org/ZNET.htm Assistant professor of history at North Georgia College and State University, Sommers said today: "Colin Powell said yesterday that Osama bin Laden is the prime suspect. If that accusation is right, this would be what the CIA calls 'blowback' -- when what we've created blows back in our face. The Taliban's coming to power is partly the outcome of the U.S. support of the Mujahadeen -- a pluralist group with a radical Islamic faction -- in the 1980s in its war against the Soviet Union. Blowback might erupt quickly, or simmer for decades. In Afghanistan, we trained the fundamentalists for covert operations -- the stuff of terrorism. After they came to power, they turned on their former benefactor, the U.S., which had achieved the smooth flow of oil from the Middle East at a terrible human cost. A decade of bombing and sanctions has left Saddam Hussein in power but over 700,000 Iraqi children are dead. Palestinians live under a brutal military occupation. When the Arabic nations try and address this matter civilly in the UN, as they just tried last week at the Durban conference, they are rebuffed. When blowback strikes, the consequences are as devastating as they are tragic." Book Links Southeast Booksellers Association Edward R Hamilton, Bookseller Books In Print Dennis Weaver Z Net Salon Rationally Speaking American Prospect Tennessee Anytime James Still Nashville Library 100 Questions And Answers About Arabs ~ A Journalist's Guide Trial Of John Freeman What A State Income Tax Means To Monroe Countians If You Get The Tax Facts ~ Are You Capable Of Changing Your Mind? |