2011 - Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science

20
bered being the same age as her eldest grandchild
when her father had handed her a bag of seeds and
her little brother a hoe and put them to work. The
sky leaped into its twilight stage. More work needed
to be done on the farm, but Jean could not tear
herself away from her thoughts. She hoped Wood
would take care of her chores for her just this once.
It was almost time for dinner anyhow and then,
soon after, bedtime.
Jean rounded up her grandchildren and
ushered them into the house. The room, a table
with four chairs seated towards the back of what
was also the living room, was dimly lit by the light
bulb that dangled overhead which had a string that
swished backwards and forward above the table.
She placed four plates on the table. All of them
were white but with different patterns and designs.
The chairs at the table were mixed match as well,
and one of the legs of the table wobbled. Jean and
her family had never had many valuable possessions,
and she knew this.
“Lord, how can they take away the one somethin’
we do have?” Jean asked.
The beans boiled in the pot on top of the
stove while the chicken roasted in the oven. The
bell peppers, onions, and spices from the chicken
filled the whole house with a smell that lingered
long after the stove had been turned off and the
pots removed. Jean placed the biscuits on the table
adding butter to Wood’s the way he liked them.
“Somethin’ sho’ ’nough smellin’ good in her,”
Wood responded.
He aimed to reach over the table and grab a
biscuit to calm his hunger before he went to clean
up from working outside all day.
“Wood, please go wash your filthy hands before
you start touching all over my food,” Jean scorned.
Wood gave no reply and did what Jean had
asked, knowing that it would get him a plate of
food sooner if he obeyed her wish. When he arrived
back at the table everyone else was already seated
and waiting on his return. Jean took the hands of
her two grandbabies while they reached up to grab
their grandfather’s hands as he began to sit down.
“Bow you heads,” Jean instructed.
“Go ahead, Babygirl, and bless the food,”
Wood said to his youngest granddaughter.
She began the prayer, and the only words that
the rest of the family was able to understand were
“Dear God,” but in the end everyone responded
with “Amen,” and they began to eat. After
dinner Jean asked her elder grandchild to help
her clear the table and clean the kitchen. While
Jean scrubbed the dishes at the kitchen sink, she
laughed as she watched Wood balance the younger
child on his feet and dance their after-dinner sway.
When the dishes were done she helped the children
get ready for bed. Jean always let the two children
bathe together; it saved more water that way. She
turned off the lights to their room after helping
the younger one climb into bed. Jean and Wood
soon followed their grandchildren to bed. Jean
noticed how childish it was of her and her husband
to ignore the problem they would be faced with in
the morning, but she didn’t care. She didn’t want to
make things tenser by discussing it.
Light crept through the thin, shabby curtains,
but it had not awakened Jean or Wood. They were
long awake even before the rooster crowed. The
knock at the door had not disturbed them, either.
Jean lay next to Wood, both melted into each
other’s arms, dried up and motionless. n
Minions
Henry Wang
Photorgraph