“Oh, to relive those days again,” Carl chuckled. “You were a handful that’s for sure.” He walked up the slight grade. His breathing, though steady became increasingly labored. He searched for that chair to sit upon before he became too weak to walk further.
“What are you doing?” Susan screamed in frustration.
“You can’t tell me what to do!” Ginny yelled back in a voice filled with rancor and scorn. “You ain’t stealing my Carl either. I swear I’ll kill you in your sleep.”
“He’s my dad!”
“Oh no, you are a harlot!”
Carl found the chair and sat down. He fumbled with a pouch filled with cigarette tobacco and Zig Zag rolling papers. He began placing the paper in his one hand and pouring the tobacco onto the paper. With his free hand he fumbled with rolling it, until he had it started then used his other hand to complete the process. He used a wooden match to light the cigarette and inhaled the smoke deeply into his aged lungs.
He could smell something burning from somewhere.
“Mom, you’re going to burn his house down. Stop it right now!” Susan sounded frantic and Carl knew the time had come. She was beyond the help Susan could provide her.
“That must be where the smoke smell is coming from.
“Why are you insisting on calling you that? You aren’t my daughter. I don’t know who you are!”
“Oh, that’s going to hurt to the core. I’m sorry Susan. I should never have brought us into your life. I bet you’ve aged ten years since we came here from Davenport Iowa.” He finished smoking the cigarette when he heard firetrucks approaching. Their distant sirens came closer to the property. He remained seated as he felt the breeze of the engine brush passed him. Several cars and trucks soon followed. Then all was quiet.
A commotion of men barking orders to each other while his daughter yelling at the men and Ginny singing a gospel song from when they were children over eighty years ago. “Come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant!”
Carl continued walking up the road to the mailbox. He tapped his cane against the four-by-four post and gingerly caressed the box until he found the opening and searched inside. He placed the single envelope out of the box and tucked it into the light jacket he wore. He then slowly made his way back to the house where fire truck, volunteer firefighters, Susan, and Ginny milled about putting out the fire Ginny started.
“Yes, Susan it’s time to take her out of your hair and put us in a home where we can pass the days until we breathed our last breaths.
Jerry Schellhammer 