Sacramento
By enrico
- 568 reads
My sister and I could not be put down on the afternoon in 1978 when
our parents took us to visit our great aunt at a retirement community
in Sacramento. We were fast children with curious minds, skinny with
round bellies and fast legs. Our great aunt taught us to play checkers
but it wasn't enough. We needed more. She cut honey sandwiches into
various shapes with cookie cutters. Man, woman, dog, cat. This amused
us, but only a little. She brought out an ice-cream maker with a
hand-crank that fascinated us much longer than she thought it would,
but it did not satisfy us. My sister and I played together forever
while the adults talked about politics. Then, in a moment of
inspiration, our great aunt remembered she had two adult tricycles. She
wheeled them out of her garage and we, according to her, were gone,
whizbang! Just like that. We raced around well-cropped hedges and palm
trees for the rest of the afternoon. As the sun left long shadows, we
had the idea to leave two turds on top of a cement pedestal-mount
behind one of the larger hedges. A neighbor saw us commit the deed and
marched us back to our great aunt who scolded us, but only for the
neighbor and thus lightly. Later that night our great aunt smiled
widely and then laughed. Through her laughter she said, Those two
turds! Perched like host on an altar. Jesus, children! Tears ran down
her face. She hugged my sister and me, then, but for herself and thus
tightly.
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