Chapter 30
My birthdays comin’ and I’m gonna be ten years old. I’ve never been two numbers before. I can hardly wait! I can already taste that chocolate cake buried deep down under a whole ton of cream cheese frostin’. Mama makes me one every year on my day. I also get to stay home from school and Mama says I don’t have to fold any clothes or wash the dishes. If only my whole life could be a birthday!
Bigmama said she’s gonna cook me some biscuits, green peas, fried chicken, and fried okrey, just for my birthday. Sandra wants her to make a banana puddin’ and slice some cucumbers because that’s her favorites but Bigmama said she’ll just have to wait a few months for her own birthday. She said I need to eat all my favorite foods so I can get my strength built back up since I was so sick.
Do you think anybody has ever died from throwin’ up? I thought for sure I was goin’ to. Mama said I had the flu. Everything she gave me to eat came right back out of me so she borrowed a hammer from Bigmama and made me some crushed up ice and fed it to me with a spoon.
She was so good to me. She wiped my head with a cool wash rag and held my hair outta my face while I threw up in a little bucket. I slept a lot of the time but I woke up every single time she rubbed my hair. She held me on her lap like she did when I was a new baby and she told me that she loves me so much. It made me wish I could stay sick forever.
When she asked me if I knew where she was ten years ago at this time I didn’t know what in the world she was talkin’ about. She said she was gettin’ ready to go to the hospital to have me and her hand came toward my face just then and I wasn’t one bit scared when she softly rubbed it across my cheek. My body was kinda weak and tired like, but I was so happy it felt like I was takin’ a bath in sunshine. That’s what love feels like when it washes over you.
My Mama’s eyes are so beautiful when they’re quiet. She has soft brown hair that she’s always pushin’ off her face. It ends in a wave on her collar. She’s always talkin’ about goin’ on a diet but she never does so her body is kinda soft and squishy around the middle. She has strong arms and legs and she can whistle hard and loud just like a boy. Blue veins run down the bottom part of the back of her legs. She says they’re proof of how hard she’s worked.
My Mama’s only dream in life is to have a husband and a pretty house with no cracks in the walls. She would like to quit work and stay home and cook. It sounds like a simple enough dream because so many people have it. It’s not like wantin’ to be President or something.
If dreams was like butterflies I would catch all of hers and tuck ‘em under the pillow where she sleeps and then she could wake up and be happy to see me.
