January 9, 2014
Dear Readers,
As promised in yesterdays posting, here is the Winterfest Ekphrasis photo and the story I was inspired to write after seeing it. The photo was taken by Jordan Bernal, our club president.
“Tell us a story, Grammy.”
“A story?” The woman’s gaze swept over the two children.
Both rosy cheeked, they’d just risen from their nap. Kevin knuckled one eye and
yawned. While Carly sucked her thumb and tugged at tousled blond curls.
“Carly, don’t suck your thumb,” Carmelita admonished the
wide-eyed child. “You’re too old to be sucking your thumb. Do you want to end
up with a bucktoothed smile?”
Carly opened her mouth, but didn’t remove the thumb.
Carmelita suppressed a smile. I didn’t tell
her to take her thumb out of her mouth, now did I?
“How about an apple, you two hungry?” Carmelita drew the two
children into her arms. They both shook their heads in the negative.
“Grammy, story.” Carly spoke around her thumb, her words
garbled.
“Give us a kiss and I’ll tell you a story.” Carmelita smiled
as the young girl removed her thumb and deposited a wet smooch on her
grandmother’s cheek. “How about you Kevin? Do you have a kiss for Grammy?”
Kevin squirmed. Carmelita laughed. “You getting too old to
kiss your Grammy?”
The little boy shrugged and leaned in to give her wrinkled
cheek a quick peck.
“Alright then, the price of a story has been paid.”
Carmelita gazed over the children’s heads and out the window into the garden.
“He waits.” Carmelita whispered.
“Who waits, Grammy?” Kevin said.
She didn’t answer, her gaze was locked on a vision, one that
only her words could describe. Carly tugged on Carmelita’s sleeve, the old
woman blinked and hugged the children tighter. She felt their little frames
stiffen in her arms, as they sensed her unease.
“The Man in the Wall.” Carmelita told them, and a slight
tremor shook her frame as she uttered the words.
The children waited. Eyes wide, they stared at their
grandmother.
“In my village there is a stone hut, the roof is gone and no
one lives there anymore. The floor is stone and the walls had once been
plastered in white. The only life that remains is the green mold that rises
with the damp to find a foothold in the crevices between the stones. There were
once two doorways, but no longer, now there is only one. The other is stone and
where the Man waits.”
“Grammy?” Kevin pulled at her sleeve. Carmelita looked into
her grandson’s earnest face. “How can that be, does he stand in front of the
stone?”
“No, Kevin,” Carmelita said. “The Man waits in the stone.”
“But Grammy, how could he breath inside the stone?”
“He doesn’t breath, Kevin.”
“He’s dead, and walks with God?”
“No, he’s not dead. The Man waits.”
Carly’s thumb had crept back into her mouth. Her lips moved
as she sucked harder. Carmelita kissed the top of the little girls head.
“What does he wait for?” Kevin said.
“He waits for us.”
“Why?”
“When we each are ready, the Man will show us the way.”
“Where are we going?” Carmelita could see the impatience on
Kevin’s face as he asked her for the answers.
“To a place with many wonders.”
“What kind of wonders, Grammy?”
“You will see when you’re ready.” Carmelita hugged him
close.
“Does every family have a Man in a door?”
“No, just ours.”
Carly pulled her thumb from her mouth and locked gazes with
her grandmother. “Are you ready to go through the stone, Grammy?”
“Yes darling, I am.”
Check back in tomorrow, I will be sharing my thoughts on the Sham Stakes, a grade three event at Santa Anita.
Take care,
Shelley Lee Riley, Author of Casual Lies - A Triple Crown Adventure and For Want of a Horse - A Short Story Collection
www.shelleyriley.com
