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cigarettes,” She replied and blew a puff of smoke in my face, which
pissed me off.
    “ Mommy, I really
wish you ’ d give up them cigarettes. What
did your doctor tell you?”
    “ What else am I going to do all
day?” she argued.
    “ Where ’s the crossword puzzles I bought
you?”
    “ On the coffee table. I can only
do so many of those.”
    “ Then read a
book.” I ’ d brought her over a
boxful.
    She gave me a knowing look and
frowned. “All they talk about is sex!”
    I smiled back at her.
“ Hey, sex
sells Mommy. ”
    She wrinkled her nose.
“I ’ m too old for all that. Just get
me a good mystery to read.”
    “ I’ll bring you one this
weekend.”
    “ Has anyone been over today to
check on you?”
    She nodded. “My nurse was here and
then Uncle Todd.”
    I smiled at the mention of my
godfather. “How ’s he doing?”
    “ You know him.
Always complaining about something,” she commented then gave a sad
smile. Todd Malcolm had been my father ’s best
friend and like an uncle to me and Brice.
    “ Have you eaten?”
    “ Why all the questions?” Mommy
snapped, but I didn’t take it personal. In the last year she had
become increasingly irritated.
    I leaned forward before answering,
“Because you ’ re my mother and
it ’s my job to make sure you ’ re okay
over here by yourself. I don’t know why you won’t just move in with
me.” So I could sell this bitch.
    She looked frustrated.
“ I
don’t know why we keep having this
conversation. You know I ’ m not leaving my house.”
She took a final draw on the cigarette, then put it out in the
ashtray. “My nurse will be back after Meals on Wheels delivers my lunch. ”
Avoiding eye contact, she looked over at the television.
    “ I’ll have April bring you over
something from the restaurant tonight.”
    “ Have her bring me some of those
biscuits. Those are good.”
    I
smirked. “They ’ re rolls
not biscuits and that ’s Granby ’s recipe. ”
    “ It is?” she said and her
expression softened. “No wonder they tasted so good. My mama sho
did know how to throw down in the kitchen. “
    I nodded. “Yes, she
did.”
    I felt myself looking down at my
manicured hands. Uh-uh. I wasn’t about to started tearing
up.
    My grandmother had meant the world to me. Growing up
she only lived a few blocks away, so I was always able to go over
and spend hours watching her cook in the kitchen. When she passed
away my entire world crumbled.
    I glanced down impatiently, at my
watch. The sooner I got out of there the better. “I better get
going,” I said and rose.
    “ Before you leave can you go in my
room and get that big blue picture album off the shelf in my
closet?”
    I was slow to answer. “What
for?”
    There was that frustrated look
again. “Because I can’t reach it, that ’s why.”
    I looked down at her small frail body in the chair,
with the blanket draped over the stump that was once her left leg.
Diabetes. Years of not listening to her doctor had cost her half
her leg.
    I hated seeing her that way—incapable of taking care
of herself and needing the help of others. Judith Fox had always
been quiet and weak with self-esteem issues, now she was subjected
to a life at the mercy of others.
    I walked back through the living
room and down the short narrow hall. The closer I got to her
bedroom the harder my heart thumped. The old peeling wallpaper, and
the squeaky wood floors didn’t help the situation none.
    It took everything not to look at the closed door to
my right. The room had once been my own personal hell.
    I pushed open my
parent ’s bedroom door--because there was
no doorknob. There never was any privacy. Not even the bathroom.
The only lock had been on the basement door.
    I brushed an eerie feeling aside
and moved around my mother ’s unmade bed toward the
closet. The sooner I got the album the sooner I could get the fuck
out of there.
    I opened the closet door and fumbled around on the
top shelf and somehow the old