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First Edition Design Publishing - Donna Riley

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93 pages

English

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Albert very much a true hillbilly who comes off suave and cool, from the Shenandoah Valley, watches Lucy as she catches the bus to and from work. Lucy herself is a beautiful woman that has never been away from home. Albert convinces Lucy one evening, to let him take her home in his cab, free of charge. Lucy, lacking any social skills except from what she has learned from her backwoods parents, quickly falls for Albert. Lucy becomes pregnant, and Albert takes a job as a caretaker in the middle of a large cemetery outside of DC, where a house is provided for his family. Now, three daughter's later, Albert and Lucy struggle to make ends meet as the girls fight between themselves, but have a bond that no one can break.

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Publié par	First Edition Design Publishing
Date de parution	30 septembre 2014
Nombre de lectures	1
EAN13	9781622875801
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0360€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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9500 Riggs Road
Donna Riley

First Edition Design Publishing
9500 Riggs Road

First Edition Design Publishing
9500 Riggs Road
Copyright ©2014 Donna Riley

ISBN 978-1622-875-74-0 PRINT
ISBN 978-1622-875-80-1 EBOOK

LCCN 2014947762

August 2014

Published and Distributed by
First Edition Design Publishing, Inc.
P.O. Box 20217, Sarasota, FL 34276-3217
www.firsteditiondesignpublishing.com

Father’s Press - -www.fatherspress.com

ALL R I G H T S R E S E R V E D. No p a r t o f t h i s b oo k pub li ca t i o n m a y b e r e p r o du ce d, s t o r e d i n a r e t r i e v a l s y s t e m , o r t r a n s mit t e d i n a ny f o r m o r by a ny m e a ns ─ e l e c t r o n i c , m e c h a n i c a l , p h o t o - c o p y , r ec o r d i n g, or a ny o t h e r ─ e x ce pt b r i e f qu ot a t i o n i n r e v i e w s , w i t h o ut t h e p r i o r p e r mi ss i on o f t h e a u t h o r or publisher .
This book is dedicated to Ben, who dotted my “I’s” and crossed my “t’s”, to whom I will ever be grateful and hold in my heart.
9500 Riggs Road
Donna Riley
Chapter One

“Big hole in the river, gonna jump right in, bet the fishes and the whales gonna make a big fuss over me. Sound pretty darn good, don’t I, Mable?”
Albert Jessie Brown sang to his youngest daughter, as he drove down the street. His head was thrown back and he was sang the top of his lungs. Three year old Mable was tucked up under his arm close to his side as he drank Valley Forge beer and ate peanuts. They had just left the Tick Tock liquor store, and Mable had a bag of peanuts and a soda. She was dressed in what she usually wore in the summer, a pair of underpants, no shoes, and no shirt. Mable didn’t talk much, and that was alright with Albert, he never asked her much either; they had a silent bond.
Mable’s mother and father fought day in and day out, it didn’t really matter or make any sense, they just fought. Lucy, Albert Brown’s wife, proudly considered herself a southern Baptist. Don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t wear makeup, dag gone, don’t pass gas on Sunday or you’ll burn in hell. The way it looked at this point all the Brown’s kids were going to hell, especially the oldest child, Molly, she swore worse than just about anyone in the Brown’s house, except maybe Albert. But that was Molly; never one to keep her opinion to herself or her feelings about anything. The Brown’s middle daughter, June, tried her best to follow her mother’s lead and set an example for her sisters, but Molly and Mable were determined to resist. Especially Mable, who at three years old, was already an independent and inquisitive child. Mabel’s two front teeth were missing; not because they fell out, but because Mable had run through the house with a curtain rod pretending it was a horn. When she got to the doorway, she and the curtain rod didn’t make it through. The rod hit the door jamb, banged back against her front teeth, and broke them clean off at the gums.
Albert was a caretaker of a very large cemetery just outside of Washington D.C. They lived in the caretaker’s house which sat smack dab in the middle of the cemetery. The Brown children had the best playground and the quietest neighbors around. The large cemetery was the perfect place to play hide and go seek, especially since there were so many gravestones to hide behind. The fountain offered them a swimming hole after the gates were closed at night, and the large mausoleum was the perfect place to listen to your echo when you yelled and screamed really loud.
Acre upon acre of graves surrounded their house, but right next door to the Brown’s house was another house they called “the gray house”, (simply because it was gray in color). Inside the gray house, Mr. Fuller, another worker, spray painted baskets for funeral flowers. He was a kind and gentle man with three daughters of his own. Sometimes, on Sunday, Mr. Fuller would drop his girls off to play with the Brown children.
Up a little hill directly in front of the Brown’s house, was the barn, as Albert called it. In all actuality, it was really a long, low block building. A small office was on one end of the building, the rest was used for storing of the equipment Albert used in maintaining the cemetery. Mowers, trucks and lots of hand tools filled the room, with picks, shovels and pry bars leaning against the inside walls. On the outside of one end of the building there was a large pile of sand, used for filling in holes. The Brown children would often climb to the top of the building and jump off onto it, making it a game. However, they had to be careful to make sure that Albert wasn’t around, because if he had caught them on top of the building, much less jumping off of it, well, let’s just say, Albert wouldn’t have been happy.
The workers gathered at the barn in the morning to receive their orders for the day, some mowed, some cleared off graves, while others dug fresh ones, and sometimes they’d even have to open up a grave to move a body to a different location, per family request, and since it was before vaults were required, this could be an especially unpleasant job, but easy jobs were few and far between in those days.
Lucy Senora Brown worked every day at the Jewish deli in downtown DC. She also had a part time job as a nurse’s aide in an old folk’s home on the north side of the city’s bus route. With both parents working and gone from home so often, there were days when there was no one to watch Mable, so Lucy would take Mable with her to the nursing home. Mable hated it, all the old people looked like unwrapped mummies to her; they’d reach their hands out to touch her face, with skin hanging in translucent wrinkles from their fingers. Lucy always put her hand on Mable’s back and pushed her towards them, and poor Mable was terrified. Her mother insisted that Mable give them hugs. Mable watched as they coughed and spit phlegm into tissues and Mable gagged when she is forced to approach them. Whatever old person she was urged to hug at the time became startled and they’d pull back whenever this occurred. That suited Mable just fine, as she then went and sat under the coats that hung on the coat rack in the hall. It was dark and quiet, and the old people couldn’t get their wheelchairs into that hallway. So most of the time Mable would stay there until her mother got off work.
On the other hand, Albert never seemed to get a minute’s rest. He was either digging a grave, cutting grass, or moving a body from one grave site to another, or drinking beer. The grave digging and grass cutting was a never ending job in the spring and summer. He worked six days a week, sometimes seven if there was a funeral on Monday. On those occasions, he and some of the men would spend Sunday preparing the gravesite for the following day.
Albert came home every day for lunch. Most times he’d have cold pinto beans and fat back spread with mustard; he’d chop onions up and put them on top of the beans, then he’d cover it with salt and pepper. He came home every day at the same time through the summer, fixed his plate and then went and sat in the living room and watched The Price is Right, with Bob Barker. He wiped his plate clean with a piece of white bread, and when he finished his last savory bite, he’d head out into the cemetery and go back to work, not returning, most of the time, until dusk.
If, by chance the Brown’s weren’t arguing, which was seldom, Sundays were pretty calm. Lucy made a big Sunday dinner; Albert sat in the living room, his feet stretched comfortably out as he watched bowling. He didn’t move much on Sundays, except maybe to come to the dinner table and then back to his chair in the living room. Although Albert and Lucy argued incisively, she still waited on Albert like he was royalty.
Saturdays, holidays, and when school let out was an especially risky time. It was like mixing a highly volatile cocktail, leaving the three girls alone, unattended by an adult. They were high spirited and unruly; they ran wild, hitting each other and throwing things. Mable was three, when she learned to pull a chair up in front of the kitchen stove and scramble herself eggs. Her new height standing on the kitchen chair, gave her access to the cabinets above. Curious as she was, she’d often climb onto the cluttered counter and start looking through them. Once she found the orange flavored aspirins that Lucy gave her when she felt bad, and Mable loved the way they tasted, so she ate one, then two and then Mable ate all the aspirins that were left in the bottle.
“What are you doing up there, you stinking little dog? Awww!” June said, looking at the empty aspirin bottle, “I’m telling Mama and she is gonna beat your behind.”
June had walked in and caught Mable, startling her, causing her to jump. Mable grabbed a can of corn and threw it at June, hitting her in the shoulder. “Oww,” June cried grabbing her shoulder “I’m going to break your scruffy neck.” June grabbed for Mable’s ankles, Mable stomped at June’s hands as she grabbed for her. Then Molly poked her head around the door.
“What the hell are you doing to her?” Molly raised her voice as she spoke.
“What did I do to her? The little brat hit me with a can of corn, and look she ate all the baby aspirins. I’m telling mama you’re cussing again. She’s gonna beat both your behinds!” June grabbed for Mable’s legs again.
Molly stomped over and punched June in her other shoulder. “Get off of her!”
“Ouch!” June cried out, picking up the broom from the corner of the kitchen. She went flying after Molly, Molly turned and ran. Mable could hear their footsteps as they ran up the steps. June must have caught up with Molly because there was an awful lot of slamming and banging and yelling going on up there. With June distracted by Molly, Mable knew it was safe for her get down off the counter now. Mable stretched her short legs down to the chair and then hopped to the floor. With th