"Pushing Mom"

This is the beginning to a new story :

Pushing MOM

 This was about how deep the snow was

   The day was not over till the night had been written. That’s how this day was to be. It was a cold and wintry day, even though spring was officially upon us. I did not much care about the time of year it was. Being all of five years old, I just wanted to play in the snow.  Mom had bundled us up like over stuffed suitcases and let us outside for a while but soon called us back in because the snow had started falling even stronger and the wind had picked up. I can remember her tugging at the metal buckles that latched my rubber boots. They had frozen over from all the snow. Unwrapping me like a mummy my scarf fell to the newspaper covered floor to reveal my little red cheeks and my now runny red nose. She grabbed a dish towel and cupped my face and nose and said “blow!” She then picked me up from the middle of the pile and sat me down on a dry spot of the kitchen floor and said, “Stay there till I get you some dry socks” Groaning deeply She took hold of the kitchen chair and pulled herself up off her knees to stand there for a minute or two. I noticed something wasn’t quite right. She clasped her Belly and rubbed the top of it and started saying quietly, “Not now baby, not now” She bit at her bottom lip and I could tell she was holding her breath.  My mother was very much pregnant. My Sister still standing there with her face covered, bunched her eye brows together, while looking intently at her, she said “OK, Mommy”. Brother Dale was standing behind her and said “Not you silly, Mom’s talking to the new baby”. I chuckled  and Mom glanced at me with a wisp of a quick smile and said, “Come on kids let’s get dry and warm.”

    Donita and Dale finished taking their winter coats and boots off as Mom took my hand and pulled me off into the front room to put some dry socks on me. “there!” “feel Better?” she asked while she poked at the bottom of my feet. It tickled and I laughed.  She reached up above the back of the couch and parted the curtain just behind it and looked outside. She looked with a longing in her face I’d never seen before. She then said. “I hope your Father gets home soon.” Dad was late getting home from work. He worked nights and He was always home before we even made it to the kitchen table for breakfast. But today was different. Mom said the Snow outside had slowed Dad down. You could tell she was anxious about that and something else was in the air. Something we would all experience and never forget.

    Mom got up and went over to the fuel oil stove and lifted the lid on the fill tank and just looked up and said “Ugh!” Dale and Sissy had run off to the back room and also had started an argument over who was going to use the port-a- potty first. We had no running water in this home and actually there was no Electricity. We didn’t know about these things and we didn’t really care. It was the way we lived. Mom yelled at them and told them to stop or she was going to make them do chores. They got quiet immediately.

    I sat there on the couch watching her intently and life as it was unfolding in front of me. She grabbed one of dads old work coats and wrapped her shoulders with it. She pushed her feet into some rubber boots and picked up an empty fuel can and said. “I’ll be right Back…” She opened the back door and some snow fell into the kitchen as she stepped out into the now total whiteness that was outside. I got up and ran to the back door as she pulled it shut behind her. I jumped up a couple times at the back door window to try and see where she had gone. I had an Idea where she was and I pulled a chair over and climbed up and looked out. There she was standing there in the blowing snow next to the fuel oil tank that stood beside the shed. Her long black hair was blowing every which way about her face from the biting and stinging cold wind that I remembered from that morning. The snow was falling so heavily it was hard to see her clearly. As she stood there waiting for the fuel to fill the can I could see her trying to keep her hair from her face with one hand and the other hand awkwardly attempting and failing at holding dads coat together over her large belly. I looked down at the snow where she had just walked and her foot prints were almost covered. The ice on the inside of the door window was thickening up as well.  I licked at the inviting thick ice on the window and I remember it was so cold on my tongue. The taste of frozen ice on glass is a taste that stays with you for ever. It’s like one of those bits of information your mind holds as a key memory to unlock others. I then heard Mom in a muffled way saying, “Move away from the door Honey….Please Mommy wants in!”  I had been licking the ice and had not noticed her there. I jumped down and pulled at the door handle. The door and the chair pushed in together as the wind howled and Mom and snow blew into the kitchen. “My god she exclaimed!” she turned and slammed the door shut. She went straight to the task of filling the Stove with the fuel that would keep us warm for the day. After that she reached behind the stove and turned up the burner a bit and walked over to the front door as she hung up dads coat on the wall just over our the wet cloths that we had left there. She rubbed her forehead of the wet snow now melting upon her face and took her bottom lip and caught the droplets of moisture that melted just above her lip.

“Come on Ed” ….she said under her Breath. Wiping both hands with her face she then pulled her hair back and said “Getting hungry for some lunch?” She turned away and walked into the kitchen.  The rest of the late morning was a blur until Mom sat us down for lunch. She had made tomato soup and grilled cheese on homemade skillet bread.

Enjoying my meal we all sat there in a tentative quiet. Dad was not home yet. While there with us she kept one eye on the kitchen window and fed my little brother Jerry some oat meal she had made him. He wasn’t old enough to eat anything on his own yet. My Mother had Jim, Dale, Donita, me and Jerry to care for besides being pregnant. The winter outside seemed like it had settled in for the day. I don’t remember it ever stopping at all not even for a moment.

“OH MY GOD!” Mom said loudly. “Your Dads Home” she said, standing and turning towards the kitchen window. We all jumped up and ran to the front door where we could see Dad coming down the drive towards the house. That was sort of strange. Where’s dads car? Oh well I thought, I was just glad to see him. Bent against the wind Dad stumbled a bit in the deep snow as he made his way across the front yard and to the front door. Mom said get away from the door guys let your Father in. Dad came in shaking and shivering and stomping his feet knocking the packed snow from his feet. Mom grabbed his rugged red face and kissed him and said “you OK Honey?” Dad said “I’m fine sweetheart. Snapping his hat against his knee he turned to look Mom straight into her face again. With a cautious tone to her voice mom said, “Where’s the car?” Dad gasping a bit while he kicked off his boots said, “I slid off the road down in front of Pipes house. I had to walk here. I heard on the radio we are in a blizzard. But we’ll be ok.” Mom’s eyes welled up with tears and she walked off to their room.

    Pipes house was about three miles away from ours. We lived in a small four room house at the end of a dead end road. Two miles from the main road and only one other

Family lived on our road. But their home was on the corner of our road and the main road. There was another home but it was empty at that time. Shaking his head my father said, “What now woman?” we all looked at him like wondering pups and he told us to sit back down and finish our lunches. Jerry Joe was still sitting in his high chair playing in the oatmeal he had spit back out onto the tray.  We sat there and ate our lunch and didn’t say a word to each other. We heard Mom and dad having a conversation but could not understand what was going on. Dad burst back into the living room and hurriedly put his coat and boots back on. All we heard him say was “Jesus Christ!” Jesus Christ!”
Out the door he went still saying “Jesus Christ!” We knew Jesus wasn’t there but maybe Dad was going off to find him I thought. The front door blew open and the snow blew in as Dad disappeared out of sight. My big brother Jim caught the door and closed it just as I heard my Mother call out for my sister Donita to come to the bedroom. I looked at my Brother Dale and he shrugged his shoulders at me and asked me if I was going to eat my cheese. Just then a dollop of oatmeal smacked Dales face. We had let Jerry Joe try to feed himself. Mom was right…..he wasn’t old enough yet.

I'll write more later.....