Another Time, Another Place

He sighed as he stuffed his hands into his pants pockets. “So, what are you saying?”

I stopped pacing and stood directly in his face. “I’m saying, I want you to leave, and please lose my phone number on your way back to Atlanta.”

He straightened his tie as I handed him his overcoat. The door tapped his back as I slammed it, and supported me as I slid down. I cursed my desperation. I don’t know how long I cried, but sadness eventually led me to sleep. When I awakened, I didn’t feel any better, but I got up and put the record player needle back on Billie Holiday. At least I knew her blues would spell the truth… this earth was indeed bitter.

TIRED OF BEING ALONE

A fifth of Scotch, and two bubble baths still couldn’t erase the image of Eugene pumping hot air inside of me. His stature was rotund in all the wrong places…a damn shame. I sucked my teeth as I stormed into the tiny office at the medical mission. Aunt Frances was reclined in her wooden swivel chair. Her eyes closed, she hummed a tune all her own.

“Frances, Frances!”

“Huh?” Her pudgy cheeks jiggled as she opened her eyes and sat up straight. She grinned deeply, exposing dimples that made her mocha-colored face radiant. “Hey, baby gal,” she said in a bass drawl. “You done snuck on in here, and surprised your old auntie.” She moved the Bible that had been resting on her round belly to her cluttered desk.

I folded my arms as I leaned my butt on the edge of her desk. “I called your ass three times. You all right? I thought maybe you were praying, but I ain’t hear that humna hadasa stuff you be puttin’ down, when you in spiritual mode.”

“Jasmine, hush up. It’s called, ‘speaking in tongues,’ but you wouldn’t know nothin’ ’bout that, you heathen!”

“Look who’s talkin’. You spend more time sleeping than tending to the sick in this mission.” I had to hold in a laugh, because she was senselessly fanning herself. Overheated from her too-tight, white uniform.

“Lawd, I need another fan up in here. Turn dat thing up, would ya?” She motioned toward the buzzing steel fan.

I glanced at the fan and didn’t move. “Humph. I wish I would. You need to boil in your sins, Miss Part-time Nurse, Full-time Practical Joker.”

She squeezed her wide hips out of the seat and bumped me as she bent over to turn up the fan. “Whatcha talkin’?” she asked.

I shook my head as I watched her butt settle back into the chair, each spring underneath creaking from her load. “I’m talking about that munchkin you set me up with last night.” I pouted and folded my arms, waiting for her response.

She held her belly as she chuckled. “Well, he didn’t look that short, last time I saw ’em, ’bout ten years ago when he was in college.”

“Ten years and twenty pounds lighter would make anyone look taller, you old fool!”

“Why you gotta be angry all the time? That’s the problem. You frustrated below. And since you ain’t fit to get into nobody’s convent, you might as

well put that thang to use, ’fore it dry up.”

“You talkin’ from experience, Old Settler?”

“There you go with that smart mouth. When you was a baby, crying those blue eyes out, I shoulda taken you to the beach and fed you to the porpoises!”

I sprung to attention, hands on my hips. “They wouldn’t have eaten me, ’cause they know you their family! Now hush, and listen to what I gotta say.”

She pouted a little as she took a handkerchief from her pocket to wipe her brow. I could tell I’d hurt her feelings, but she’d get over it. She always did. We were so much alike. Mouthy and in charge. We fussed all the time, our way of loving each other.

Aunt Frances didn’t mean any harm. I gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“Shoo now, go on,” she huffed, trying not to smile.

“I know you constantly worryin’ about me, since Adam been gone, but I’ll be all right. You’ve seen me through the best and the worst, and I know you gonna always be there. Just give me a little more time to figure out my love life, okay?”

She nodded in agreement as she looked me over. “You mighty casual.”

“I don’t have any appointments today,” I said, running my hand down the side of my form-fitting, strapless sundress. “I’m thinkin’ about taking a walk along the beach.”

She picked up a wicker basket filled with boxes from off of her desk. “Well, we short one orderly. Can you help your auntie out for a few minutes before you go?”

I took the basket from her. “I reckon. What you need?”

She swirled in her chair with her back facing me. “Unpack those boxes, and stock the medicine drawers in the triage area with bandages,” she said, picking up the telephone receiver. “I gotta make a quick phone call to the Red Cross, then I’ll come out and relieve you.”