Extension

EXTENSION

We did everything we could for Grandma. She moved into the extra room that Dad and Caleb built that last summer to house Marnie before she done run off and left again. But Grandma stuck around 'til she died. Grandma died, that is. Not Marnie. Though I don't know if she ain't dead yet. Marnie, that is.

And Grandma liked that room, far as I could tell. We put up her old bed in there, raised up her washtub on a few stumps, Dad and Caleb even put up a door that went right out to the porch so she could go out when she wanted. After Caleb fixed her rockin chair we put it up on the porch and she'd rock on there most the day, doin' whatever she had goin' on that day.

I come home one day from swimmin at the bend. I guess it was obvious I was on my time because Grandma was up there on the porch pluckin' a chicken whose neck she just wrung out and said to me, "Ain't I tell ya ta stay outta the crick when y'er on y'er menses?" I tried talkin' her down but she was on a tear. Shoot. "The water draws it outta you!" she'd holler, loud enough for the neighbors to hear. "Ya git weak and them boys'll come after you!"

I tried callin' her off but she just done threw the chicken at me and made me go pick it up. Didn't like supper that night.

***

I sat on the porch, rockin, pluckin' a chicken like Grandma done all them years ago. I hugged Alan close to me on one arm, but he was still shaking. The rest of the boys were already asleep I guess. Alan had the worst time catchin' sleep after a thunderstorm. "Shh, shh baby," I said, rockin back and forth.

I thought back to that lady that come up just yesterday. I ain't never seen a woman like her. Black folks don't come round here much at all. This one was pretty. Not much makeup. But she had big round earrings, made up outta wood, and her hair was long and straight. She pulled it back in a ponytail just like me, and she wore boots, just like Caleb.

Don't know how she knew what she was talking about to me. She said we ought to care for all the boys and their health. All this stuff about 'epidemics' and people sharing needles, making the whole family sick. I never touched any of that stuff. Caleb said he stopped usin' the stuff long ago. Ain't wise to use what you're sellin', he says. I reckon he's right.

I just wish Alan would get to sleep. Shh, shh, shh baby.

[Author's Note: the prompt was a brief snippet of text inspired by the word "Extension," written by each of the attendees and passed to the participant on our right. After 10 minutes, we'd pass again, with the addition that the next snippet was somehow related to "20 years later."]