And she brought with her a bunch of dirty rugs

Today I've been working on my paper and thinking about my presentation.  I'm sad interim went by so quickly, but I'm happy that I'll get to continue this project during the semester.  I'm hoping to keep up with this blog throughout the semester as I work on my novella and take the novella workshop.

Here's what I wrote this morning.  I saw a woman walking out near Converse the other day, and as soon as I saw her I thought "I know you.  I've met you before."  Really, I'd never even seen the woman in my life. I felt like I was seeing a ghost or magic, a crack in this dimension.  She was a character I had written.  In fact, she was the grandmother in my novella.  I didn't know it until I saw her walking down the road near Converse, but I'm certain it's her.  And she brought with her a bunch of dirty rugs.


Grandmother looks like a penguin when she walks.  Her arms arm straight and stiff behind her and she leans back as if every step forward is a struggle to keep from staggering backward.  Her whole body sways as she walks, like a pendulum on a grandfather clock.  Ever since she lost her hair, she's wrapped a bandanna around her head.  Today she has on the pink one with little green flowers.  It's fabric from a dress she used to wear back before Lola was born, back when Sandy was young and she was young.  But her teeth are still good, and she's proud of that.  Everyday she wears a long skirt, and everyday she pulls the back of the skirt up between her legs and tucks it in the front of her waistband.  Lola always asked her why she didn't just wear pants.  The way she wore her skirts made her look like she had on a big diaper.  Grandmother would always laugh and wink and say "Maybe I do."

Grandmother thought the remedy for everything was beating the rugs.  Lola was convinced it was Grandmother's way of forcing her to get the chore done.  But she couldn't deny the fact that she always felt better when the sun went down and all the dust that was in the rugs was now in her hair and stuck to her arms and lungs.

The morning after Clayton was in the accident, Lola woke up to find all the rugs hanging over the chain link fence in the backyard.  Lola never knew how Grandmother was able to pick up all those rugs by herself, much less sling them over the fence, but she often prayed for the day she'd be too weak to make it out the door with one of them.

Grandmother was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs with a broom.  Usually, Grandmother didn't help, but that morning, she brought an old mop out and beat those rugs until Lola feared she might pass out.  The dirt and dust flew around them.  Lola's whole body hurt.  With every swing of the broom, she thought she wouldn't be able to do it again.  Then she'd be rearing back to bring it down again.  Grandmother started coughing, but she didn't stop.  That's when Lola knew how bad things were.  She knew Clayton must be in trouble.