Excerpt from “Bread and the Land”

      Black flutter, Mamma flashed about the room, worbound, her shiny knee-length black leather boots working against the wood floor like powerful pistons. Up, down, up, down. She stopped and looked at the space around her. I have everything, she said. The hem ends of her long black dress flared like wings.
      Yes, you do, Hatch said. He waited patiently on the bed edge, warm, his snowsuit packing him tight in heat and sweat, all of him sausaged inside puffy outer skin.
      She put herself before a full-length mirror, flexed a black hat onto her plump head, and slipped inside a black fur coat. The hat was real fur, but the coat, some imitation material.
      You look dashing, he said.
      Thank you.
       He watcher her with hot pride. She was heavyset but pretty. Even with her second chin, she was ten times prettier than the mother of any classmate at school.
      The phone rang on the faded brass nightstand next to the bed. Uh. Who could that be? People always call you at the wrong time. She lifted the receiver to her ear. Hello. Her eyes widened. It’s Blunt, she said.
      Oh, he said. My grandmother. He didn’t like his grandmother.
      You must go to work, he said. Tell her. Be frank.
      Words chirped in the earpiece. Mamma brightened. The preacher’s dead, she said.
      Oh, he said.
      That’s good, he said.
      She gave him a hard look. Placed her hand over the mouthpiece. Don’t get smart.
      He didn’t say anything.

From Holding Pattern. © 2008 by Jeffery Renard Allen. All rights reserved.