The Wake
We took the shortest route to the neighborhood. We turned on Schubert Street, which was one street over from our street. We were about five or six blocks up from our corner. We stopped in front of a little store on the corner. All of our minds were on spending just a little bit of our money, but across the street and a couple of houses down an ambulance stood parked with the headlights on.
“What’s that ambulance doing?” I asked.”
“That’s no ambulance, that’s a hearse.” Harry said.
“What’s the difference?” I needed to know.
Joe turned to me and said. “Ambulances carry hurt people, hearses carry dead people.”
There was a small crowd on people on the sidewalk in front of the house. As the hearse drove off the people began to walk towards the house. We forgot about the store and walked to the house. The people were moving up the high steps to the big brownish grey house. Houses like that were so high because people stored stuff under them. There were two big trees on each side of the big yard. There were two front doors to the house. On the wall closest to the door on the right was a plaque. On the plaque was a woman’s name. Ola Mae Childress. Under the name was: 1927-1955. A heavy perfume smell was coming from the house.
“Let’s go see.” Harry said. I looked towards the big tree to the left. A little girl and two little boys were sitting on wooden boxes in front and to the side of the tree. They were real close together. We put the stash close to the inside of the fence out of the way and walked towards the steps to the house. I walked over to the children.
“What are y’all doing out here? I asked the girl. She had to be the oldest.
“Don’t run us, that’s our momma, she died day before yesterday.” The girl said in a sad voice. When she looked up I could see she had been crying.
“Why are y’all out here?” I asked her. “They’re gonna come and bring us back inside after while.” She said. “When they first brought her in, I was crying so hard until I couldn’t look at her, and they brought us outside.” She continued as if she had to talk to someone. “My uncle is going to take us to his house tonight, and then we going to live with our Grandma in Gold Dust tomorrow after the funeral. We have some more people in Gold Dust and in Annabell. I think they are going to split us up. Her head had lowered again. Then she looked up. Now she was crying. “I don’t want them to split us up. I am all they have now.” She said as she looked down at the little boys that had started to cry when they heard her cry.
I got down on my knees in front of her. “Don’t cry.” I said to her. “Just make up your mind that if they split you all up, then you are going to do all you can to get you all back together again, but don’t cry before you have to.” She looked up with a renewed look on her face. “That’s right, we’ll always be together.” She said.
“What happened to your mother?” I asked her.
“I don’t know.” She said. “The last time I saw her she was sick. She had lost some weight, but she was still pretty. She told me everything was going to be alright, and to take care of my brothers.” She just kept talking, and I didn’t stop her. “Mr. Gator, he used to beat her a lot. She was so pretty. But, he beat her too much. He beat us too when he got drunk. He was mad all the time. He beat her one night and stomped her. She got sick after that. He’s been gone after that, and we don’t know where he is.” She had a beautiful face. I wondered how she looked when she smiled. She was looking me right in the eyes. I felt a big knot in my throat. She reached up and pulled on the front of my shirt. She had stopped crying, and now she was pleading. “You go see her and come back and tell me how she looks.” The girl kept pleading. “Go see her. She had a pretty purple dress, and some pretty pearl earrings. She if she’s got that on, and see if she is smiling. She was so pretty especially when she smiled. I hope she is smiling. I hope she is happy. Go see and come back and tell me. They’re gonna come and bring us inside later. I want to see her.” The girl was brown skinned with thick black hair. Tears had started to come out of her eyes again.
I stood up. “I’ll be right back.” I said. I turned and walked towards the steps. The guys were still inside. As I walked slowly up the steps I realized I had never seen a dead person before. The closer I got to the top of the steps the smell of the perfume grew stronger. It was real strong like cheap perfume. On the porch I could see only the screen door was shut. The wooden door was open. Through the screen door I could see a single electric light hanging from a cord, but the room was lit up too much for a single light. I walked across the porch towards the door where the light was. The other side of the porch was dark, and the doors were closed. When I got to the screen door I got close to the screen so I could get a good look inside before I went in. Directly across the room from the door was the casket. It was sky blue. There was a light inside of it that was shining down on a lady inside. From where I was I could see her eyes were closed. There were fold-up chairs around the room like at a dance. Only a few people were in the room sitting in the chairs. There were some grown folks and a couple of teenagers. Everybody was clean, but no one was dressed up. I looked around the room as much as I could for the guys, but I didn’t see them. I pulled the door open and stepped inside.
Over to the right side of the room where I couldn’t see from the door was another room. The door was open. There was a big bright light with glass icicles hanging all around it. That is what made the front room so bright. There was a round table under the light. There was a lot of bunches of flowers on the table, some of them were real and some were artificial. No one was in the room. I could see another door from where I was standing. People were in this other room. I walked across the room. None of the people in the room with the chairs were talking. When I got to the room with the flowers I could see the other room. Look like a party was going on in that room. The people in there were laughing and talking. Everybody was standing up. As I headed towards this room, I could see Harry and W.T. sitting at a kitchen table with a small paper plate in front of them. Joe and Ray was in the corner of the room where a woman was pouring punch in the paper cups they held in their hands. I walked in the room and to the table.
“Go get you some sandwiches. Harry said to me with a mouth full of food. He was nodding to the lady standing at the counter top near the sink. She was standing guard on a large tray of sandwiches that were cut in half.
I walked over to her and stood there. She put two halves of one sandwich on a small paper plate. I noticed other people walking up to the table and taking as many of the sandwiches as they wanted.
“Go get you some punch.” She said without looking at me. I walked over to where Joe and Ray had been. By now they were sitting at the table with Harry and Ray. I walked over to the punch lady. There were paper cups on the counter top near her. I picked up a cup and walked over to her. She picked up the pitcher of punch and poured my cup almost full. She never looked at me. I walked over to the table where the guys were and sat down.
“They serve people that’s not in the family.” Joe said to me before I could ask. One of the sandwiches was mackerel salad, the other one was bologna and mustard. When you put one on top of the other one and ate them together it tasted pretty good. The punch was red, too sweet and not cold enough.
“Did y’all look at the woman?” I asked in a low voice as we ate.
“I’m going back again.” Joe said. That was big brother talk. He