Friday Fiction: A Meager Offering

 

It was, of course, full of books, but such books as Timmy had never imagined gathered together.  They were just paperbacks, stacked cover up in triple rows lengthwise and five rows across, and a final space at the end filled with volumes laid with their spines up. But they all had brightly colored backgrounds, crimson and sky blue and emerald green and plush purple, inset with glowing fantastic pictures, either almost heraldic or hyper realistic but of fanciful subjects, dragons or warriors or wizards, so that the entire effect was like a glowing patchwork blanket or an illuminated stained-glass window.

For a moment they gleamed, the fugitive sun glancing off their colored covers, picking out the gilded lettering of titles here and there. Then he heard Mom call, “Come on, kiddo, let’s get moving,” and he reflexively pushed the scratched blue lid back down with a snap. The furtive light faded, and Timmy was suddenly back in a damp wan muted world again.

The rest of the trip home went by in a sort of trance. Timmy bundled back into the SUV and watched as they left the compound and heard the gate clanking shut behind them. He heard Mom and Granny discussing supper over their phones; knew when Mom split away and headed to Chicken Express; grunted when Mom asked him if he wanted hush puppies; accepted the steaming bag to hold when they drove on. But all the while he was looking out the grey window with a far away look, distracted and vague.

They pulled into Granny’s house and convened to the kitchen. Granny had a big old house, almost in the center of the town. She and Uncle Jimmy rattled around in it, following a well-worn path through the few rooms they actually occupied. The family had once been much bigger with all Mom’s brothers and sisters in the old days, and Grampa living there; now most were out in the surrounding counties, with one off as far off as California. Most of the rooms had settled into almost museum displays. The kitchen was the most living spot in the house. Granny seldom cooked anymore, but it was a warm room where most family activity took place these days.

Now they gathered at the kitchen table while Mom unpacked the chicken and Granny got out paper plates and canned sodas from the fridge.

Notes

Didn't get quite as far as I wanted this week. Then today was the last day to pick up some medicine at HEB and that took up most of the morning (I take a long round trip by the bus). But here is what I have.