Page 45 - The Woven Tale Press Vol. IV #1

“When Mother slapped my face, the room slipped sideways. I fell on the floor and lost my place in my prayer.”
hand. He said if a person hit you on the face with their hand, they touched your soul and killed a bit of your spirit. Mother had done the worst thing a person could do to another human being.
battered brown suitcase with his whole life stuffed inside, leaned against the leg of his bed.
When Granddad came into the room and saw
me lying on the floor, a low growl came out of
him and he charged at her. But Mother was too
quick for him. She slapped him on the face so “I’m going Lizzie, to live in that Sea View place hard she knocked his top dentures clear out in Dingle.”
his mouth. They skidded across the floor and stopped chipped and sad by the hearth. I saw Granddad’s spirit stumble away from him and fall on the floor by his teeth, and when I looked back, Granddad was hollowed out and empty.
I went over and leaned against his knee and worried the plate-sized buttons on his coat.
Granddad took to his room then. He had his
meals there and would only come out to talk on
the telephone. After three days, I couldn’t bear
it anymore. I went to his room and knocked on
his door. Granddad held my chin and made me look at
“Granddad your letter arrived...”
him. “Why didn’t you tell me about the cane?”
Granddad was sitting on the side of his bed, wearing his tweed overcoat and black hat. A
“Mother said she’d send you away if I did. Is she sending you away Granddad?”
“Granddad?”
“Come here, Lizzie child.”
When I didn’t say anything, Granddad heaved a long broken sigh.
“Sure we’ll see each every week and I might write two letters a week instead of one.”
The buttons on his coat went misty and my throat felt stretched. “I’d rather see you every day, Granddad,” I whispered.
“No child, she’s not. I spoke to Jack, he’s going to look out for you. Be kind to your father, he is working his way back to us. Are those tears, Lizzie child?”
(Continued on page 47)
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