Page 24 - Reason To Sing by Kelita Haverland
P. 24

Reason To Sing


              The second bedroom upstairs is called the ‘the spare room.
          This is the fanciest room in the house. It stays empty for most
          of the year except when Grannie or other company comes to
          visit.
              I love Grannie’s visits because she spoils us! She showers
          us with love  and lots  of food!  She always brings  a carload
          full of home-made pies. Rhubarb and sour cream raisin are
          my favourites. Oh, and butter tarts with walnuts. She brings
          so many loaves of white bread, they take up the whole back
          seat. Then there are the treats - Wagon Wheels, Cracker Jack
          popcorn, toasted  coconut  marshmallows and  black  licorice
          Twizzlers.
              I sometimes wonder why my three older brothers never
          get to sleep in the spare room. They sleep in a tiny bedroom
          down in the basement. Two bunk beds, next to where the coal
          is stored. I call it the dungeon. One time I just about died down
          there when one of them tried to suffocate me with a pillow. It’s
          a horrible room and I don’t like spending any time down there.
              My three brothers are actually my half-brothers. You see,
          Mommy was married to another man before she met Daddy,
          so the boys have a different father than Vian and me. Well, they
          did have a different father. He died before I was born. From
          some sickness called suicide. Mommy told me he used to get
          drunk and leave her and the boys alone all weekend without
          any money. And sometimes he would hurt her and give her
          bruises. That made me feel sad for Mommy. I don’t know what
          sickness that is, but I don’t like that he was mean. My Daddy
          would never hurt Mommy.
              I’m always scared when I have to go down to that eerie
          basement. There’s no banister on the stairs and the only light
          is from a single dangling bulb with a long string attached to it.
          And it’s at the bottom of the stairs. With every single creaking


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