Chapter Fifteen: Grandma Feldman's Battle Cry

Dominica, Aunt Doris and Grandma Feldman are getting ready to go out.

I was awakened in the middle of the night to Grandma Feldman's cries of pain in her legs. Aunt Doris Gave her a pain reliever to subside the pain, in addition to applying some ointment to the affected areas that throbbed. A little while later, I fell asleep. I had the most terrifying dream that I've had in years, in that I was fighting with Warren, my damn father. I spit in his face and slapped him. He began to cry. I yelled to him, "That's not going to work, so don't pull that s**t with me." I then slapped him again, and spit in his face once more. He then went into a rage and started chasing me. First, the scenario played out in a room of an unfamiliar house. As I left the room I was in, I, suddenly, entered into the upstairs floor of Grandma Feldman's house. I ran into the bathroom and attempted to lock the door, but it wouldn't lock. I struggled to hold the door close to prevent Warren from entering the bathroom and beating on me, if not kill me. I was so scared, I yelled, "Jesus, get me out of here. I don't want to die!"

From there, I woke up, from this horrible dream, and, I went inside Aunt Doris and Grandma Feldman's bedroom to check the clock for the time. It was seven-thirty in the emorning. Aunt Doris was asleep, in that it was her day off. Grandma Feldman was sitting up on the side of the bed crying at time she was tapping the back scratcher onto the floor. Our of concern for my grandmother, I woke up Aunt Doris to ask, "Aunt Doris, is grandma alright? Why is she up at this hour?"

"I don't know. Why don't you ask her?" She responded while half asleep.

So, I did ask my grandmother if she was alright. But she just sat there on her bed as she continued tapping the back scratcher against the floor, while in tears. "Grandma, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

Finally, she answered me. "My legs hurt me terrible, and I can't get any sleep."

"Well, why don't you lay down? I seriously doubt you are doing yourself a good service, sitting up with your feet planted down on the floor. Remember what your doctor said about how you need to elevate your legs?"

I then went into the living room to address my concerns to Uncle Davis, regarding my grandmother sitting up in bed with her feet planted on the floor, making noise with the back scratcher. Mainly, I was concerned she would fall forward and land on the floor, because of falling asleep while leaning forward while tapping the back scratcher against the floor.

Uncle Davis went inside Aunt Doris and Grandma Feldman's bedroom out of concern for my grandmother, and asked, "Aunt Clara, is everything okay?"

All she said was, "I'm fine." By this time, her tears subsided.

Uncle Davis suggested she lay down in her bed and get some rest. He then walked back into the living room to lay down a little bit on the sofa.

I was motivated, by this time, to do some wrting, so I asked him, "Uncle Davis, would I be bothering you if I was to do some work on the computer? I'm going to get something to eat first."

"Not at all, Dominica. In fact, you can even use the sofa. I'm going to get up anyway to go to the grocery store." he said cheerfully as he pushed back his blanket, and got up from the sofa. He then folded the blanket and went into the bathroom to change his clothes and wash up, before going out.

After a while of working on my follow up book to The Long Stretch, I saved my material, logged off of the computer, and, put everything away. I then began proofreading one of my manuscripts of poetry, while I was waiting for Aunt Doris and Grandma Feldman to get up from bed.

Upon awakening from her sleep, Aunt Doris helped Grandma Feldman into the bathroom. They were chatting in there about different things. I'm not sure exactly what, because by this time I had gone into my bedroom to listen to some music. I then asked Aunt Doris if we were going to go out for the day to get some fresh air, and if I should start getting ready.

"Yeah. Start getting dressed. Your grandmother and I will be out shortly. I'm fixing her hair right now."
she responded.

"Is everything alright? I mean, why is grandma crying?" I asked from the hallway.

"Your grandmother is in pain. Her legs started hurting again while I was helping her wash up. Why don't you get dressed. We'll be out shortly." she assured me.

I went back into my bedroom and played one of my cassettes on the jam box. I was listening to my music when I heard my grandmother cry even harder that she was before. "Aunt Doris, will you two be in there very long? It's just that I'd like to comb my hair and brush my teeth before we go out. I'm all dressed and everything.

She then opened the door, and out she came with my grandmother hanging onto her with one arm, and holding onto the walker with her free hand, and said, "Your grandmother is going to rest a little bit before we go out today."

"Okay. But do you think I'll have enough time to do some work on the computer before we go out?" I asked.

"Yeah. You'll have plenty of time." she said whle helping my grandmother walk into their bedroom. Finally, all was quiet, and my grandmother's battle cry subsided for the time being.

Uncle Davis returned home while I was working on the computer. I heard him come through the kitchen door. "Hi, Uncle Davis." I shouted from the living room.

"Dominica. Hi, Dominica." he responded.

"Did you just get back from the grocery store?" I shouted to him again from the living room. But this time there was silence. So I went into the kitchen to see if he went back outside to get the rest of the groceries from the trunk. And he had. I noticed the gallon of milk on top of the counter, so I immediately put it into the refrigerator. When Uncle Davis had come back inside with some more groceries. He took a loaf of bread out of one of the bags and said, "This loaf of bread is for Jean." Jean is a good friend of our family. Ever since Uncle Davis's lady friend Louise passed away previous year, Uncle Davis has been going back and forth to Jean's house to see if she needed anything from the store, or he'd go to her house to shovel her snow, or just to keep her company.

Upon putting the rest of the groceries away, Uncle Davis entered the living room and took a nap on his favorite lounge chair, while I continued to work on my computer.

Grandma Feldman began crying once more from pain when she wailed, "Doris, why don't you leave me here by myself?"

"Because I want you to go out for some fresh air. For another thing, you know we are under doctors orders not to leave you home by yourself, for in case you fall or something." Aunt Doris informed her, and then offered her some comfort.

Author's Note

What do you think of the dialogue?