WINTER ' FOURTEEN
“Grandma, you ain’t ugly.” Archie raises up and looks at her with tears in his eyes.
Grandma pushes his head back down. “I am too. But that didn’t matter when one day one of the
richest men in Topeka come by with his wife. They weren’t looking to adopt nobody but they wanted a
girl to keep house. Miss Frawley, the head mistress, told them I wasn’t much to look at but I was a hard
worker and their most docile charge. Docile? I didn’t know what that meant but I was ready for the job.”
“His name was Hugh Spaulding and his wife was Mrs. Spaulding; I never learned her first name. He
was a big fat man who cared only about himself. He never talked to me or looked at me; any thing he had
to say was told to his wife and she told me what he wanted. My job was to serve him his meals in bed,
mostly breakfast but sometimes dinner too. When he and the Missus ate in the dinning room I served
there too except when they had guests then I was supposed to stay outta sight. I had to change his sheets
every day and make his bed. I emptied the chamber pot and laid out his clothes on the bed for him.
When he come back from hunting I had to pull his boots off and put his slippers down for him; my work
was easy.”
“They gave me the closet under the stairwell for my bedroom and I ate in the kitchen after everybody
was finished. Big Ned Washington, the black cook, always heated up the leftovers for me and that was
the best eatin’ I ever had. Never got fat though: I been skinny all my life.”
“Most times I got done early so I was free to wander out back. There was stables, a barn, and horse
pasture. There was pigs, chickens, horses, and cows. There was one mean billy goat with big horns you
didn’t dare turn your back on. Further on there was a big apple orchard. Sometimes I’d talk with the
coach driver or hired hands but mostly I kept to myself. One time I got brave and walked all the way to
the river. It was so nice I took my clothes off and sit down in that cold water.”
“You got bare-butt naked with no clothes on? Grandma!”
“Hush child ‘afore you get me a blushing. There weren’t nobody around and besides I didn’t have
nothing for somebody to see. I always wished I learned how to swim though.”
“Things was so good that I should’a been happy but I wasn’t; I wanted to have somebody to talk to.
I wanted to see somebody my own age. I was gitting paid two dollars a week but I never saw any of it. The
Missus said that she was saving it for me. Don’t get me wrong I didn’t wanna go crazy I jest wanted
somebody to notice me.
“Hee! Hee! You just wanted to meet some boy and swap spits with him.
“You little rascal you got me blushing for sure now. You’re gonna git yourself in hot water with your
teasing. You learned all that teasing from Cab Cleebo. He’s the biggest and meanest tease in the county.
It’d be best if you forgot about teasing and just say nice things about folks.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Jest remember don’t go laughing at folks, don’t make fun of ‘em and you’ll get a whole lot further
in life. Let’s see where was I…oh yeah…One day Ned told me there was a circus in town. He said there’d
be lots of folks there, young and old. I went to the Missus and said I wanted to go. She said she would
ask Mr. Spaulding at dinner. When she asked him he didn’t know who Emma was even though I was
standing right there. When she kept after him he said go on and let her go but if we all go to the poor
house she can’t say he didn’t tell her so.”
“The Missus gave me three dollars and told me to be home before dark ‘else she couldn’t be responsible
for me. Bradford, the coach driver, took me down to the trolley stop. I had tokens so I didn’t spend any
money for fare. I been downtown before but never by myself. Ever’ time I turned around folks was
bumping into me; I couldn’t even stop and look around. I went in a ice cream parlor and spent five cents
The Linnet's Wings