In My Mother's Time

In My Mother’s
Time

In My Mother’s
Time

Written by, Gigi
Fristachi

Chapter
one

In
my
mother’s time there
were amenities, I remember those
days though
I
was
very
young.
Now
that
my
mother has passed away from a
broken heart, I am alone. I can recount to
you like a preacher reports a sermon
what happened the day the earth fell
into disarray.

I remember the sound of the
rain beating down on our tiny bungalow.
I played
on
the
floor
as
my
mother
paced the front entrance awaiting
my
father’s return.
She
was
in
shambles
though
she stopped every few moments to look
at me with furrowed brows, and smear
a false grin across her frazzled face.
I know not of other’s version of the
end of times, all I know is mine
was crashing waves lightning strikes
and huge swirling
vortexes.

Water poured under the door
rushing with a furious anger nearly
sweeping through
the
house.
My
mother
scooped me up with quick thinking
skillful hands. I watched the water wash
out my
street
as
my
mother
ran,
with
me
in tow, down the street to a
neighbor’s house.

My mother’s quick thinking
saved our lives for sure. She raided an
open garage for gasoline and threw me
into a
neighbor’s
boat.
I
remember
thinking it looked like an alligator hunter’s
boat in the bayou. Thin metal with
a powerful engine, and shaped like
a snow
shovel.

She pushed it toward the river at
the end of our suburbs with ungodly
brute strength. My mother was an
extremely meek and tiny woman who
would never have known a rough hand if
it had
not
been
for
all
the
house
work
she did.

The skies were deep black
with swirling grey clouds huge and
fluffy. The moon was my most
memorable sight; it was full and illuminated as
if someone had flipped a switch.
My
mother was sobbing nearly in
hysterics

as she ran out of energy, but
she refused to be consumed by
the impending doom beating down
her back nipping at her
ankles.

The rain stung my face as the
winds raged. I remember her falling on
her face when the boat slammed into
the raging
river
current.
I
almost
lost
her
to Gabriel then and there if she had
not inhumanly leaped and grabbed
the edge of the boat. I sat staring at
the woman whom gave me life with
fear and
love.

She took one look at me and
with teeth clenched like an animal
grinning in the moonlight she pushed her
tiny stunted
body
up
and
over
the
side
of
the boat. She hugged me with such
fervor and
deep
into
her
green
eyes
she
issued her thoughts on survival of the
fittest. Her  strength  and  determination
was

more
than
enough
to
get
us
through
the apocalypse.

When she let go of
my
tiny body
she scanned the waters and ripped
the chord to the engine back with all
her
might. The engine smoked
and screamed she could see the
funnel coming for us; it was one thing
after another. She released the throttle
and steered us up river
inland.

I remember the trees bending
and contorting as if in immense pain
some even cracking and groaning from
the weight of their own stumps. I was
too young to be horrified but now
the images torment me in
my
sleep
even
after all these years, even though I
am
safe.

My mother recognized the
area around where my father worked.
He was a mechanic. Always dirty
and
hardworking nothing ever stopped
him from making money for us not
the weather, not illness, nothing. He was
a man’s man, bad tempered,
passionate. The type of man that dads usually
are. Pain
in
the
ass
to
my
mom,
but
she couldn’t find one good reason
why
she should live without him.
Mother floated anxiously over to the
now covered building
my
father
worked.

There was no sign of human
life whatsoever and the waters were
raging higher and higher with every
passing moment. My mother stood
up anxiously clutching her
sweater together and looked in every
direction as
if
in
total
panic,
I
don’t
think
she thought this threw past getting to
papa.

There was no sign of him and we
were beyond cold shivering to the point
of visible breath and decidedly
loud chattering teeth the kind that
makes your jaw ache.

“PAPA!” she bellowed. She was
tiny but when she needed to sound
came from within her deep and
primal

There was no
answer.

My mother released the snaps on
the baby harness she was wearing
and wrapped
my
baby brother in
her soaking sweater leaving her
drenched and
underdressed.

She wore
my
brother all day
long while she cleaned the house it
is probably the reason why she never
got fat like other mothers. She
couldn’t keep
weight
on
with
all
of
us
giving
her so
much
work
to
keep
up
with.
She
was

never angry at her life, or
regretted having us. She enjoyed it, though
she did get flustered at
times.

She
slumped
to
the
bottom
of
the
boat almost seeming as if she had given
up. She hadn’t. She looked up eyes
wide with thought. She was remembering
a conversation
her
and
my
father
had
had one night in jest about where
she should
go
if
we
got
separated
in
an
epic life shattering catastrophe. I’d say
this was epic enough of a catastrophe.
I think she did
too.

We were to follow the river and
high tail it west toward West Virginia.
She wiped the tears from her nose
and drove the tiny vessel toward
our destination her hair blowing in
the wind witlessly. Her cheeks were
red from the cold and burning winds.
My eyes became too heavy  to watch  
her

much longer. We all must have
known this was critical times because all
three of us were silent and
bewildered.

Chapter
two

We
slept
as
she
dredged
on
the
hero
of our lives. Words could never
describe the thankfulness for just being
a mother let alone our rescuer. I
don’t know
what
made
her
think
he
was
alive or why she thought he would
be somewhere inland. We made it as
far as
the
river
would
allow
and
I
guess
we were too exhausted and too much
for her, because I awoke under the   
boat

next
to
a
fire
embraced
by
my
mother’s arms; though they were small,
they were big enough to hold all of
us.

My baby brother was breast
feeding as he always was. She looked like
she was smiling in her sleep just a
thin partly curved lift as the fire
danced brightly colored lights around her
soft features. I fell asleep with
my
tiny finger tips touching her
cheek.

I woke again later that day, to
my
surprise though chilly the sun was
out and birds were singing to us,
maybe wishing
us
good
morrow.
I
crawled
out from under the over turned boat.
How had
she
done
that
on
her
own?
I
looked around until I caught glimpse of
her,
her hair messily blowing around
her face.

She was standing looking into
the distance. I worriedly rushed to her
side