Page 10 (1/2)

My mother tilted her head forward and opened her eyes "At first, Dashay didn’tThen she picked up Bennett’s globe--relobe? She picked it up and threw it at the door"

I did re rooiven it to him It was an antique--a clear sphere with continents delicately etched across it and signs of the zodiac engraved on its base To ility

"Why did she have to break it?"

My lobe’s trajectory Instinctively, she’d bent forward, stretched out her hands, thinking she ertips

I watched my mother stretch out her hands, look at the her

"Don’t you ever have s you’d never intended to do?" she asked "Mos swell up and take over?"

Yes, I’d had such ers "Sos" Then she noticedwell?"

I told her about the dizziness, the spinning, the passing out "Darkness was all around," I said, unable to think of more precise words

She said, "Sounds like vertigo Vampires are prone to it"

"And I felt that soht, and her eyes darkened "If you’re not well, we’ll postpone our trip"

"No," I said "I’et away for a while"

Nextus to the airport in Orlando

Mãe was still ready to cancel the trip, but Dashay wouldn’t hear of it

"You are going to get up there and bring us back some furniture," she said "This place needs furniture Chairs and bookcases and all those little things, rugs and laain"

Mãe kept glancing at Dashay, trying to figure her out Dashay smiled at my mother--a wide, artificial smile, a parody of a real one Her eyes were sole that weird s"

Dashay stopped sreen terrain of Citrus County toward flat Orlando I felt too nervous to talk I’d never flown before

The Orlando airport was bedla mouse hats and T-shirts, al I’d heard before or since

My mother looked lean and cool in a white suit Most of the tourists wore T-shirts and shorts She looked like a separate species, as indeed she was

She leaned back in her chair, watching the chaos, her eyes serene

"Every one of us has a story of our lives" Mãe stretched out her legs, about to kick off her shoes, then realized where she was and kept theo Others buy into the stories told on TV or in theet by They don’t have to make sense"

She went to check the arrival board and came back to say our plane was late "What shall we do?" she said "How about a dance?"

Speakers in the ceiling played classicalchildren, I supposed At the moment, a waltz was on

"I don’t kno to dance" I hated to confess ignorance to her, yet I seemed to do it at least once a day

"Then I’ll teach you"

So I hadacross the industrial carpeting in three-four time to the music of Strauss, accompanied by the shrieks of unhappy children

On the plane, Mãe was thinking ahead, to renting the van, checking into a hotel, finding a place for dinner She often lived in the near future, I thought Like my father, she liked toIf the plans failed, she’d think ahead to new ones