Chicken Dreaming Corn

Lonesome Whistle

Lonesome Whistle L illian returned to school the following Monday still feeling tired but did not complain, fearing she'd be sent back to the tedium of bed. ByWednesday,halfway to school with Abe, she told him to walk on, saying she wanted to linger in the sunshine . Sheleaned against a building and took a deep breath. Her throat was scratchy. At lunch she asked to be excused from the weekly session of calisthenics. Dr. Mulherin said that Lillian, chaperoned by Miriam, might find her constitution strengthened byavisit to Citronelle, and that he would make sure Dr. Michaels of that village kept a special eye out for her well-being.Atthat health resort ahalf-hour's train ride north of Mobile, the salt breezesof the Gulf blending with the cool air of the piney hills were said to prove a salubrious clime. The mineral waters,full ofiron, wouldput the pluck backinto thesweet child's spirit.And for Miriam the Chatauqua entertainments—oratorical presentations and string quartets—would offer welcome diversion from worries over a sick child. Morris agreed they should soon go. That Sunday,still in Mobile, Lillian climbed on the carousel at Monroe Park to ride alongside little Hannah, Mama and Daddy looking on. On the painted horse she felt a hot pain in her right knee. Her brow was flushed. "Lillian?" Miriam said, hurrying up to her. 47 48 CHICKEN DREAMING CORN "Just dizzy, Mama,from the ride." After school the next day she could hardly make it back up the steps from the store, grippingthe banister to pull herself along until Abe rushed up to help her. By morning, her throat aflame, she wished onlyto sit in a chair. Dr. Mulherin came—the sight of him at the door with his gray eyes and black bag made Morris's own chest wrinkle inside—and this time held his stethoscope against Lillianschest along time.He peered downher throat, then shook hishead."Damnable strep,"he whispered. "Mykneeshurt,"Lillian agonized."Andmy..."Shetouched her elbow. "Let's getyou to bed, child. Miriam,fixup some of that famous broth ofyours." Out of earshot of Lillian, he told Morris and Miriam that the girl's resistance to strep had been weakened, most likely, by the episode of rat bite fever. He feared now a relapse of the fever that had coursedthrough her years earlier. "Rheumatic fever," he said. "It licks the joints"—he paused— "and bites the heart. But shehas a youthfulhardiness. That, with prayers, will go a long way." Bythe next morning Lillian could not so much as climb out of the bed when Miriam tried to dress her. Rheumatic fever. Morris knew too well the awful words. He repeated them aloud ashe walked alonethrough the clothesracks. He passedthe rip in the wallwherethe rat had leapt out and saw it, like ablack demon, biting Lillians heart. Heput his hands over his eyes and tried to pressthe picture away. Through that night and the next, Miriam wasup,hour to hour, keeping vigil, as Lillian turned into the pillows, rolled onto her back, reached out her hand and implored, "Mama, can't you do something?" Holding a damp cloth to her forehead,Miriam told her stories—anything at all to get her to settle down, to grow drowsy—speaking of her own girlhood in lasi: Lonesome Whistk 49 "Myhair, Lily, how beautiful my mother used to fix my hair. In the mornings, when the sun was just coming up, Mama would brush mylong brown hair,howlong it wasthen, and roll it up over her left hand, like Daddy's tfillin, wound it tightly until it left its own mark of tresses across her skin, then unroll it and roll it up into a ball again. She'd fasten it up on top of myhead with apin Papa had brought from Odessa. "I looked in the mirror, Lily, and sawmyself change from a girl to ayoungwoman.Ah,mymother's touch." Glancing in the mirror now Miriam sawherself,at thirty-seven, hair streaked gray, looking very much like her mother had looked the last year of her life. "Atnight, Mamawould let myhair back out long, brushing, and brushing. I can still feel ..." "You weren't poor, like Daddy,"Lillian said. "Wewere not poor, wewere not rich." "Then Grandma Lilith died." "Do not sayit like that." "But Mama?"Lillian sat up in the bed. "Youtold me she died, and that Papa Weissmarried another woman who...