We\u2019re in the dairy aisle of the super market and Mom says that she\u2019s getting so old she can\u2019t get out of tickets when she\u2019s pulled over anymore. I tell her that\u2019s not true, that the homeless man she gave money to outside the store said she\u2019s still got it. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re such a sweetheart,\u201d she tells me. \u201cNow,\u201d she turns to the yogurt. \u201cAbout that remedy.\u201d <\/p>\n
That morning, she told me she\u2019d developed a yeast infection. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat flavor?\u201d I ask. <\/p>\n
\u201cNot for eating,\u201d she says. \u201cFor application.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s how it\u2019s done,\u201d she says. She scans her choices. \u201cOh look, sugar-free.\u201d<\/p>\n
Never any fig leaves with Mom. She pees with the door open. She says, \u201cAha!\u201d after she farts like she discovered electricity.<\/p>\n
She told me once that the second she met Dad, she knew she would sleep with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cPoor thing,\u201d she said. \u201cI had so much and he wanted it all, right that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did you get out of it?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cSixteen years of bliss,\u201d she said and pinched my cheek. <\/p>\n
Mom is banned from the zoo because she sneaks food to the endangered animals. We have twelve children on the fridge that are going less and less hungry because of the meager fifteen cents a day Mom gives to each of them.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what Mom does. Some people fight. Some people make money. Some people win. Mom gives.<\/p>\n
The Chinese man that Mom broke up with about a month ago tried to bring more balance into her life. He told her, \u201cYou need to listen to what you need.\u201d He said, \u201cStrive towards the path.\u201d He said, \u201cIn China, we think you all look alike.\u201d He liked to smoke pot, light candles and read her zen koans at night out of an old book he stole from the library. She recited them back, acted interested, sensed that they were important, but I knew she had no idea what they were about.<\/p>\n
Mom found him sleeping with another woman. She dumped him and sponsored another child, a baker\u2019s dozen. This one from Zimbabwe. <\/p>\n
Now, she\u2019s dating a motivational speaker she met at her primal screaming class. He\u2019s in the supplements aisle replenishing his stock of lemongrass. Sometimes he whistles Phil Collins songs. He adds vibrato. I\u2019m pretty sure it\u2019s not going to work out. <\/p>\n
But Mom still does recite her koans.<\/p>\n
I hear her even now, in the dairy aisle, under her breath, when she thinks no one is listening, the lines coming out in pieces:<\/p>\n
\u2014Without thinking of good or evil, show me your original face before your mother and father were born.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2014Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand?<\/em><\/p>\n And I know she thinks that this is now something to dutifully observe. I\u2019m happy for that. Maybe, I hope, if she recites them over enough times, like their supposed to be recited, they\u2019ll give something back.<\/p>\n Erik Evenson was born and raised in Boise, Idaho and now lives in Seattle, Washington. He has work published in <\/em>PANK, Hobart (web), <\/em>Spartan and others. He lives with his wife, son and three chickens.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019re in the dairy aisle of the super market and Mom says that she\u2019s getting so old she can\u2019t get...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","category-issue-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/cronymag.com\/c\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/12459098143_d50c8d5ae3_b.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cronymag.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cronymag.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cronymag.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cronymag.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cronymag.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/cronymag.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264,"href":"http:\/\/cronymag.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions\/264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cronymag.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cronymag.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cronymag.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cronymag.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}