Saturday, February 21, 2009

A true story for Jacob

DOCTOR DADDY COMES HOME

© 2009 Roberta Star Hirshson

I am Stella, and Stella is me. I like to read this out loud


Stella pretended to remember her Daddy. He had to go away to war. When it was over he would come back home.
Daddy was a doctor. His job was to take care of soldiers and sailors who got hurt.
At school, Stella told Miss Green, “I was very tiny when he left. Mummy says it’s not so lonesome if we all live together.”
She added, “Aunt Sandra lives with us too until Uncle Moe comes home. He’s a soldier in Africa. He has to fight.”
Miss Green said there were elephants in Africa. When it was time for music, the class learned to do the Elephant Dance. They already knew a Latin American dance called the Conga. They held on to each other in a line, and hopped and bounced.
Miss Green said, “Boys and girls, y’all look like bunny rabbits.”
She noticed that although Stella had a smile when they were dancing, the rest of the time she looked sad
“She seems lost,” Miss Green said to Mummy on the telephone.
“I wanted you to know. I think she doesn’t want to trouble you, but something is bothering her.”
It was the day before summer vacation.
At bedtime, Mummy sat with Stella and asked, “Are you sorry school is out?“
“No, I can still play with kids.”
“Are you worried about Daddy?”
Stella nodded.
“I can’t remember what he looks like.”
Her mother went to the dresser and got the black and white pictures of Daddy that he’d sent home from the ship. He was smiling but Stella didn’t think she had seen that face before.
Later in bed, alone in the dark, Stella thought, what does Daddy really look like? What if I don’t like him?
When she fell asleep there were tears on her eyelashes.
~
Stella was helping Grandpa in the garden. He said, “Uncle Moe is coming home today; we’ll all go to meet him after supper.”
“Is the war over?”
“Almost.” Grandpa had a huge smile on his face as he showed Stella how to put carrot seeds into the ground and cover them over with topsoil.
When Uncle Moe stepped off the train, he hugged and kissed the grownups. Then he picked Stella up, held her high in the air, and said, “Pleased to meet you, Miss.”
She couldn’t take her eyes off him. His shirt was covered with medals and ribbons.
All that week Stella followed Uncle Moe around. She even waited outside the bathroom. She didn’t smile and she didn’t scowl. Everyone asked her what she was thinking, but she didn’t say.
He gave her one of his ribbons. He said, “I got that for a battle.”
Daddy didn’t have battles. Daddy did not go to Africa.
So Uncle Moe could not be her Daddy. Stella stopped following him.
The carrots in the garden were sprouting on the day the war was over in Europe. Aunt Sandra told Stella her Daddy would be home when the war ended in Japan.
By the time the carrots were ready to be pulled up, there was a big parade.
Mummy and Grandma made dinner while Stella, Grandpa, Aunt Sandra and Uncle Moe went downtown to watch. They waved flags and sang songs. Back home, Mummy said that Daddy had telephoned. He was back. He was on his way to the city and he was going to get them a new apartment.
Aunt Sandra sat down to play the piano. Mummy was so happy she was jumping up and down. Everyone except Grandma got in line to dance the Conga.
When they were all out of breath, Mummy hugged Stella and asked, “What’s the matter, little Miss Bunny?”
“I don’t want us to leave Grandma and Grandpa. Can’t they come too?”
Grandma turned to Stella before Mummy could answer.
“Aye, yaye, yaye, little one, Grandpa and I are too old. It’s too hard for us. We don’t want to leave our friends, the house, the garden.” She sighed and opened her arms wide.
“I don’t want to leave you,” said Stella. And then she sat in Grandma’s lap and cried and cried and cried.
~
Mummy and Stella took the train from Grandma and Grandpa’s house to the city. Daddy waited for them at the depot and drove to the new apartment in the new car. Stella sat quietly in the back seat watching her parents. He was wearing his uniform but he didn’t have as many ribbons as Uncle Moe. He had silver pins on his jacket. They showed that he was a captain.
In the apartment, Captain Daddy had piled up presents – sandals called wedgies, hula skirts, boxes made out of pearl, and inside them, beads. There were a lot of seashells.
“I collected them myself,” he said.
Stella clomped around in her new sandals. The captain offered her his hand.
“Let’s walk around and see our new place.”
“Go ahead,” Mummy said, “I’ll make lunch.”
The apartment had many rooms, more than they needed. Her father explained that he would use the hall and two rooms for his doctor’s office.
Soon Stella started school. Her mother drove her, and walked her home at noontime.
“How was it?”
“The kids were okay. We sang, and, look, see what we made.” “Excellent. You’re such a big girl, now.”
Captain Daddy was waiting for them for with tuna fish sandwiches.
“Can I walk back by myself? I know the way.”
Her parents looked at each other and smiled.
Before they could answer, she said, “I’ll look both ways before crossing.”
The next day when she came home at noon, Daddy had a surprise. A lady in a white uniform was joining them for lunch. Her name was Miss Caspar.
“I’ll be working for Doctor,” she said, “starting next month.”
Stella wasn’t sure what to say.
“Is that a flower? … In your pocket?”
Miss Casper looked down at the front of her dress.
“That’s my handkerchief. I fold it like that to doll up my uniform.”
Stella bit her lip.
“I’ll show you how to do it … if you like.”
Stella smiled.
Miss Caspar winked.
Mummy brought soup to the table, and Captain Daddy started slicing bread.
Saturday a big truck came with furniture, and a small truck came with boxes for the new office. Stella watched both times as the drivers handed clipboards to her father, and said, “Sign here, Doc.”
Everyone calls him Doc, she thought.
Mummy had to help Daddy until Miss Caspar started work. She sat at a new desk by the front door in the big hall, typing letters. She telephoned people to say the Doctor was back from the war.
One night Stella said, “Doc, can I help in the office?”
“Absotively, posilutely,” said Doctor Daddy.
Stella said, “Huh?”
~
The office had a huge desk. There was a funny looking table with a leather top, and cabinets with glass doors. She helped fill them up with doctor things: cotton balls, bandages, wooden sticks, and bottles of pills. Two great jars, one of purple medicine, one of orange. There were also thingamabobs.
What are these for, Doc?” Stella held out her hands. They were filled with small, black, shiny cones.
“Those are for the otoscope.” He showed her a light for looking in ears.
“See, different size cones for different size ears. Look.”
He put a cone onto the special flashlight, and held it to his own ear. Stella looked. The inside of her father’s ear was pink and blurry.
It was more fun to stack the cones in a little tower.

Next day, Stella sat opposite her father wiping the cones with cotton and alcohol. She looked into his eyes. Then she said, “Everyone calls you Doc.”
He looked back.
“Anyone can call me doc; after all it’s what I do. But not everyone can call me Daddy.”
“Can I call you Doctor Daddy?”
“Sure can.”

As Stella went to bed that night she hummed a little song she had learned at school, “Frèr-e Jacqu-es, Frèr-e Jacqu-es, dormez vous, dormez vous? …”
In a little while, new words came into her mind and her mouth.
Very softly, because she knew she should be asleep, she started to sing, “Doctor Daddy, Doctor Daddy, I know you, I know you … ”
Growing drowsy, eyes closing, Stella smiled and smiled and smiled.
~

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Imaginary playmates do as they're told, don't they?

CRYSTAL

Crystal
to water,
water to salt,
salt to …
.
Let me tell you about
Crystal, my sister.
Sparkled like her name, she did,
played on water,
played with light,
crystal-light air
changing, always changing.
That's my Crystal,
a girl of a thousand lights.
Playing in the summer,
blinding she could be
but she'd fool you.
She could shrink the sun
to a rainbow.
The gentlemen couldn't keep away from her.
A girl of a thousand nights,
An ocean of a girl,
a circle of a girl,
gone to mist she has.
Crystal droplets;
she's everywhere,
my sister.

© 2003, Roberta Star Hirshson



Monday, February 16, 2009

my grandson

Jacob, my grandson, has grown from a baby to a kindergarten boy. He took the photograph of his laughing mother that you see on the first page. He looks like his mother and his daddy, and they look like each other.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

A poem for Valentine's Day

SILK

Come let us be silk together,
web woven whole
comes the silk.

Come – curl and uncurl like lilies,
columbine, orchids –
now column, now labellum.

Come, petals like bells together,
chime and peal, be music.
We are the wine of apples and pears.

© 1997 Roberta Star Hirshson