7/8/2023 0 Comments Geek love by katherine dunn![]() ![]() That was how I felt, and I wanted company. ![]() But I believed that Arty had turned his back on us, that the twins were broken, that the Chick was lost, that Papa was weak and scared, that Mama was spinning fog, and that I was an adolescent crone sitting in the ruins, watching the beams crumble, and warming myself in the smoke from the funeral pyre. She'd swung that spoon in a tigerish reflex at blasphemy. I also knew that Mama was too far gone to understand why I deserved it. That's the only time Mama ever hit me and I knew I deserved it. I went to the generator truck and climbed up to sit by Grandpa. She started at me, terrified, her mouth and eyes gaping with fear. ![]() It smacked wet and hard across my ear, and the purple-black juice spayed across the table. This whole berry business, cooking big meals that nobody comes for, birthday cakes for Arty. The twins always loved picking berries, even more than eating them. She got tired today." I was smelling the berries and Mamaa's sweat, and watching the flex of the blue veins behind her knees. I leaned my hot arms on the table and said, "Iphy better not go tomorrow. Mama pushed her dark wooden spoon into the foaming berries and cicrcled the wall of the pot slowly. The berries were beginning to simmer in the big pot on the back burner. And this will set up nicely in about six, eight jars." "Not what we usually start with, but we can go again tomorrow. “Later, at the sink in our van, Mama rinsed the blue stain and the odd spiders, caterpillars, and stems from the bucket. ![]()
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