Stories for you

Once upon a time Rae's husband came home from Turkey.  He had been away for almost three weeks.  She was so so happy, and showed him so by hunkering down with a high fever for the whole day, telling her husband from her fever dreams that black people weren't allowed to enlist in the military during World War I. It was very upsetting to her.  She may even have cried a little.

Once upon a time there was a boy named Kid A who was obsessed with the word Mister.  Also, Missus or Miss.  Almost every noun was supposed to start with one of these words, according to this boy.  So the family read "Green Eggs and Mr. Ham" with Mr. Sam I Am as the star.  They ate Mr. Porridge for breakfast, went to Mr. Bed at night, and sang Mrs Songs.  They loved to eat Mr. Mangos, and Mrs Bananas.  And their favorite time of day was when they got to play in Mr. Outside.

Once upon a time there was a dog who thought she lived at Rae's house.  She saw her milling around for a couple of days, and then took a closer look, finally seeing a tag with a phone number on it.  She called the number on the tag, and made a new friend.  But why didn't Rae look sooner?  That's the mystery of the story.  Maybe it was because of the fever.  Maybe it was because she couldn't be bothered, or because there is always some dog on her porch.  When she was asked by the dog's owner whether she had fed the dog, she said no, and the owner was glad, because if she was hungry she'd be less likely to run away again.  But then Rae's daughter said, "I fed her my biscuits!"

Once upon a time Rae's baby was pushing out his fourth tooth in about a week.  But that's okay, because Rae thought secretly that sleeping was overrated anyways.

Once upon a time Rae was walking along a path towards her home when she saw a Himalayan woman, wearing her dupatta on her head, standing beside a pile of iron window grates.  She made some sort of interested exclamation about how interesting it was!  Window grates!  A pile of them!  Next to the woman!  and the woman took this as encouragement to impress on Rae the need for her to carry one of them down the hill.  Rae made a faint protest about the fact that she was already carrying things, including a new broom, and the woman chose a slightly smaller iron window grate for her.  She was left with no choice, carrying the window grate in a trembling arm, as other women exclaimed and laughed at her on their way back up to pick up another one.

Once upon a time, Rae was so, so tired.  And so happy that Chinua was back.  And it all mingled together in a great wash of giddiness, like a wave.