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For the first time in his life, his big brother turned his back and walked away from him.
“Momma, turn the station, Golden Girls started three minutes ago!” Sway yelled from the small kitchen in their apartment. He looked at the illuminated 9:03 flashing on the microwave. He didn’t have to be in until eleven since he’d worked a double last night.
“Okay, got it. You need some help, Squirt?”
“No, Momma, I got it.” Sway put a couple of pieces of slightly over-cooked bacon onto her plate and about six on his, alongside the over easy eggs and sliced apples. He wouldn’t’ve minded hash browns, but it was time for him to go to the grocery store. “Juice or coffee?”
“Both. I’m feeling adventurous this morning.” His mom laughed.
“Oh really. In that case, I’m bringing you real sugar, not that Equal crap.” Sway smiled brightly as he put the plate in front of her, then the half bottle of creamer she needed to add to her too-sweet coffee. She’d positioned her wheelchair up to the table. She was so happy to have an electric one now. She moved so fast Sway could hardly keep up with her in BJs. The other three chairs at the dinette set were for him and any company they had, which wasn’t a lot at all. Pretty much none.
“You better have saved me some bacon this time, boy.”
Except her.
Sway hurried to get the other plate out the microwave. “Just in time Tweetie, and yes, there’s bacon left.”
He set his mom’s nurse, slash, neighbor, slash, best friend’s food on the table while she set her day bag on the opposite end of the couch so she could crochet under the best light. As soon as Sway and his mom had moved into the Magnolia Park low-income apartments she’d been a whirlwind of information and inappropriate banter. She’d given them the entire lowdown on the neighborhood before they’d even fully unpacked their U-haul. Sway laughed remembering how Dana had adamantly avoided her craziness while he’d helped them move in.
Somehow, her rambunctious demeanor had been just what he and his mom had needed. At that time, his twin brother had only been gone a few years and the pain was still as raw as the first day they’d gotten the news. Things were solemn and quiet in their home. The pressure to be the best son in the world weighed down on Sway like a two-ton safe as he’d tried to figure out how he was going to afford the rent, utilities, his mother’s needs and his own on his small earnings. Fresh out of school, he knew he’d have to put in his dues to get the salary he desired. As he prepared for his first real job as a nurse at Emory, he couldn’t’ve been more relieved when Tweetie had explained to him that she was a home health care aide and she knew how to get Sway’s mom signed up and approved for those state-based services. She could have someone there with her while he was at work to provide basic care if she needed it. There wasn’t much Sway could do about his mom’s arthritis. She had good and not so good days. Her joints could lock up so bad that all she could do was cry from the excruciating pain. It tore at Sway’s heart to see her hurting and not be able to take it away.
Thank the heavens, Tweetie was a riot off and on the clock, but she always took her duties seriously. Regardless of the fact that she only lived in the next building and she was considered family, she always came impeccably dressed for work. Today, her white nursing pants were clean and starched. Her smock was covered with cute kittens rolling around in yarn. The animal ones were his mom’s favorites. His mom was bathed and dressed every day, got outside for fresh air, and she ate nutritious meals… most of the time. Tweetie was a southern cook through and through. She accompanied her to all her day outings and her therapy appointments. Even off the clock, Tweetie would stay and keep his mom company with idle neighborhood gossip and reruns. The woman was truly a godsend.
Tweetie became like another aunt. His mom had slowly begun to laugh more. With Tweetie as her new aide, she started going to flea markets and thrift stores; getting back into civilization, little by little. They’d been holed up in their grief for so long they’d forgotten there was another way to exist. If his mom was understanding that, how come he wasn’t? Stanton wouldn’t have wanted that for either of them. Yet still, he worked day and night for years to help ease the pain of her losing her son.
Tweetie was almost sixty but she moved, and unfortunately tried to dance like she was thirty. Sway still fought not to gag when she had whispered she wanted Sway to teach her how to ‘shake it fast’ like the young ones were doing. She claimed she was only as young as she behaved. While her clubbing days were long gone, she still loved to reminisce and demonstrate what moves used to make all the men chase her. One time, he and his mom had just finished dinner and Tweetie had popped in to show them a new move one of her granddaughters had taught her. Only she was jerking her head so fast that her wig fell off. Sway thought they’d never recover, he and his mom had laughed so hard. All Tweetie did was pick it up and put it back in place and kept right on going. The woman was a full-on pistol who now preferred to spend her evenings and weekends weaving tales and entertaining his momma, which made Tweetie one of his most favorite people in the world.
