Hortense
He knew it would
never happen. But they couldn’t stop him from dreaming about it. So he
dutifully set out the saucer with the piece of fruitcake on it, beside the
glass of Coca-Cola, on the kitchen table. And then he kissed his mom and dad
goodnight and went to bed.
“Get me a glass of water.”
The whining sound of
his older brother’s voice wakened him from a deep sleep where he had been
imagining baby dolls and beautiful carriages with himself at the helm, walking
along the street happy and proud to be the new owner of a pram and a lifelike
china infant.
Dutifully, he got up
from his bed, only a few feet across from his brother’s identical bed, and
walked across the hall to the bathroom. He took a Dixie cup from the dispenser
beside the medicine cabinet and filled it with cold water and returned to the
bedroom
“That’s
not enough. I want some more. Bring two this
time, and think of something to sing to me when
you get back.”
He would sing Old
Doctor Sun or Sweet Hortense. He liked singing them both, and if the first one
didn’t work then maybe the second one would put his brother back to sleep long
enough for him to have more dreams about all of the things he desired.
Old
Doctor Sun please shine your lovely light
On
the sick children, pale children, those who are in pain
Old
Doctor Sun please shine your light again
“More.
I want more. I can’t get to sleep.”
Oh
oh oh my sweet Hortense
she
ain’t good lookin’ but she’s got good sense
I
gave Hortense a diamond ring
boy
it was the most beautiful thing
She
got married now I’m alone
She
gave me back the ring but she kept the stone
Hortense
has dandy teeth in her mouth
one
pointing north and the other pointing south
oh
my sweet Hortense
she
ain’t good lookin’ but she’s got good sense
Rain
makes flowers pretty I hear
I
hope it rains on her for a year
Every
time I kiss Hortense
I
always buy a nickels worth of peppermints
He could hear his
brother chuckle a little as he fell asleep with the empty Dixie cups lying
crumpled beside his head. But he couldn’t get to sleep himself. Singing to his
older sibling always got the adrenaline flowing and it became a little bedside
performance that took awhile to come down from when it was over. So he just lay
there thinking about all of the excitement awaiting them both when they got out
of bed in the morning and went downstairs.
And there it was, to
his complete surprise, sitting on the kitchen counter, and when he stood on his
tiptoes and peaked inside he could see the baby’s pale face and rosy cheeks
with a little wool blanket pulled up around its neck. He couldn’t believe it.
They had actually bought him a doll carriage and china doll. He hadn’t believed
in Santa for a few years but they still did the ritual of leaving food out for
him when he delivered all of the gifts from the North Pole. The fruitcake was
half eaten and the glass of Coke was empty. But then he noticed crumbled bits
of dark bread and green and red maraschino cherries on the floor beside the
counter where the carriage was perched, and realized his dad had dropped the
piece of cake and hadn’t noticed. But it didn’t matter. He had what he wanted,
and the next step was to get all dressed up in his winter coat and take that
doll for a nice walk around the neighbourhood in her brand new buggy. But just
as he was heading for the closet in the front hall he heard his brother whining
again.
“Get
me a glass of water” - and he suddenly realized he had in fact been able to
fall asleep again after his medley of Sweet Hortense and Old Doctor Sun. He got
up out of bed, trying to relish the memory of his little doll and carriage
dream, and headed for the Dixie cup dispenser.
He
always wished that Old Doctor Sun would pay more attention to him, and he felt
so sorry for Hortense, the way his brother laughed at her when he sang the
song. There was something about her that - as a child - he couldn’t quite put
his finger on. But he knew she was like him. She was never going to get what
she really wanted, but she would spend all of her life trying to find ways to
feel surprised and delighted by all of the things she did get.
No comments:
Post a Comment