Dominica's Rising Sun: Chapter Three-The Opposing Team Won

CHAPTER THREE: THE OPPOSING TEAM WON

“I’m worried about the Stickles boy. I went to his father’s restaurant today and found out that boy injured his head during a wrestling match. His father told me little Jared had a concussion,” Uncle Davis said while stretching and yawning on his lounge chair.

“That’s too bad. He’s such a good athlete. I know that he’s a good football player in addition to being a fantastic wrestler, in that Jared has won so many awards and honors in both sports. Not to mention the fact that he gets good grades in school.” I said while turning off my computer and getting it and the cords put back into their designated places.

“He is a good student and a good boy,” Uncle Davis said cheerfully, and then he went back to sleep.

Washing my hands in the bathroom, my mind drifted back to a couple of weeks ago when Grandma Feldman was so depressed, because she thought of herself as a burden to me and to the rest of the family, but in particular to me. “Doris, I shouldn’t be here. If I was gone, Dominica could go where she wanted to go. She could live her life as it should be lived, instead of having to stay here with me while you are at work,” she wailed while sitting on her bed.

“Don’t talk like that. We all love you and need you here with us. Dominica, Davis, Avery and me. You’re not a burden,” Aunt Doris cried while stroking grandma’s
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back.

I was sitting in the living room eating a sandwich when Aunt Doris approached me with tears in her eyes. “Dominica, please come inside our bedroom. Your grandmother’s in tears and is saying that she doesn’t want to live, because she thinks about herself as a burden. I don’t know what to do,” she said while wiping the tears from her eyes with her hands.

Uncle Davis wasn’t home at the time, because he left earlier day to go pay some bills. I followed Aunt Doris into hers and grandma’s bedroom. Grandma sat on the bed with her head hung down in tears. This sight just broke my heart. I offered her some words of comfort and some reassurance. “We need you grandma. All of us do. We’re glad to have you in our lives.” I then hugged her and kissed her on the cheek.

My mind faded back into the present while I dried my hands on the towel. By this time Grandma Feldman and Aunt Doris were both sound asleep. So I went back into the living room to work on our computer once more while I waited for them to awaken from their nap so we could go out. I sneezed about three or four times and then went straight to work on my follow up book to The Long Stretch.

Around 4:30 p.m., Uncle Davis’s brother Leo’s son-in-law Donald called Uncle Davis to invite him to come to a basketball game at Winslow Elementary School which is only a block away from Uncle Davis’s house. Donald and Veronica’s son Ely is on the basketball team and his school played Winslow Elementary School tonight.

Uncle Davis left his house around the same time as Aunt Doris, Grandma Feldman and myself. Although the three of us were already in Aunt Doris’s car by the time Uncle Davis came out the side door. When he was opening the garage door, Aunt Doris was just pulling the car away from the other garage door and was getting ready to turn her car around so that it faced the street. But to back up a little bit. Aunt Doris had Grandma Feldman and me wait inside of Uncle Davis’s house in his kitchen as she took the car out of her side of the two-car garage and moved the car closer to the house so Grandma Feldman wouldn’t have to walk so far. The pain in my grandmothers legs came back and the pain was much worse than ever. She said that there was burning in her legs. I held the porch door open for her while Aunt Doris helped her exit the porch and walk over to the car, because the driveway was slippery and covered with slush. She cried when she was coming out the porch door. “I’m scared. I don’t want to fall. Not only that but my legs are burning so. I can’t do it. I can’t walk right now. I want to stay home, Doris.”

“You can’t stay home, mom, because we are under your doctors orders not to leave you home by yourself, for in case you fall or if there is some other kind of
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emergency. Just hang onto me with one arm and hang onto your walker with the other hand. You’ll be alright. Just take little steps at a time. If you keep your mind focused on falling, then you will fall. You need to think positive.” Aunt Doris advised her while keeping a firm grip on her so that my grandmother wouldn’t fall and hurt herself.

“Grandma, just think in your mind “I think I can. I think I can.” You know. Just like in the children’s story The Little Engine That Could.” I suggested.

Upon pulling into the parking lot of Milton Shiver’s Toy Store, I glanced into Aunt Doris’s rearview mirror and asked Aunt Doris her opinion regarding the way I fixed my hair. I had my hair down with my bangs turned to the side and I had my sides pulled back with a barrette. “Aunt Doris, do I look like an old lady with my hair styled like this?”

“It looks nice like that.” she said while unfastening hers and my grandmother’s seatbelts.

“Dominica, you look very pretty with your hair fixed like that,” Grandma Feldman added.

I walked into the toy store ahead of Aunt Doris and Grandma Feldman, because Aunt Doris had to get my grandmother’s wheelchair out of the trunk and get her situated. I told Aunt Doris to meet me by the dolls.

I was looking for a certain doll. In particular, I was hoping Milton Shiver’s Toy Store would have in stock the new doll of Olivia Newton-John when she portrayed Sandy in the movie Grease. The doll where she was wearing a red cheerleading uniform from the pep rally scene. I wanted it for my grandmother, but unfortunately, it wasn’t in stock. The only doll Milton Shiver’s Toy Store had from the movie Grease was Rizzo. I was so disappointed. I then went to the other aisles to look at all the other dolls and toys the store had. After looking at through the aisles with the dolls I went to where the action figures were stocked. Unfortunately, I saw nothing that impressed.

Aunt Doris and Grandma Feldman couldn’t find anything they wanted either, so we left.

When we arrived at Henry’s Diner on South Westnedge, we waited about twenty minutes before we were finally seated. This teenage couple came in and they waited for quite sometime for a table also. They were followed by a family of four that entered the diner shortly after they did, and waited quite a while.

After about twenty waiting for about fifteen minutes for a table, the teenage
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couple left to go somewhere else to eat, because of the long wait.

The hostess finally approached us and asked for our smoking preference. We told her we wanted nonsmoking. She then lead us to a table she just cleared and cleaned.

Shortly after that, the waitress approached our table, introduced herself as Nellie, and gave us each a menu. “I’ll let you folks look through the menus and give you a few moments to decide what you’d like to have to eat.”

Nellie returned to our table about five minutes later to see if we had decided what we wanted. “Are you folks ready to order or would you like me to take you drink orders, bring them to you and give you a few more minutes to decide?”

We chose the latter, because we couldn’t quite make up our minds as to what we want to eat. There were so many delicious meals to chose from.

After we gave our orders to Nellie, Aunt Doris went with Grandma Feldman to the ladies room to freshen up before they ate.

The side dishes arrived first and shortly after that, Nellie brought out the rest of our meals.

I was almost finished with my side salad when Aunt Doris and Grandma Feldman
returned to our table.

I started our discussion with the issue of my parents. “I tell you one thing. The day I go down to Florida to see my mother is the day Warren dies. I don’t even want a funeral for him. I prefer to have him cremated, have his remains put in a paper sack to save on the cost of an urn, because he isn’t worth a piece of crap, and I would then flush his remains down the toilet. He does have a captains license, that’s true. But getting his remains flushed down the toilet is the closest he’ll ever get to being buried at sea. And even the toilet is too good for him.”

“I don’t want to even think about that right now.” Aunt Doris said after taking a bite of her hamburger.

Before heading home, we stopped at Wilson’s Drug Store to get some treats for my grandmother and some pain reliever medication for me. I bought a couple of bears for Aunt Doris and Grandma Feldman for Valentine’s Day. I also bought two small boxes of chocolates for Uncle Davis and my brother Avery.

Grandma Feldman’s face lit up when I presented her with the bear. “Oh, thank
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you. This little bear is so cute.” she said cheerfully. She then handed it back to me to put into the plastic bag which contained my pain reliever medication and the two small boxes of chocolates, so she wouldn’t get it dirty.

Aunt Doris was also very touched. “Dominica, you didn’t have to buy us anything. I would have even been more than satisfied with candy bar. Thank you so much for the little bear.”

Aunt Doris helped Grandma Feldman with getting out of the car and walking into the house. I waited for Aunt Doris in the car. She then came back outside to put it into the garage.

I walked into the kitchen to discover Uncle Davis back from his outing. “Who won the basketball game, Uncle Davis? Did Ely’s team win?”

“No. The opposing team won. But I had a good time. There were these little girls about the ages of six and seven years old that were cheerleaders. They were adorable. I tell you, Dominica, you should have seen these little girls jumping up and down in the air with their little cheerleading dresses on.” he said with excitement and glee.