Read Online Seen It All and Done the Rest by Pearl Cleage - Free Book Online
Authors: Pearl Cleage
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admired Zora’s dedication to her work and her skill with the computer. I don’t even own one. The only thing that worried me was the work itself. Zora was channeling other people’s nightmares for a living and I could see it was taking a toll on her.
“You have to be careful with a job like that,” I said.
“I know. My boss always says when you look long into the abyss, the abyss also looks long into you.”
“Your boss quotes Nietzsche?”
“He used to be a philosophy professor over at Morehouse, but he lost the stomach for it.”
“For philosophy?”
“For Morehouse.”
Many Spelman students, matriculating on an all-girl campus, have ambivalent feelings about their brother institution, an all-male enclave just across the street from their elegant, tree-lined campus.
“Tomorrow’s my day to open so I’ll be out before seven,” Zora said. “And I’m trying to get a presentation together about the new website for a conference here this weekend, so I won’t be home until after ten. I’m sorry, but I warned you it was going to be crazy!”
“No problem,” I said, admiring her commitment to the difficult job she had chosen. “I’ll use the time to explore the neighborhood and get my bearings.”
“There’s not much to eat in the house, but up on Abernathy there’s…”
I held up my hand. “Please! I have found a way to feed myself from Trinidad to Transylvania. I’ll be fine.”
Zora gave me another small smile. “What were you doing in Transylvania?”
“Looking for Dracula, what else?”
She leaned down and picked up her blanket and threw it over her shoulder. “Good night, Mafeenie,” she said, leaning down to kiss the top of my head.
“Good night, my darlin’,” I said, as she started up the path to the house.
“Je t’aime,”
she called back over her shoulder, addressing me with the perfect French accent Howard taught her when she was fifteen and tired of sounding like an American.
“I love you, too,” I said, and heard her close the back door behind her as she went inside. I was alone and the yard was silent and wonderfully peaceful. I wondered how the people who lived here had been able to leave it to head off into a war zone. I hoped they were the kind of folks who carried their peace with them. The trip was catching up to me now and I indulged a giant yawn, but I still didn’t feel like going inside, so I curled up under my blanket instead and waited to see if I could catch that mermaid having her midnight swim.
EIGHT
Z ora was as good as her word. In the morning, I heard her moving around quietly and then the sound of her little Civic as she pulled away just before seven. It was still dark outside and I gave myself permission to turn over and go right back to sleep, which I did. The best way to avoid jet lag is to let your body handle the transition on its own terms. Those last few hours were exactly what I needed and I woke up at nine thirty feeling refreshed and ready to explore. I had unpacked last night when I finally gave up on the mermaid and came inside at three thirty and it was nice to be able to open the closet and see my things hanging neatly like they belonged there.
I reached in for black pants and a turtleneck, my current street uniform of choice, slipped on a pair of my favorite walking shoes, and grabbed my coat. I had poked around in Zora’s kitchen last night and although it was beautifully appointed with an impressive array of gleaming appliances and a ring of copper-bottom pots hanging over the stove, the only things in the refrigerator were a few bottles of water, a couple of Styrofoam containers that I didn’t even bother to open, and a jar of kosher dill pickles. The freezer held a half-empty bottle of vodka. Part of my mission today was to find the nearest grocery store and stock up on everything. But first I needed some caffeine and a paper to be sure I hadn’t missed anything really awful while I was sleeping. I tucked the extra
“You have to be careful with a job like that,” I said.
“I know. My boss always says when you look long into the abyss, the abyss also looks long into you.”
“Your boss quotes Nietzsche?”
“He used to be a philosophy professor over at Morehouse, but he lost the stomach for it.”
“For philosophy?”
“For Morehouse.”
Many Spelman students, matriculating on an all-girl campus, have ambivalent feelings about their brother institution, an all-male enclave just across the street from their elegant, tree-lined campus.
“Tomorrow’s my day to open so I’ll be out before seven,” Zora said. “And I’m trying to get a presentation together about the new website for a conference here this weekend, so I won’t be home until after ten. I’m sorry, but I warned you it was going to be crazy!”
“No problem,” I said, admiring her commitment to the difficult job she had chosen. “I’ll use the time to explore the neighborhood and get my bearings.”
“There’s not much to eat in the house, but up on Abernathy there’s…”
I held up my hand. “Please! I have found a way to feed myself from Trinidad to Transylvania. I’ll be fine.”
Zora gave me another small smile. “What were you doing in Transylvania?”
“Looking for Dracula, what else?”
She leaned down and picked up her blanket and threw it over her shoulder. “Good night, Mafeenie,” she said, leaning down to kiss the top of my head.
“Good night, my darlin’,” I said, as she started up the path to the house.
“Je t’aime,”
she called back over her shoulder, addressing me with the perfect French accent Howard taught her when she was fifteen and tired of sounding like an American.
“I love you, too,” I said, and heard her close the back door behind her as she went inside. I was alone and the yard was silent and wonderfully peaceful. I wondered how the people who lived here had been able to leave it to head off into a war zone. I hoped they were the kind of folks who carried their peace with them. The trip was catching up to me now and I indulged a giant yawn, but I still didn’t feel like going inside, so I curled up under my blanket instead and waited to see if I could catch that mermaid having her midnight swim.
EIGHT
Z ora was as good as her word. In the morning, I heard her moving around quietly and then the sound of her little Civic as she pulled away just before seven. It was still dark outside and I gave myself permission to turn over and go right back to sleep, which I did. The best way to avoid jet lag is to let your body handle the transition on its own terms. Those last few hours were exactly what I needed and I woke up at nine thirty feeling refreshed and ready to explore. I had unpacked last night when I finally gave up on the mermaid and came inside at three thirty and it was nice to be able to open the closet and see my things hanging neatly like they belonged there.
I reached in for black pants and a turtleneck, my current street uniform of choice, slipped on a pair of my favorite walking shoes, and grabbed my coat. I had poked around in Zora’s kitchen last night and although it was beautifully appointed with an impressive array of gleaming appliances and a ring of copper-bottom pots hanging over the stove, the only things in the refrigerator were a few bottles of water, a couple of Styrofoam containers that I didn’t even bother to open, and a jar of kosher dill pickles. The freezer held a half-empty bottle of vodka. Part of my mission today was to find the nearest grocery store and stock up on everything. But first I needed some caffeine and a paper to be sure I hadn’t missed anything really awful while I was sleeping. I tucked the extra
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