FROM ASHES

Every seat was taken. Movie goers were still coming in, standing in the back, pushing each other, arguing with the ushers. Daddy, Mama and me, we got there early and had two seats in the middle. Ladies were given little blue tickets with numbers on them. Men got glass ash trays. Children came in free and got nothing. ‘Sarah, hand me your ticket. I’ll put it in my vest pocket.’

‘Daddy, can I sit on your lap first?’ ‘Sure, Cookie, but stand up until the lights go out. I have one Raleigh left and want to enjoy it without setting your hair on fire.’ I stood there and ate my whole Hershey bar with almonds. Mama scolded me, called me a selfish pig for not giving her even one tiny square. ‘Ma, I still have one piece of red licorice. You can have it.’ I knew she wouldn’t take it because she didn’t like the red kind.

‘Ooh, ooh, Daddy. It’s starting. Pick me up!’ Papers stopped rattling, mouths shut, cigarette smoke filled the air. The big fans along the wall didn’t help much. They just moved the smoke around. ‘Look up, Daddy. The ceiling looks like clouds. Ma, can I sit on your lap now?’ ‘Here, Harry, hold my pocket book for me.’

‘Sit still, Cookie. I can’t see the news.’ Nobody could. It went black. Everybody started to stamp their feet, clap their hands. There was a lot of yelling. Even my Daddy joined in, ‘Fix it. Fix it.’ The screen flickered. I couldn’t understand the scratchy voices.’Daddy, I don’t like this movie. I want to go home.’ ‘Sit still. I saved some chocolate malt balls for you. Give Mama one and be quiet.’ A lady behind us touched Daddy’s back and told him to shut me up. That was nasty. I turned around and gave her the raspberries. Daddy gave me a smack on my bottom.

On Momma’s lap I could feel her softness, leaned against it and fell asleep. Clapping, clapping woke me up. The movie I didn’t see was over. The ceiling and side lights were all on. There was a long wooden table on the stage, filled with aluminum pots, bags of sugar, flour, towels, mops, buckets. I never saw this before. A man with a megaphone was shouting out numbers. Happy screams came from all directions. Mostly women waving their little blue tickets hurried down the aisles, received a gift and left. The nasty lady behind Daddy won a lace table cloth.

We just sat. Daddy held Mama’s ticket and listened for her numbers. The table was almost as empty as the seats. Daddy jumped up and ran, climbed on the stage and shouted, ‘I have 391162.’ He got the very last cardboard box. We didn’t know what was in there but Daddy showed us it was heavy and had to be wonderful.

He had to carry it outside and 8 blocks to our house. We stopped every block to let him rest. Mama never let go of my hand. Once Daddy tripped but kept the box from hitting the pavement. Our front white marble steps were cool. Daddy sat there a long time, catching his breath. Mama unlocked the door and made me go inside, turn on all the lights and stop in the bathroom before I got ready for bed. That wasn’t fair. I cried. I wanted to see what was in the box and they let me stay up while Daddy used a strong screw driver to open it. Mama did the unwrapping of beautiful new dishes, a whole matching set for 8 people. We only had three but now she could have company for lunch sometimes. There were four different colors, red, yellow, blue and green. Mama gave me my choice of which would be mine always. I chose yellow. It looked like sunshine.

Within a few days, we mixed blue dishes with red, green with blue. Every meal felt happier. Food tasted better. We had been so lucky and still were. Daddy had finished 3 cartons of Raleighs, sent his green coupons to the company and we received a dozen frosted glasses free.We had more company. Daddy stopped at the drugstore and bought another carton. Mama made him smoke outside most of the time. He smoked and smoked until we got new flatware and he got lung cancer.