Length: 500-750 Words Prompt: Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man can’t find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end.
Aunt Man’s
Dresser
By WEGoss2
Uncle
Chaise and Aunt Man owned the store where people bought their coffee, flour and
sugar after the big war. People paid by signing their tab. Most folks tried to
square up with Uncle Chaise when the saw mill paid, at the end of summer when
the cotton came in, or in the winter when the trapping was good. Most people
could never pay off what they owed completely. Uncle Chaise, though, never
forgot to tell them how much they owed him.
Aunt Man
was a big woman. Uncle Chaise had brought her back to the hills when he was
sent home from the Army. She spoke with a funny accent and said she was from Yonkers
When we
were little, all the kids thought that maybe Aunt Man was a man. She was bigger
than everyone else, especially Uncle Chaise. She could unload the delivery
truck from the wholesaler and handle a 50 or 100 pound sack of commodities just
as good as the teamster.
Aunt Man
loved children and adopted all us kids as nieces and nephews; but, she never
had any of her own. Many days Aunt Man would be loading or unloading pickups or
wagons dressed in overalls that stopped just above her ankles, a work shirt,
and barefooted. She had the strength of a man but great big bosoms. When these two were combined together they would
engulfed even the most restive youngsters, two or three at a time, in giant hugs
that smelled of sweet sachet and sour sweat. Then she’d reach down into the big
pockets of her overalls and give out penny candy. You always felt so good after
the candy and that big old sweet and sour hug.
When she
was at home she was always dressed like the finest and most beautiful of
ladies. Every weekend, she would be at mass early for confession. Uncle Chaise
was never there. Afterwards, the smell of her cooking would fill the hills to
be enjoyed by the priest and a lucky neighbor or two.
Her house
had the nicest furniture and was always clean just like the grand hotel in town.
She did all this for Uncle Chaise. He was sometimes a really mean man. But
outside, they always appeared happy. They always had so much compared to
everyone else. The only difference was that in the back of Aunt Man’s eyes was
a look of sadness. Unlike the sharecroppers, loggers, and the trappers who
worked so hard and lived ragged lives for the little they had; but, always had
a smile deep inside.
All the
old ladies said, “If Man only had some children. She wouldn't feel so alone.”
Then one
day, after 17 years of marriage, Uncle Chaise ran off with a white trash woman from
the community down on the lake. Uncle Chaise and the woman never came
back.
Men folks
said “Chaise always like the bottle and had the wondering eye. That big woman must
have finally just got tired of it and ran him off.”
Women
folks said something different. Gossip was usually about how that big stand-up
dresser where Aunt Man kept her Sunday clothes and sachets went to missing. She
always kept that dresser polished with bee’s wax. After Uncle Chaise and that
woman went missing, she had to hang everything on a nail for the longest time
until her sister sent her a new dresser from Yonkers
Aunt Man
continued to run the store. Seems it was her money that bought the store in the
beginning. She tore up a lot of families’ tabs the year Uncle Chaise went
missing. Her hugs were still full of strength, bosoms, and sachets, just not as
sweaty. She now wore an apron with pockets full of penny candy. She changed the
sign with the name of the store. It’s
now called by her Christian name: Emmanuelle Grace’s Store.
Rumor has
it that someone saw Uncle Chaise and the woman drunk in a honky-tonk on the
Bossier Strip. No one knows for sure.
Aunt Man doesn’t seem too worried and she’s lost that sadness in her eyes.
Aunt Man still
comes to mass early every week for confession even to this day. The Church has
new sacramentals. Gossip says that dresser was big enough to hold two bodies. Only
God, the priest, and Aunt Man know the truth.
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P.S.
As an adult, I found Uncle Chaise's grave in the cemetery. I still can't help but wonder, "Is he buried in a pine box or a cedar dresser?"
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