The Land of Mango Sunsets Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Perch?”
    “Perch?”
    “Okay, handsome.” I put him on his perch in the kitchen and dialed my mother.
    She picked up on the fourth ring, just as the recorded message on her answering machine was giving instructions.
    “Hello?”
    “Mother?”
    If you’re selling something, we don’t want it …
    “Let me turn this crazy thing off, Miriam. Hold on!”
    If you want us to answer questions, forget it …
    I heard something tumble and fall and then in the muffled distance of mother’s efforts to quiet the offending machine, she said something like “dag blast it all to Hades!” Mother invented her own curse words, or like we say in the south, cusswords. To say curse is to actually curse and therefore ladies say cuss.
    If you want…beep!
    “All righty now! That’s much better! Miriam? Are you still there?”
    “Josie, Josie, Josie. That message of yours is pretty aggressive, don’t you think?”
    “That’s Miss Josie to you, and no, it’s not. If you knew all the fool phone calls I get…mol-asses!”
    Read: Those asses!
    “I’m sure that’s so. So, Mother?”
    “It’s sixty degrees in South Carolina today and I can’t for the life of me understand why you aren’t here to enjoy it.”
    Mother always just jumped in and started telling me what was on her mind. She did this as though it was her duty to start up a conversation with a little dressing-down.
    “Because then I wouldn’t be here to attend Mr. O’Hara’s funeral.”
    “He died?”
    “He sure did.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “Oh, really, Mother. What would you have done?”
    “Well, I would’ve sent a card or something…how did he go?”
    Mother had a morbid fascination with the final exits of others.
    “He took the Fifty-seventh Street bus to paradise.”
    “Don’t be cute with me, missy, or I’ll cut a switch and come right to New York!”
    I had to giggle at that. I could see her stripping the leaves from a thin branch and stuffing it in her tote bag. “No, seriously. He really did. He died on the bus. Heart attack.”
    “Mercy. Now what?”
    “We cleaned out the apartment, Kevin is painting like crazy, and I’m interviewing a new tenant this afternoon. The snow seems to have stopped, so that’s good. Maybe he won’t cancel.” I pulled back the window sheers and double-checked. A few flakes were coming down, but when I spotted a slice of blue sky I decided that they were from a roof or a branch, caught in a swirl of wind.
    “ He? Another man? Is this one a possibility for, you know…”
    “Good grief! No! The last thing I need in my life is another man.”
    After all, but I wasn’t bringing this up to her, I had married one and given birth to two more and somehow lost the affection of them all. It didn’t matter what I left unsaid, my mother had an invisible umbilical cord from her brain to mine.
    “Don’t fret, Miriam. You are still their mother, and believe me, the boys will come around. As for you and men? People are not meant to be alone. You still have plenty of vitality left in you. Heaven knows, if I do, then you must!”
    “Yes, but you’re an original, Miss Josie.”
    “Oh, sure! Butter me up so I’ll talk about something else.”
    “No. You really are. Besides, I’m not lonely. Anyway, no matter, Kevin thinks we should rent to a young person.”
    “Because Kevin knows you’ve become a dullard. A drip. B-o-r-i-n-g! And Kevin knows you need something to get your motor going…”
    “I have to go, Mother. The doorbell is ringing.”
    “I don’t hear anything. Maybe it sounds like that bird of yours is imitating the doorbell.”
    Busted.
    “Well, he is, but the real one is ringing, too. I’ll call you later this week, okay?” I hung up and looked at Harry. “Work on your doorbell voice, okay?”
    “You got it!”
    When I opened the door, there stood Kevin loaded with grocery bags, and beside him was a very nice-looking middle-aged man. I felt my neck get warm.
    “Mrs.