The Memento Read Online Free PDF

her work and had them mail-ordered. She poked her finger and a stain of blood spread over the tight Evenweave fabric she was working with. Ma swore and put it down and took a sip from her teacup full of gin. She sat looking out at the stand of silver birches and crossed her arms. “Your needlework is near perfect. You got a gift for it, Fancy.” She studied my satin stitches in the flowers I was making. “I never seen someone who didn’t need to work with a pattern. It just comes right out of you. Watch your shadows, though. They don’t fall right. The sun or the moon has to be behind to cast a shadow.”
    She lit up a cigarette and blew the smoke out in rings and puffs, beautiful and deadly. After a time she smashed it out in the ashtray and started stitching again. “Ain’t nobody got use for this no more but that’s no reason to stop, Fancy. Maybe them Parkers will get you doing their linens again. But I don’t know who they think they are, having you work there so young. They’re making fun of me, that’s why they offered you a summer job. You’ll find out, yes you will. Them Parkers are bad. Nothing good will come from spending time there. Look at me. It all went wrong when I started working at Petal’s End, only sixteen years old, I was. YourGrampie had me looking after my poor crippled mother and waiting on them snobs at Petal’s End. How was a girl to have any fun, I ask you?”
    I didn’t reply, for that could turn her, if she felt you was prying. It was best to keep stitching while she bounced around from one topic to another. There was a shake in her voice, from the weird blend of anger and fear that ran through all Ma’s conversation.
    “There’s no one to wait on
me
. Ten other children and litters of grandbabies and none of them even so much as visit. And they pretend you weren’t never born. I’m just a pariah, Fancy, that’s all I am. They abandoned me, one after another.
    “I would have gone and caught you a fish but I wasn’t up for it. I hope you’ll understand. I know how much you always liked a butter pan-fry with a bit of lemon and parsley. You were the cutest thing when I’d take you out in the boat on the lake. You’d clap your little hands when I’d haul in a fish. It was a miracle how long you could sit in that canoe without saying a word. You always understood you had to be patient. You liked most when we’d wade in for the water lilies when the sun was rising. The best time to pick them, you know, when the day is fresh. Remember that? I’m sorry I didn’t cook you supper, Fancy. I’m all worn out from years of cooking and stitching for the lot of you. Ronnie does most of the cooking now, God love the man. A good man is hard to find, and you should stitch that and hang it on your wall right in front of your goddamn nose. You be careful over at Petal’s End. That place was always full of shady types coming and going.”
    “They’re paying me, you know. It’s not like I’m going to be a slave for the Parkers. I’m old enough for a job. Art’s helping out too. They told Loretta to hire some help but they didn’t want any strangers. That didn’t leave her with much choice. But Art and I are both almost twelve. We ain’t babies. I’m surprised Loretta didn’t try to hire you back, Ma. She thinks the Parkers will come out again this summer, and it will be busier than it’s been in a longtime.” My eyes stayed on the embroidery, trying to make sure when I put the shadow in it fell right.
    “I wouldn’t go back and work there if it was the last place on earth. They paid me too, you’ll recall, and it wasn’t worth a penny. It always ends in heartache and tears over there, and it don’t matter a shit how gorgeous it may be, goddamn mansion. Loretta was always willing to bow down and do as she was told. She gave her own baby up. Can you imagine? It’s always like that, poor young girls having to give up so much. But I wasn’t going to pull out my spine and