Her hands
were very coldMurdo and after that
to...
Her hands
were very coldMurdo and after that
to Cloving Square to tell Captain Fleery she would
not be coming to work todayThen she ran to Oliver
Street, to the office of DrTower, where she banged on
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the door until the doctor opened itTower was a thin woman with uncombed hair
and shadows under her eyesWhen she saw Lina, she
seemed to grow even more tiredTower," Lina said, "my grandmother is sickWill you come?"
"I will," she said"But I can't promise to help herI'm low on medicine
"But come and lookMaybe she doesn't need
medicine
Lina led the doctor the few blocks to her houseWhen she saw Granny, the doctor sighed"How are
you, Granny Mayfleet?" she tiffany canada asked
Granny looked at the doctor Wearily"I think ill,"
she saidTower laid a hand across her foreheadShe
asked her to stick out her tongue, and she listened to
her heart and her breathing
"She has a fever" the doctor told Lina"You'll need
to stay home with her todayGive
her water to drinkPut rags in cool water and lay them
across her forehead She picked up Granny's bony
hand in her rough, reddish one"What's best for you is
to sleep today," she said"Your good granddaughter
will take care of you
And all day, that's what Lina didShe made a thin
soup of spinach and onions and fed it to Granny a
spoonful at a timeShe stroked Granny's forehead,
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held her hand, and talked chanel wallet to her about cheerful thingsShe kept Poppy as quiet as she couldBut as she did all
this, in the back of her mind was the memory of the
days of her father's illness, when he seemed to grow
dim like a lamp losing power, and the sound of his
breathing was like water gurgling through a dogged
pipeThough she didn't want to, she also remembered
the evening when her father let out one last short
breath and didn't take another, and the morning a few
months later when DrTower emerged from her
mother's bedroom with a crying baby and a face that
was heavy with bad news
In the late afternoon, Granny got restlessShe
lifted herself up on one elbow"Did we find it?" she
asked Lina"Did we ever chanel necklace find it?"
"Find what, Granny?"
"The thing that was lost," Granny said"The old
thing that my grandfather lost"Don't worry, Granny, we found
it, it's safe now Granny sank back onto her pillows
and smiled at the ceiling"What a relief," she saidShe
coughed a couple of times, closed her eyes, and fell
asleep
Lina stayed home from work the next day as wellGranny dozed most of the timePoppy, delighted to have Lina at home to play with,
kept toddling over with things she found--dust rags,
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kitchen spoons, stray shoes--and whacking them
against Una's knees, saying, "Play wif dis! Play wif dis!"
Lina was glad to play with her, but after a while she'd
had enough of black gucci bags spoon-banging and rag-tugging and
shoe-rolling"Let's do something else," she said to
Poppy"Shall we draw?"
Granny had drunk a full cup of soup for dinner
and was falling asleep again, so Lina got out her
colored pencils and two of the can labels she'd been
saving--they were white on the back and made good
enough drawing paper, if you flattened them outWith
their sharpest kitchen knife, she whittled the pencils
into pointsShe gave the green pencil and one can label
to Poppy, and she herself took the blue pencil and
smoothed out the other can label on the table
What would she draw? Taking hold of a pencil was
like opening a tap inside her mind through which her
imagination dolce
