Drifting through a mist of years, the boy remembers the morning a victrola scratched out a Sousa march, while he helped his father fix an oak table, whose legs had unscrewed themselves with use. They were still in their pajamas, and there was the smell of breakfast as his mother scrambled eggs and cooked bacon. He recalls later that morning, the image of his father framed in the front doorway, on his way to a job where he built new homes. Like every Saturday, he was dressed in overalls, holding a black metal lunchpail. The boy ran to him and tightly hugged his leg before he left. And on this day, for the first time, his mother too, was dressed for her new job at the garment factory. The boy was used to his father going to work, but was upset that his mother would be gone that day as well, leaving him alone in the apartment. She promised him that she would be home in time to make supper. And he tried to believe her, the same way he believed his father would always come home from work in the evening.
William Ogden Haynes is a poet and author of short fiction from Alabama who was born in Michigan. He has published eleven collections of poetry and one book of short stories all available on Amazon.com. Book and poem titles are included in his web site at http://www.williamogdenhaynes.com . Over two hundred and thirty of his poems and short stories have appeared in literary journals and his work is frequently anthologized.
