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Stand in Line by Lucinda Kempe Swift. Using his hands for forward propulsion,
John Jacob Jingelheimer Schmidt scooted in a full lotus across the floor. He could almost
taste his mother’s petit fours on top
of the table. So, he did what he always did when he had to wait; he stared up at her 18th
century damask tablecloth, fantasizing. The embroidered cloth depicted a sunny garden awash
with cat mint, anise hyssop, bee balm blossoms, and neatly tucked in amongst the lush,
a bat-eared Fennec fox lounging around. The
artist’s illusion of the Fennec fox in the English
garden distracted John from his impediment. He loved the fabulist intent and had studied
about the flora and fauna. The Fennec fox, Otocyon
megalotis, were nocturnal and lived in the African savannah and
not in an English garden. The aroma of the fondant-covered sweets returned him to
the here and now. He tugged the tablecloth, but his mother had pinned its corners to keep
it in place. He took off his bandana and wiped the drool from his hair lip and wished he
was a normal boy who could stand, pull out his mother’s Victorian side chair, seat
himself, and eat without chaos. He closed his kohl lashes, which he’d never
seen because his mother kept him away from mirrors and repeated the hated phrase his elocution
teacher made him say. “Stand
in line long enough, you’ll be served.” John opened his eyes to find a small fox looking
down at him from the tabletop. “Where
did you come from?” John asked, startled. The fox jumped off the table causing some of
the petit fours and a silver candlestick to clatter to the floor. John gobbled the
sweets. The fox curled up near John’s feet. He thought of his mother’s reactions
and waited for her to come home. The moment his mother arrived, she ran up to her son.
“I don’t
know what came over me,” he said, and began to cry. “I can’t stand. I will
never be able to stand.” His mother put the remaining
sweets into a napkin and joined John on the floor. “Perhaps we should invite your
teacher over and serve him lunch at eye level. We’ll wait for his reaction and if
it’s not the one we like, then we’ll tell him to get to the back of the line.”
John was glad he had this
mother. There were two petit fours left. His mother
offered him one and he gave the last one to the fox who was happy to be out of an English
garden and living with a real family. Lucinda
Kempe’s work has been published or is forthcoming in Menacing Hedge,
New South Journal, New World Writing, Midway Journal, Matter
Press, The Southampton Review, and the Summerset
Review. An excerpt from her memoir was short listed for the Fish
Memoir Prize in April 2021. She lives on Long Island where she exorcises
with words.
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