\nWord Count: 347<\/p>\n
\u201cMama, can I take Hildy?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBest you do. She sure cain\u2019t swim.\u201d That rag doll\u2019s her world. She ain\u2019t got nothin\u2019 more valuable than that. \u201cYou go tell the others come home now. Now, you hear?\u201d<\/p>\n Like spring cleanin\u2019 I go through the house, pickin\u2019 up this and that, mostly clothes for the kids and some things that like Hildy, I cain\u2019t leave behind. Most stuff I just stick up high on the tops of shelves and furniture, figurin\u2019 maybe the river won\u2019t see it up there. Or maybe it\u2019ll take it away.<\/p>\n Like it took Sam last time it rose up ragin\u2019 at all the peoples that come too close and settle in. Like they owned it. Nobody can own the land nor tell the river where it oughta run. Ever now and then it comes back at you. Teaches you that soil you been standin\u2019 on\u2019s no better than sand. And no man\u2019s no better than that neither.<\/p>\n The kids come trompin\u2019 in, all talkin\u2019 at once like a church choir out of harmony.<\/p>\n \u201cHelp me pack up some food for a few days. Go roll up them rugs and stick \u2018em top of the dressers.\u201d<\/p>\n They all complainin\u2019 like I brung the rain all by my own self just to ruin the day.<\/p>\n The oldest one\u2019s walkin\u2019 \u2018round with her bottom lip lickin\u2019 the floor cause she wants to go be with that boy. \u201cYou stay here and help this family,\u201d I tell her, \u201cbefore you goes startin\u2019 another one.\u201d She flounces outta the room but I knows what she and he\u2019s been doin\u2019.<\/p>\n They come \u2018round again, shoutin\u2019 through bullhorns that we gotta move out right now. But they\u2019s right. For folks like us, it don\u2019t take much to pack up years into an hour\u2019s warning. Things left behind ain\u2019t worth nothin\u2019. That\u2019s what I says to myself. No more than if somebody died.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" RIVER RISING Word Count: 347 So the river\u2019s comin\u2019. Get out, take your things, they tell us. Ain\u2019t matter none to me. Start fresh all over again. Like we done before and before that. \u201cMama, can I take Hildy?\u201d \u201cBest … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/016.jpg\" "\\"016\\"")
<\/a>So the river\u2019s comin\u2019. Get out, take your things, they tell us. Ain\u2019t matter none to me. Start fresh all over again. Like we done before and before that.<\/p>\n