Call Me Tuesday by Leigh Byrne Read Free Book Online Page A

get some fresh air, or to watch my brothers and me as we played outside. But when she was out she was careful to keep her distance from the neighbors. If by chance she saw one of them, she threw her hand up and waved, but she made sure to avert her eyes from theirs, as she tucked her cheek to her shoulder and hurried back into the house. Daddy told us she did this because she was ashamed of the scar on her face.
    After Mama had been home from the hospital for a few weeks, she started insisting I be by her side at all times. “Stay in here with me, Tuesday,” she said. “Sit down here on the floor beside my bed so I can see you.”
    I did as she asked, but it was hard for me to sit still for so long. After she fell asleep, I slipped out of the room to play with my brothers, only to have her call for me to return when she woke up. Out of frustration I asked Daddy why she only wanted me with her, and not my brothers.
    “I’m not sure, honey, but if I had to guess, I’d say maybe she’s afraid something will happen to you, like it did to Audrey. Maybe she’s more protective with you because you’re a girl.”
    He then explained to me that the doctor had said head injuries like the one Mama had sometimes caused personality changes, and therefore she might not act like herself for a while. But he assured me it was a temporary condition.
    His words satisfied me, and made me feel proud that I was so important to her.
    It was late in the afternoon. Mama was sleeping, and I was sitting on the floor by her bed listening to the rest of the family as they moved about in other parts of the house.
    Daddy stuck his head inside the doorway and said he was going grocery shopping, and he was taking the boys with him.
    I wanted to go too, and I begged him to take me, but he told me it would be more helpful to him if I stayed home with Mama. He said he was going to stop and pick up some burgers on the way back, and as a special reward, he would get me a strawberry milkshake.
    Soon I heard the door shut behind them, and the house got quiet. Hours passed. The room grew darker and darker, until I had nothing to look at but the glowing numbers on Mama’s alarm clock. I fixed my eyes on them and watched the minutes slowly flip away.
    At seven thirty, she stirred. Suddenly she sat up and turned on the lamp beside her bed. When the light hit her face, I saw that it was red and bloated, and her eyes had bags under them. Her hair was flat on one side, and it stood up at the crown, like a windblown flame.
    With dazed eyes she searched out the room, confused and disoriented, as if she had forgotten where she was. When she spotted me sitting on the floor, she squinted to focus on my face and cocked her head, first to one side, then to the other, like she was trying to figure out the species of a creature she’d never seen before.
    Then her deep woe registered, and she sank back into her pillow and cried. “I want to sleep forever,” she said. “Please God, let me sleep forever!”
    She slung one of her arms over to the nightstand, knocking off a glass half-full of watered-down tea, and groped around until she found a bottle of pills the doctor had prescribed to help her sleep. She propped herself on one elbow, twisted off the cap, and poured the shiny, red capsules out into her palm. Blinking hard, she stretched open her swollen eyes to get a better look at the pills. She poked each one with her forefinger, then stuffed them back into the bottle and returned them to the nightstand.
    She picked up the phone and dialed. Someone on the other end answered, and she said into the receiver, “I just called to say good-bye. I can’t take it anymore without Audrey, so I called to say good-bye, and to tell you that none of you will have to worry about me ever again.” Then she slammed the receiver down, and reached for the sleeping pills.
    The phone rang almost immediately. “Tuesday, answer that,” Mama said. “It’s your Aunt Barbara. Tell her I