Tocco, Tina

English

The Open Repository @Binghamton (The ORB)

FAMILY PLANNINGTINA TOCCOAfter my grandfather finished with her that first time, mygrandmother sat in a boiling bath, which cost extra then‚ at theCentury Hotel. Fifteen silver pails were brought up by a youngnegro girl, pretty, a mulatto maybe‚ with a tipped-down head and bigeyes the one time she showed them. Another girl-this one all dark,as dark as the maids’ uniforms that were just silly on them-strippedthe sheets down to the mattress, her brown bun pointed at thesmoke from my grandfathefs Havana.The mulatto dumped the pails between my grandmothefs legs.After the seventh, the eighth, she said, “You sure, Missus?” But ‘my grandmother cracked her neck past the bath’s porcelain rim,trying to put herself in her mother’s arms, trying to remember howher mother had kept from having Uncle John for so long, trying toremember if it was salt that drew it out, or notSo the mulatto made seven more trips to the stove at a pennya pail. Only the last pail made my grandfather rattle some change.Only the last pail made my grandmother speak.“My husband,” she said, her first time, “my husband-he won’ttip you.”Only the last pail, salted, shocked my grandmother’s head fromthe porcelain rim, into the eyes of the pretty mulatto.771Tocco: Family PlanningPublished by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB), 2013

Family Planning

https://orb.binghamton.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1942&context=harpurpalate

Family Planning

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