Wally - @Short Story

Wally - 4

Wally - 4

by sloanranger

"What are you doing home so early," Walt said as Wally came through the door.

Wally shrugged. "Where's, Pop?"

"Where d'ya think, looking for work." He added, "Gonna go see Ma?"

Wally didn't answer, he went into the room where his two sisters slept. He and Walt slept in the parlor but they each had a drawer in a bureau that was in the girl's bedroom. He put his school shirt away and took out an older one.

Wally's mother was at the church now, her coffin laid in front of the pews on a black draped table used expressly for that reason.

It had happened very fast for Mamie Martin. Flu had turned to pneumonia and taken her in less than two weeks. Just twelve years down the road and she might have survived with the advent of one of the world's very first wonder drugs, penicillin. But the drug would come too late for Wally's mother.

"You gonna go see, Ma?" Walt said.

Wally shrugged.

"You ain't been over there yet."

"I know," Wally answered and ran out the door.

He ran to the vacant lot a few blocks away where there would likely be a game starting up. Only four kids today for stickball; it was enough for a pitcher, batter and if the batter played his own catcher, two outfielders.

Even against the fence backdrop, Tommy didn't want to catch his own ball, so Levy, who was already there, volunteered. Snooky was pitching but when Wally arrived, Snooky gave him the ball. Wally was the better pitcher and Snook - older, was best at out-fielding, anyway. They played for about an hour, until dark; it came earlier now, in November.

On his way home Wally hung a right two blocks from his house.

He stepped into the First Christian Church and took off his cap. There was no foyer, he was standing directly at the back of the aisle between the two rows of pews. The aisle led straight to the location of his mother's coffin down at the front, before the altar.

There was no one there but Mrs. Mc Elroy and Norma Landings, sitting next to one another in the right-hand pew. Another lady that Wally did not recognize sat farther back on the left side of the aisle.

A man came from a side door behind the altar. When he saw the boy standing at the entrance he stepped down and walked up the aisle. Fighting the urge to run, Wally fidgeted with his cap.

(To be continued).