I don't know what Mother said to Charlie when he picked up the phone himself but I assume it was the hello how are you I'm fine I didn't sleep last night I have a headache.
Otherwise it was Mother saying to Charlie what do you want for dinner tonight Charlie.
Charlie would say sandwiches and coleslaw would be fine.
Mother says you're not as dumb as you look Charlie.
Charlie doesn't say anything which is his way of saying thank you.
Mother says make sure your brother doesn't get hurt and die in the meantime.
Charlie says I am the responsible one Mother.
So people calling here expecting Charlie to answer should know it's not him as soon as I finish with the hello how are you. I know it wasn't Charlie who asked me for an allocution because Charlie was away at camp at the time and he wouldn't have known what a word like allocution meant anyway. Even with all the books he reads he wouldn't know a word like allocution.
Sometimes callers talk like I'm supposed to know what they are talking about. This is when I concentrate on the voice and leave the words alone. How the voice sounds is always more important than the words. Otherwise I tell them I have to go that I left something on the stove. Most callers don't know I don't have a stove here and can't leave anything on it.
Every morning during breakfast Mother would say she didn't sleep last night. She would come to the kitchen in her bathrobe and curlers and cook us breakfast. When she put the breakfast on the table is when she said she didn't sleep last night and she had a headache. She said but still I feed you rotten kids. We would both thank her by keeping our heads down and eating our breakfasts.
Breakfast was usually cereal and toast but sometimes it was eggs and other times pancakes. She would only cook eggs or pancakes if she wasn't running late which she almost always was.
I think this is when I started with the allergies.
Everything Mother cooked for us I was allergic to.
What happened was my stomach would be in agony and I'd have to go to the bathroom even more than usual.
Otherwise I would wheeze and it felt like I couldn't catch my breath. It was exactly like Charlie on one of our morning jogs only worse.
I would wheeze in my room and Mother would have to come in there to calm me down. She would give me a yellow pill and sing songs to me and before long I would stop wheezing and fall asleep.
This was Mother as an act of kindness.
Mother never noticed that for two whole summers Charlie didn't eat any of the breakfast she cooked for him. This was the time I made Charlie his drink of raw eggs and milk every morning when we got back from our jog. We had him on a special diet those two summers so he never ate Mother's breakfasts. What we'd do is when she turned her back we fed the breakfast to the dog.
Should the phone ring I will let the machine answer because I have arranged for the machine to answer after the eighth ring. I require patience from my callers from the people who dial those seven magic digits in the proper order or if it's from another area code then those ten magic digits in the proper order. It is rare for me to receive a call from outside this area code but it does happen sometimes. Usually it is a wrong number. I never hold it against the caller for dialing the wrong number and will usually say the hello how are you regardless. I don't know anyone from outside the area which is why it's always a wrong number from there. But always I let it ring eight rings so that the machine picks up.
Should the phone ring it might be time for my pills.
Sometimes they will call when it's time for my pills this way they won't interrupt when they come in here.
When they brought me my pills this morning I was in the middle of drawing a mother stick figure with her son stick figure in a doctor's office. The doctor was Indian and how I drew this is I had him wearing a headdress and smoking a peace pipe.
Upstairs was stick Charlie in stick intensive care. He was hooked up to all kinds of stick tubes and there was a stick hose in his mouth so he could breathe easy.
So the doctor gives me my pills like always and I ask him about my drawing. I ask him how do you like my drawing like that.
He said I was very talented so who could argue.
This is when I ask for more chalk. So far they've given me blue colored chalk and white colored chalk and I think it's time for other colors.
I ask for an eraser too while I'm at it and he says I'll see what I can do.
Mother saw what she could do when she did the Heimlich maneuver on me. I was choking on a pink pill so I raised my hand pointed to my throat and turned blue. She looked at me and said let me see what I can do and did the maneuver.
The way they made these pink pills was so you'd choke on them half the time.
What happened was after Mother maneuvered me I spit the pill right out and we had to start all over again.
When all you have is a bed a table and some chairs you have a lot of room to draw on. Without a television to watch or radio to listen to there is nothing to distract you from drawing either.
This is why I do most of the drawings naked.
Even if they've just brought me a fresh uniform I take it off before I start drawing.
Only the first five or so stick figures were drawn with my uniform on and I will probably erase those if they ever bring me an eraser.
I don't think I can draw without being naked.
I don't know if other artists are the same way.
Yes my situation distracts me from drawing sometimes but I try not to let it bother me. If my situation needs attention I will give it the attention it needs and then go back to drawing. My situation only needs attention for a minute or two at a time so it's never a problem.
What bothers me is I've never thought to draw on floors or walls before.
Although Mother wouldn't have wanted me to draw stick figures in her house like that.
Mother would say what the fuck do you think you're doing.
She'd say this is my house sonny boy not yours.
She'd say when you have your own house you can do as you please but until then I am the boss and you are subordinate to me in every way do you read me mister.
And if she caught me naked at the same time she'd say no one wants to see that either and of course she'd be right.
I have never had my own house unless you count here which I don't.
How you know this isn't my own house is there's no air conditioner or television.
I wouldn't have people watching me from the other side of the window though I would need someone to bring me my pills so I'm not sure how that would work.
If I had drawn in Mother's house I'm sure my drawings today would be better that is if Mother didn't kill me for drawing in her house in the first place. This is something you get better at as you go like Charlie was with boxing. It took years for Charlie to become the boxer he eventually became and we were all so proud of him that day.
Sometimes my stick figures are crooked or cockeyed. Sometimes I have stick figures whose heads are too big for their bodies though you can't actually help that when you draw stick figures.
Sometimes I draw tic-tac-toe boards and I place Xs and Os in the squares like Charlie and I used to at the kitchen table. What I do is if Charlie is X in a certain game I will draw all those Xs left handed in honor of Charlie.
The left handed Xs are always crooked which is exactly how Charlie drew his own Xs.
Charlie had the worst penmanship in school and it's even worse now because he can't keep his hand from shaking.
Should the phone ring my heart might stop short and I might drop dead all over the floor here. That first ring always shocks me and my heart always stops short right after that first ring finishes ringing. I can never train myself to not be shocked by that first ring. I used to spend half my day expecting the phone to ring so I wouldn't be shocked by it. I stood next to the phone waiting for it to ring is how I tried to train myself.