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I was having lunch with my sister Barbara and my grandmother when he
staggered into the room, obviously drunk and unstable. He seemed very
proud of the shoe box he was holding; he flaunted it in front of our
eyes. When he opened the lid we were surprised to see four little baby
chicks. They looked exactly like the ones in a storybook I had seen in
second grade. Round, bright yellow, and cute, they struggled for room
in the cramped box, chirping all the way.
As we watched, he took one chick in his hand and waved it in the air
trumpeting some sort of drunken victory song. Then to our shock he
raised it to his mouth, bit its head off and spit it out onto the
table with our lunch. Despite our screaming and crying he continued
and finished off the remaining three. Feeling happy with himself and
snapping to attention, he about faced and retired to the bedroom.
Staring in horror at the remains of what we had just witnessed, a
silence overtook us; you could hear a pin drop anywhere in the room.
My grandfather was a drunk in no uncertain terms, he was a happy drunk
usually and what he did that Easter Sunday was totally out of
character. That was a man who would carry around in his pocket a piece
of paper with his name and address on it. He carried it in case he
lost his way home. My grandmother endured his
drinking, why I don't know, she would always tuck him in when he had
enough.
He was the same man who would walk with me down Cuthbert Road to go
fishing in the Cooper River. We would catch eels and catfish just to
throw them back. "Compassion for the children, compassion for the
children," he would always say and he would always have some quarters
for my sister and me. I know he was in the Army for a while but he
never talked about it.
I bear the scars of that day - I was five years old - fortunately they
aren't obvious, at least to me they aren't. When I think about him now
I wonder if the love I had for him was crushed forever by his actions
that noontime. I know I can't eat or even look at egg salad
sandwiches to this very day.
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