FORBIDDEN FRUIT

I remember one night when Will was dying, Mom and I giggled out her front door, shushing each other as we moved through the muggy shadows of the grapefruit trees lining the sidewalks between her neighbors’ houses, pulling down only a few; ripe and ready; huge in our hands.

“How many can we take, Ma?” (whispered)

“As many as we like, as long as no one sees us! (whispered back)

“Shhhhh!” (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha – we could not stop laughing).

Will was up, sitting in the kitchen when we slunk back in, grapefruits curled into the bottoms of our t-shirts… heh heh heh heh

“What the hell are you going to do with those?” he asked, his voice still strong, only slightly annoyed.

“Uhh, eat ’em?”

And we howled with laughter…

rJo Herman 7/6/2020 nine years to the day that my mother died – she still gets me laughing…