{"id":404,"date":"2022-02-23T21:37:32","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T21:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forbeslibrary.org\/exhibit2022\/?page_id=404"},"modified":"2022-03-01T02:04:55","modified_gmt":"2022-03-01T02:04:55","slug":"ernie-brill-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/forbeslibrary.org\/exhibit2022\/prose-poetry\/ernie-brill-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Ernie Brill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kenny\u2019s Mom<\/h3>\n

Kenny\u2019s Mom always has the latest on who\u2019s moving to Long Island. She smiles and rubs her arms. Soon she\u2019ll move too. She has all kinds of brochures in the apartment with names like Elmwood, Maplecrest, Oak Park – those Long Island names of towns like trees with beautiful new homes full of lawns and flowers, everywhere, with quiet peaceful streets at night, so hushed and lush.<\/p>\n

Kenny\u2019s Mom dreams about planting azaleas, camellias, mimosas, and marigolds. She figures in two years they will have they money saved. Kenny\u2019s Dad got a raise won in the long nine month machinist strike, just as she though at the time, even though she wondered, unsure. Soon they will move, have their own home. A whole house. With a backyard. There won\u2019t be an apartment number, noise, radiators, leaks. In the evenings, Kenny will water the lawn. She\u2019ll watch the arcs of water, like fountains in the blue-green light.<\/p>\n

II<\/center>
\n\tKenny\u2019s Mom awakens from her nap, startled. The phone rings, ring, ringing.
\nWho is calling so late? Who in the world? It\u2019s past eleven; she\u2019s waiting up for her husband. Fear touches her like the winter sleet. She hates telephones late at night.
\nShe picks it up, shuddering. The voice tells all. OH GOD, it\u2019s the voice of police or company people use, calling her Mrs. Ross and try to sound like everything is ok; oh God it is, it\u2019s her husband he\u2019s been in an accident. She\u2019s getting on her shoes and coat already hanging up calling her sister three blocks down OH GOD FRAN to come watch the kids and call her a cab while she goes to get a neighbor to watch her apartment until her sister comes, all the time saying OHGOD OH JESUS wishing they would have told her what part of his body is hurt where is he hurt how bad something more than you just better come down right away.<\/p>\n

III<\/center>
\n\tThe Rosses aren\u2019t moving. Kenny\u2019s Dad was hurt real bad. They were able to sew one of his fingers back on and save his thumb. He can still keep a grip, sort of.
\nHis company kept him on as a night watchman. The hours are not the greatest in the world- 1am ’til 7, but, still, a job\u2019s a job.<\/p>\n

\tKenny\u2019s Mom says Long Island can be very swampy. Parts are lovely, true, but when you come right down to it, much is quite overpriced, especially southern Long Island with some homes built on filled-in bay! Why, the first big storm and all those playrooms and family rooms slabbed on fill like the ones the Adelsons bought this summer, why they\u2019ll fill up with water and FLOOD, wait and see. Someone said at the new Long Beach houses in the big storm last March they found lost wild ducks from nearby marshes paddling by peoples\u2019 ping pong tables! <\/p>\n

Besides, there\u2019s nothing wrong with living in an apartment. And isn\u2019t it crummy when some people move and all of a sudden they don\u2019t know you and get all hoity-toity because now they have a lawnmower and live \u201cOut on the Island.\u201d After all, it\u2019s not the house or apartment, when you come right down to it, but what and who is inside a place that really counts. That\u2019s the important thing in life.<\/p>\n

 
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Kenny\u2019s Mom Kenny\u2019s Mom always has the latest on who\u2019s moving to Long Island. She smiles and rubs her arms. Soon she\u2019ll move too. She has all kinds of brochures in the apartment with names like Elmwood, Maplecrest, Oak Park – those Long Island names of towns like trees with beautiful new homes full of … Continue reading Ernie Brill<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"parent":36,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-404","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forbeslibrary.org\/exhibit2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forbeslibrary.org\/exhibit2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forbeslibrary.org\/exhibit2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forbeslibrary.org\/exhibit2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forbeslibrary.org\/exhibit2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/forbeslibrary.org\/exhibit2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":912,"href":"https:\/\/forbeslibrary.org\/exhibit2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/404\/revisions\/912"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forbeslibrary.org\/exhibit2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forbeslibrary.org\/exhibit2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}