It was about 10:30 this morning when I was called out of class to the office. On my way to the office I was thinking: Oh, what on earth did I do now—breathe wrong? When I got to the front office, I was told that Sister Mary Eugene was waiting for me in her office in the back. Oh, no, I thought, not the back office—that’s for when it’s really, really serious! I must really be in for it! But what? Lord, please help me—don’t leave me for a single second…
I entered Sister’s office filled with dread and apprehension! Sister was sitting at her desk. But right next to her desk sat my Aunt Lucille! Her eyes were all red from crying and she kept wiping her nose with a Kleenex. Sister looked like she was going to cry, too—something I’d never seen her do before! Why, I’ve never even seen her have sympathy for anyone, for that matter! Obviously, I knew instantly that something terrible must have happened. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?” I wanted to know. It wasn’t easy for her, but Lucille finally got the story out in bits and pieces, at least enough so that I would understand. She had come to get me and take me home because Mama was being taken away to be put in the mental institution in Lincoln! Even while we were in the principal’s office, the Law was at our house waiting—with Mama already in their custody—for me to get home so that Mama and I could see each other and say goodbye. The little kids had already been brought home since their school is right across the road from our house. Sister told me to retrieve my books, which I’d left at my classroom desk, and that she would inform my teacher’s about what had happened. She also said they would all remember my family in their prayers. Then Aunt Lucille drove me home to Rulo. We didn’t say more than a couple words all the way home.
When we arrived, the first thing I saw was the police car sitting in front of our house. Alongside it was another, dark blue car. I jumped out of Lucille’s car even before she’d turned off the engine, ran through the snow and flew into the house as fast as I could. The first person I saw was Mama standing there in the kitchen looking little and scared and so bewildered. She’d been washing her hair in the kitchen sink when these people arrived so unexpectedly—at least to her—to take her away! She hadn’t even been allowed to rinse the soap out of her hair, just merely to wrap a towel around her head. But she had refused to budge from the house without seeing all us kids first! So they’d all been waiting for me, the last one, to arrive. When I saw the pitiful scene and how Mama looked I was filled with such anger that all I wanted to do was yell and scream as loudly as I could, especially at the man in the suit and that fat woman with him! I still don’t know who they were, but I think it had something to do with Mental Health. OH! It doesn’t matter who they were; I hated both their guts just for being here! And I couldn’t do one thing about it! I couldn’t help Mama, at all! The cards had been stacked! It was then that I started crying. Mama started crying, too, and all the little kids. But Dad? He just stood there, backed up to the sink, looking strangely pale. Aunt Lucille came into the house about then. And only then did I notice that another aunt, the aunt we never see, the older sister Mama has never liked, was standing in the corner of our kitchen, too! Why was she here—what was going on, anyway?
We were given only a few minutes to say goodbye and kiss Mama. But it was enough time for Mama to tell me that Dad, Lucille, and Loray had gotten together behind her back to have her “put away.” She didn’t know why. She told me to look after the little kids, then the man in the suit and the fat woman each took hold of one of Mama’s arms and walked her out to the car. Before getting in, Mama had to take the towel off her head and her hair was such a mess, all sudsy and tangled, and going in all directions! Poor Mama; she did look like a wild woman! And it wasn’t her fault at all! She got into the car then and they took her away! Just like that; they came and they took her away! It was the saddest thing I’ve ever seen! I couldn’t stop crying. The little kids couldn’t stop crying. All our hearts were breaking. Our aunts and the cop had left the same time the blue car did, so then just Dad and us kids were left at home. Dad was still backed up to the sink with his arms around the shoulders of the little kids. They couldn’t stop crying. I couldn’t yet, either, but I stood right up to my dad and yelled, “WHY DID YOU HAVE MAMA PUT AWAY?” He just looked at me and said without an eye twitch, “You don’t know everything that’s been going on, Bon.”
“WELL, I KNOW MY MAMA’S NOT CRAZY! AND I KNOW I HATE YOU!” I sassed back as loudly as I could. Dad didn’t say a word; he just looked at me. The little kids were looking at me, too, their eyes all great big. I guess they couldn’t believe I was yelling at Dad like that! But I was done. I ran up to my room, threw myself across the bed and cried and cried…all that was left to me now was agony and despair…