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Teddy’s Birthday

Nancy Lee Bethea
Copyright 2011

    “Don’t drop it,” Kyle says.
    “Okay,” Stella says.
    Stella carries a small mason jar with a brass-colored top in her right hand. Liquid sloshes inside the jar.
    “It’s smaller than I thought it would be, from your description of it, I mean,” Stella says.
    “Small town, small graveyard, but it can only expand, right?” Kyle pauses at the gravestones. “The Chandler family. There’s Tony’s grave. He’s the one I told you about, hit by the school bus in the seventh grade. It happened right over there on Main Street,” Kyle says pointing behind him. “Good people.”
    Stella notices angels, animals, flags and flowers - memorials on grave markers. She tightens her grip on the jar.
    “Ours are up here by the fence,” Kyle says pointing to his right. “I need to scrub these stones, like I used to every Saturday morning. Check that hose, please. See if there’s running water.”
    Stella moves the jar to her left hand and turns the knee-high faucet counter-clockwise. Water streams through a short black hose.
    “Water works.” Stella washes the mason jar and then walks over to Kyle. She hands him the jar.
    Kyle lifts it to let light shine through it. He places it on his grandfather’s gravestone. He kneels and rubs the engraved words with his hands. Pieces of leaves and dirt stick to his hand.
    “Teddy Granger, beloved son, brother, father and grandfather. 1914 – 2006,” Stella reads.
    “Here you go, Grandpa,” Kyle says. “You wanted to be buried with your real teeth. I found 12 of them.” Kyle nestles the jar into the right angle between the stone marker and the ground.
    Stella walks to a nearby gravestone. She notices a white bunny turned upside down on the grave of someone named Eugenia Pickett. She turns the bunny right side up.


    Kyle stands and dusts his hands. “There’s one for my wife here,” he points with his right foot. “My parents bought eight plots – four for their parents, two for them and two for me and...my wife...someday,” Kyle says.
    Stella kneels at an infant’s grave. She finds a pink ceramic heart and holds it close to her breast.
    Kyle looks back at his grandfather’s headstone. “Happy Birthday, Teddy,” he whispers. “I’ll be back soon to wash all these.”
    Kyle walks to his truck and pauses before getting in. “Take as much time as you need, Stella,” he says getting into the truck.
    Stella places the heart back on the child’s grave and walks to Kyle’s truck. “I’m ready,” she says as she hops into the passenger seat.



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