Reason and Rhyme Reason and Rhyme_2018SP | Page 15

“You have a personal phone call on line one,” he said.
“Did they say who it was?” I asked.
“No, he just said that he had something important to tell you.” Tim said, with a shrug of his
shoulders. His oily hair stuck to his face like my sister’s did when she put too much gel in it.
“Alright. Thank you.” I said, taking the call on the phone sitting by my computer. “Hello?” I
answered.
“Hello, is this August Johnson?” replied a man on the other line.
“This is he. How can I help you?” I asked, as my customer service voice kicked on.
“My name is Dr. Jasper Rhodes. I work at the Freedom Medical Center with your Mother. and I
am calling with great regret to inform you that she, Madeleine Johnson, has passed away.”
~
All at once, the one person I cared for above all else was gone. I had been volunteered by the rest
of the family to give a eulogy. It wasn’t as though I wouldn’t have wanted to do it, but my heart ached for
her. I longed to speak to her one more time. By giving this speech in her memory – in my own way – I
suppose I was.
Her pastor, the Reverend Parker, thought highly of Mom. She lived in my hometown, which I had
moved away from as soon as I could. I had been able to go the undergraduate university of my choosing,
so I had been satisfied with that. Even though she hadn’t made me go to church after she remarried, the
Reverend said she became more active there as she got older. The Senior Adults class was sometimes
more rowdy than the young adults, according to Mom. It was about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from
where I lived in the city.
14