THEN

Brief Unrelated events of the Past

When we were living in Cincinnati Ohio and my brother, Mossell was ten or eleven, he seemed to be having trouble walking. I asked, “Moss, what’s the matter with your leg?” He said, “Can’t bend it anymore.” I asked, “Does it hurt?” He reached down rubbing his leg and said, “Yes, can’t bend it anymore.” I said “You’d better tell dad.” “No, no,” he said there’s nothing wrong. I just can’t bend it. I’ll be like this the rest of my life.”

At the dinner table that night, I thought I had better say something to my father. I looked at Mossell, then at dad, he didn’t seem worried, so I just piped up and said,” Dad. Moss hurt his left leg.” Dad said, “Yes, I know. We’re going to see Dr. Clark in the morning, Saturday.” Mossell had told me not to mention it to my father, but he seemed a little surprised. I didn’t say anymore, and Mossell just stared straight ahead. I didn’t know what to think, so I just said, “Can I go with you?” Dad said, “Yes, okay, Moss,” who acted like he wasn’t paying any attention. He was sort of looking straight ahead at nothing and said, “Yeah, Dad, we’ll see Dr. Clark at 10:00 am tomorrow. If my mother was there at the time, I don’t know. Charles???? If he was there, he was probably smiling to himself.

We were at the doctor’s office the next morning. There were several people ahead of us. Mossell always tried to look after me. I looked at him. He was looking straight ahead. I whispered, “Does your leg hurt?” He didn’t answer, he just looked straight ahead. Finally, it was our turn. The doctor greeted us with a smile and said, “What have we here?” as he closed the door.

It didn’t take very long. As they came out, the doctor said, in a serious voice, “Come back next week and we’ll decide what has to be done.

As we walked home, I noticed that Mossell was walking a little better. I said, “Dad, I think Mossell can bend his left leg a little,” and by the time we got home, Mossell was walking normally.

At home, my father said to Mossell, “Don’t you ever pull that trick again. If there is something you need to talk about, your mother and I will sit down with you and talk about it.”