Rose & Thorn Journal - Spring 2010
Carrie Wilson Link is a Portland, Oregon former elementary teacher, turned stay-at-home mom, turned writer. Carrie now teaches memoir writing as a means of personal transformation. Children with special needs and special spiritual gifts are of particular interests to her, and she is at work now on her second book which explores this connection.
Carrie Wilson Link
Sugar
He grabs the small white pill between his thumb and index finger, dips it
into the Gladware cup of brown sugar. Out comes a pinch of sugar
with the pill, which he puts in his mouth and swallows. We wait.
We wait for the tapping to stop.
We wait for the kicking of both feet against the breakfast bar to cease.
We wait for the humming, the jocular swearing, the loud volumes and the antics
to subside.
As little as 20 minutes and up until 90 it could take. And then it will come.
A stillness that will allow us all to take a fuller breath, complete a thought, hear
ourselves think.
For 2 ½ hours.
Then the tapping,
the kicking,
the humming,
the swearing, volume and antics return,
and we welcome him back
because we missed him.
