Sweet Mango

She called because her hands don’t work. Not like she would have preferred to text. That generation wants to hear your voice. Texts aren’t a form of communication to them, just a compromise they make to settle for an interaction with someone they hold dear. That generation loves pictures, that’s what they use the phone for so send them pictures instead of texting.

Her voice was weak and tired. It struggled to sound coherent, the labor of each word. She was scared and lonely, but genuinely excited to hear my voice. She talked about her journey with the virus, how sick the meds had made her. She is blessed with family, who took care of her at home. “They wont send me to no hospital and I ain’t goin in dere eeder.” She trusts the doctors but not the medicine. She only needs bible verses and the love of her family not the wires in a hospital.

She said she wants to come back to work. The doctors told her that she would have to wait until January. We all know she is not coming back. Her bank is closed and she hasn’t gotten paid, she doesn’t know who to call. Perhaps when she gets better, we will meet her for lunch.

She asked about the kids, she loves to hear how they are doing. “I’ll send you pictures,” I told her. She said how she will love that. She wants to send us ginger, the fresh organic kind that she holds sacred. It is more than a gesture of kindness, but a blessing of health and posterity, an expression of her ancestral history. I said I’ll bring her mangos, the dried kind dusted with hot peppers, and sprinkled with sugar.

She wants to know my plans. I told her about my business. She was surprised and supportive. “You will do great cuz you a goot man wit a goot soul. All ya gotta do is keep dat head tatched to ya body and yull figurit out. Now dat I know, now dat I believe.

I wished her well. I told her she will beat this and I will see her for some mangos. She coughed into the receiver and then laughed. “I love dose mangos.”

“Take care of your babies, day don’ stay babies long.” I’ve been sending her pictures every week.