The Hills of Clarabelle
In winter quarter, Advisor and one of my non-fiction peers–both native South Siders–were discussing Chicago writer Billy Lombardo, who had recently published a book of short stories called The Logic of a Rose. The are loosely based on Lombardo's own experiences growing up in Bridgeport, the South Side neighborhood that is home to the Daleys and the World Champion White Sox.
One of them described the stories as being "too saccharine," but admitted that Lombardo's observations of the blue-collar neighborhood were sensitive and sharp. In one story, Lombardo says that you can never tell when a storm is coming in Bridgeport. "No one could smell a storm before it clocked him in the eye." Both native South Siders agreed as though they had just realized Lombardo was right.
Despite the warnings of it being over-sweetened, I was intrigued, and I bought the book. I haven't had time to read it yet, and I only just recently skimmed the table of contents to see what awaited me. I immediately turned to page 61, where the story "The Hills of Laura" began. It's exactly what you're thinking:
"And there they were, Petey, Laura's breasts. In these very hands. They were perfect," he said. "They were…" And Matty closed his eyes. He needed to put Laura's breasts into words that I would believe. He closed his eyes, and he held out his hands, palms facing me, as if he couldn't find the words in his head to compare to breasts, but maybe he could find them with his hands.
"Little hills, they were, Petey. The hills of Laura," he said, and he opened his eyes, and he looked at me to see if I understood, but I guess he could tell that I didn't.
* * *
I took both kitties to the vet today. They both needed shots, and Clarabelle had a swollen "hill" that needed to be looked at. The vet noticed it when she had her late-term abortion last month, but thought it might be hormonal and might go away post-abortion. It hasn't. And, in the vet's words today, "it doesn't feel good." We won't know for sure if it's cancerous until a chest x-ray and lumpectomy, but some quick internet research shows that mammary tumors in cats are almost aways malignant (like– 85-90%), and that the morbidity rate is fairly high. Right now, I'm simply not dealing with it. I lost my two childhood pets in October, and I'm unprepared to lose another pet, even though she's only been in my life since Easter.
Please keep your fingers crossed for the hills of Clarabelle, and for Monte, who has found the love of his life.
Posted 12 June 2006
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This is to show you that I actually am reading your blog :)
I’m keeping Clarabelle in my prayers – she’s just too young and too cute to have such a horrible disease :(
Cat and I have fingers and paws locked in “x” position.
j
let me know what you think about the book when you get a chance to read it. best to c-belle.
billy