FORBIDDEN PLACES IN THE BUCKET

My mother had no real idea of how far and exactly where I wandered each day.  I guess she thought that having to be with my older sister Janie who had Down Syndrome would sort of keep me out of mischief.  But it did not--just the opposite sometimes  -- when we were mocked or attacked. I am not going  to describe those occasions  right now.

 Despite my efforts to  take care of Janie; she really was only rarely a problem--mostly she was  my co-conspirator.  The only problems were her  lack of speed and her fear of fences. Mostly she loved to make a little mischief.  Usually it never came to my mother's attention because Janie knew  not to tell.  But one day on a pear raid  in a yard  only one  street over from  Englewood--I believe that is Linwood-- we were   drawn to a  yard where we had seen pears on the trees in the back yard.  It was in the  yard of a house  on the right side of Linwood as you walk from Brewster to Prospect.  We  knew that there was a scary lady in that house because we had seen her  yelling and chasing boys who  were playing ball in front of her house.

One day the scene  looked quiet and Janie and I ran into the  back yard. We began picking up pears  and putting them in a cloth  bag that Janie liked to carry.  Suddenly I saw that Janie could not wait to taste the  fruit, she sat on the grass and began  eating one.  I  heard the yells from the window and started pulling Janie to her feet.  We were trapped in the yard and would need to jump the back fence to escape. She would not budge, the woman appeared swinging a  switch from a  tree, she was yelling in another language--Italian?  Portuguese?  I panicked and ran for the fence finally Janie saw what I was doing and got up and ran as fast as she could to join  me--but she could not climb the fence without  my help.  I jumped down to the ground and tried to give her a boost.

Remember I was about 6 years old and she was about ten. She was too frightened. Suddenly a claw-like hand grasped my wrist and  held it in her  grip.  SHE was also flailing at us with the switch. Janie was sobbing, but the lady grabbed her.  I screamed at her to let Janie go, that it was not her fault.  I  repeated  what my mother always said when Janie did anything wrong--SHE IS NOT RESPONSIBLE  and Janie screamed back what she never said to our mother--SHUT UP NORMA

TO BE CONTINUED.