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"When the Apples are Ripe" by Diane Oliver
Update: 2024-04-16
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Description
A young boy puzzles over the behavior of his mysterious elderly neighbor, his parents, and his older brother, a budding civil rights activist.
This story appears in the collection entitled NEIGHBORS AND OTHER STORIES by Diane Oliver, published by Grove Press.
Content advisory: racial slur, racism
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Transcript
00:00:00
>> Hi, I'm Lovar Burton, and this is Lovar Burton Reads.
00:00:10
In every episode, I handpicked a different piece of short fiction.
00:00:17
And I made it to you.
00:00:20
The only thing these stories have in common is that I love them and I hope you will too.
00:00:29
If there's been one constant in the last few years of my life, it's got to be surprise.
00:00:41
Constant surprise.
00:00:43
I've been surprised by the lows we've reached as a nation.
00:00:47
On the flip side, I've also been surprised by how much goodness and light there still is in the world.
00:00:55
I've been surprised and genuinely flabbergasted by things I've discovered about my own family's ancestry.
00:01:04
I learned about that in an episode of Finding Your Roots with Henry Lewis Gates.
00:01:09
Those revelations made me think twice about the things I hold to be true about myself.
00:01:18
But honestly, I think all of this is a good thing.
00:01:22
I welcome the surprise and I welcome the opportunity to re-examine Long Hill Truths.
00:01:30
Which brings me to today's story, one that takes us back to the America of the 1960s, back to what we now call the Civil Rights era.
00:01:42
We'll follow Johnny, a young white boy growing up in Maryland, who's observing the adults in his life and how they respond to the changing times.
00:01:53
And the thing that sets this story apart for me is that the story is told from Johnny's point of view.
00:02:02
Very little judgment, lots of details that seem extraneous, but not through the eyes of a young boy.
00:02:12
It's an interesting exercise to try and get in touch with how your brain works when you're a child.
00:02:19
Now, the story is entitled When the Apples Are Ripe, and it's by the author Diane Oliver.
00:02:27
If you haven't heard of Diane Oliver, it's not because her work wasn't tremendous.
00:02:33
Diane Oliver was a black writer from North Carolina.
00:02:37
She was a student at the Iowa Writers Workshop in the mid-60s and had published four short stories when her life was suddenly cut short.
00:02:46
She passed away in a motorcycle accident.
00:02:49
She was only 22.
00:02:51
But she left behind many more short stories which continue to be published.
00:02:57
One of them won the O'Henry Award, and now much more of her work has been gathered into a new posthumous collection entitled Neighbors and Other Stories,
00:03:09
published by Grove Press.
00:03:11
You'll find a content advisory for this story in the written episode description.
00:03:16
And now, if you're ready, let's take that deep breath.
00:03:26
Yeah.
00:03:39
And begin.
00:03:44
When the apples are ripe by Diane Oliver.
00:03:53
Mrs.
00:03:54
Gilly lived in the second gray house from the corner.
00:04:06
When Johnny Anderson was playing in his backyard, he could see the house, stuck between piles of red dirt, left by the construction crew enlarging the road.
00:04:17
Sometimes, old Mrs.
00:04:18
Gilly would come out on the porch, inspect her three gardenia bushes, and go back in again.
00:04:25
Johnny saw the top of Mrs.
00:04:27
Gilly's house more often than he saw Mrs.
00:04:31
Gilly.
00:04:31
He couldn't go on Saturday mornings when Doug went up to cut Mrs.
00:04:35
Gilly's grass and sometimes drive her to the doctor's office.
00:04:39
He didn't even have a real watch so he could tell when Doug was coming home.
00:04:45
Mrs.
00:04:45
Gilly was sick a lot and his mother didn't want him bothering her.
00:04:49
And he was forbidden to play in Mrs.
00:04:52
Gilly's yard unless she asked him.
00:04:54
So Johnny would climb into the swing and sometimes Doug would push him from behind until he was almost as high as the green hitch separating the Anderson's yard from the stewards.
00:05:09
When Johnny boy was swinging as high as the swing would go, he could see Mrs.
00:05:13
Gilly's yard with the apples from the big apple tree rotting all over the ground.
00:05:19
If the wind was right, the pungent apple smell carried over into their backyard.
00:05:26
Sometimes the two brown dogs would be on the porch.
00:05:31
Doug said that they caught rabbits for her to eat and she herself caught the mice that replaced the chicken in mice and rice soup.
00:05:41
From up high, the dogs looked like a part of the window shades that were always pulled down.
00:05:49
Lots of times when Johnny didn't eat dessert because his mother hadn't baked anything, he would be given a nickel and sent to the neighborhood store.
00:05:59
Now with his parents always talking about Doug, his mother seldom baked.
00:06:06
They gave him nickels, it seemed just to get him out of the house.
00:06:19
Almost every trip he would meet Mrs.
00:06:21
Gilly with a brown paper bag in one hand and some meat scraps wrapped in newspaper and the other.
00:06:28
He knew that the bags held bones because once Mr.
00:06:31
Potter, who kept the small neighborhood store, told mother he saved the bones and scraps for Mrs.
00:06:39
Gilly's dogs.
00:06:40
She carried home the bones every evening that she came to the store for her medicine.
00:06:45
Since they lived so far out from the drug store, Mr.
00:06:48
Potter had Mrs.
00:06:49
Gilly's prescriptions filled.
00:06:52
Johnny was always very polite to Mrs.
00:06:55
Gilly.
00:06:56
If he saw her coming and couldn't duck, he would walk up quickly, speak and hurry past her.
00:07:04
He was not chicken as Doug insisted, but anybody speaking to Mrs.
00:07:09
Gilly always had the feeling she was looking at something straight past him.
00:07:15
Sometimes Johnny boy wanted to turn around and look too.
00:07:19
She did not seem to belong on their street.
00:07:23
The other old ladies he knew even the ones with blue hair did not look that old.
00:07:29
Mrs.
00:07:29
Gilly was partially bald.
00:07:31
The few strands of hair still growing on her head were a reddish brown and mixed gray.
00:07:38
When he was smaller, Johnny always thought she'd been scalped.
00:07:43
What happened to her head?
00:07:46
He asked his mother.
00:07:48
Mrs.
00:07:49
Gilly is old, she answered.
00:07:52
And sometimes old people lose their hair thinking about something new.
00:07:58
She did not seem to mean what she said and asking him to bring the dustpan.
00:08:03
She began sweeping the kitchen.
00:08:06
His mother felt very sorry for Mrs.
00:08:09
Gilly.
00:08:10
Quite often he heard her telling his father that she'd like to do something for the woman.
00:08:15
"I'm afraid she's not going to last very long."
00:08:19
His mother said, lifting the spoon from the mixing bowl and watching the liquid drops fall into the batter.
00:08:26
I suppose it's a good thing though.
00:08:28
I don't think she would really like living in this day and age.
00:08:33
Can you imagine what it must be like for her?
00:08:37
Every time you pick up a paper or turn anywhere, they're talking about the Negroes.
00:08:43
She pointed to the other cabinet.
00:08:45
Johnny, hand me that bowl.
00:08:49
Gracious.
00:08:50
I still remember my mother saying how Mrs.
00:08:52
Gilly's mother kept their servants in line and they loved her for it.
00:08:56
Every one of them.
00:08:58
His father grunted and folded the paper.
00:09:01
I imagine it's very pleasant to sit on the porch and wave the world down the street, knowing your only son is safe in his grave.
00:09:10
"Gym," his mother turned, "quick tears speckling her eyes.
00:09:14
Don't even play that.
00:09:16
I'm sorry," he answered.
00:09:18
"I wasn't thinking of Doug.
00:09:21
God, Carolyn, don't you think I know he's my son, too?"
00:09:25
And they were quiet, looking at him.
00:09:29
Today his mother did not seem concerned with Mrs.
00:09:32
Gilly and while he stood around the kitchen, she paid him no attention.
00:09:38
Even Doug had gone out by himself on the bike.
00:09:41
Since he usually did not come home until dinner time, there was nothing for Johnny to do but go outside and swing until someone called him for supper.
00:09:52
Would you like to go get new library books tonight?"
00:09:55
His father asked.
00:09:57
Before Johnny could answer, the front door slammed and Doug stuck his head in the door.
00:10:02
"Be in as soon as I wash up."
00:10:05
His mother rose and brought another plate to the table.
00:10:10
Reaching over to thump him on the head, Doug sat down across from Johnny boy.
00:10:14
"It seems to me," his father said when Doug had taken his place.
00:10:21
"You could get to your meals on time.
00:10:25
If you were doing something constructive, I could excuse you being late."
00:10:29
"I'm sorry," Doug answered, sliding the butter dish to his plate.
00:10:34
"But the orientation program is important.
00:10:37
We can't just go down there and not know anything about the area."
00:10:41
"Have you ever considered the idea that you don't have to go?"
00:10:46
Johnny's father put down his fork and stared at his son.
00:10:50
"I suppose you know it's all over town."
00:10:54
"What's all over town?"
00:10:57
Doug's words were slow and patient as if he were talking to a child.
00:11:03
That my son is going down south to help a bunch of people that don't even have sense enough to help themselves.
00:11:10
Now sooner or later they're going to integrate everything.
00:11:13
I know that, but sensible people with a future don't get involved.
00:11:20
Doug did not answer.
00:11:22
If you have to get involved in politics, why don't you stay in another part of the state?
00:11:28
There must be something you can do in Maryland without getting your name spread all over the paper.
00:11:34
"Please," his mother interrupted, "please let's not discuss anything now.
00:11:40
Dinner is the only time we're together in the day.
00:11:43
Can't we even eat in peace as a family?"
00:11:48
They finished the meal in silence.
00:11:51
Johnny boy carrying the dishes from the table to the sink heard his father and brother talking in the din.
00:11:57
Then the front door slammed and he knew Doug had gone again on the bike.
00:12:05
Frowning still, his father came into the kitchen and watched his mother.
00:12:10
"What are you doing now?"
00:12:13
He asked, "Fixing a plate for Mrs.
00:12:16
Gilly.
00:12:17
Surely you can't object to that."
00:12:20
"Good Lord, Carolyn, is it so strange that I want to keep my son in school and not see him hanging from a tree in Mississippi?
00:12:29
Do you think Mrs.
00:12:30
Gilly would want a dinner from you if she knew you were raising a rebel?
00:12:34
A Gilly from Jackson County?"
00:12:39
Immediately he began to laugh a strange sound, it seemed to Johnny, not like laughter at all.
00:12:48
He waited for his mother to cover the plate with aluminum foil.
00:12:52
Sometimes, like tonight when they had something especially good for dinner or something easy to chew, Johnny would carry over the supper running because the vegetables might get cold.
00:13:05
Johnny had his mother's face, he wondered if she was thinking of Mrs.
00:13:09
Gilly or if talking to his father made her seem so solemn.
00:13:14
His father always said Mrs.
00:13:16
Gilly had nothing but background and these days family background wasn't worth a damn.
00:13:23
He could sympathize with Mrs.
00:13:25
Gilly, he said because she and the Anderson's had one thing in common.
00:13:30
No matter where they lived, they were southerners by temperament.
00:13:35
Most of their relatives and all of Mrs.
00:13:39
Gilly's still lived in Virginia.
00:13:42
Sometimes when he came to run an errand, if she felt like talking, Mrs.
00:13:46
Gilly would set him down on the porch steps, then she would give him a licorice cough drop from the box in her pocket and tell him about her family's house.
00:13:57
"There are too many rooms for an old lady like her," she said.
00:14:02
She could remember when there were picken in these running around wherever she turned, making all that noise while she tried to get her grandmother comfortable enough to sleep.
00:14:13
Then she would become quiet because they had sold the house.
00:14:17
"Well, there was really nothing else to do," she said.
00:14:23
"I certainly didn't need all that room."
00:14:29
Somebody told her, or wrote her once, she no longer remembered, that the little colored children were going to the school that carried her grandfather's name.
00:14:40
Johnny Boy had nothing to say.
00:14:42
He would sit, sucking on his cough drop, trying not to cut his tongue when the candy was then weighed in to be dismissed.
00:14:55
The family ate dinner around 6'30, so in the fall, everything was almost dark before Johnny could get up to Mrs.
00:15:04
Gilly's with the plate.
00:15:05
The streetlight, glanting at the corner was not bright enough to light all of Mrs.
00:15:11
Gilly's yard.
00:15:13
He walked fast until he got to the front of her house and then dodging the shadows from the trees.
00:15:19
He ran until he found the walkway.
00:15:23
The stones that used to be arranged neatly in a crisscross pattern had long since been rearranged by too many feet.
00:15:31
Here and there, a stone was missing or split into chunks with strands of grass growing between the pieces.
00:15:39
He walked on the grass, lifting the plate high in the air because there was no telling when one of those dogs would come out and start barking.
00:15:48
Once, the biggest dog, whom Mrs.
00:15:50
Gilly called General Lee, snapped at him and made him drop the plate.
00:15:56
Tonight, the dogs were not even in sight.
00:16:01
The general had been surprised when a car he was chasing rolled in reverse and hit him.
00:16:07
It was a wonder he didn't get killed, but Mrs.
00:16:11
Gilly bandaged him up and kept rubbing on ointment that Mr.
00:16:15
Potter ordered from the drugstore.
00:16:19
Sometimes, Johnny Boyd did not mind carrying Mrs.
00:16:22
Gilly's dinner, but when the apples were ripe and scattered all over the ground, he hated to walk in the yard.
00:16:31
Mrs.
00:16:31
Gilly did not have a porch light and, trying not to drop the plate, he couldn't see his feet to avoid stepping on soft apples.
00:16:40
The apple juice always spurred it on his ankle, making him itch and he couldn't scratch and hold the dinner too.
00:16:48
Tonight, he walked slowly, feeling around for any stray apples with the toe of his tennis shoes.
00:16:56
Stepping over the snail lying wetly on the board of the second step, he reached the porch and knocked on the door.
00:17:06
Mrs.
00:17:06
Gilly, who was hard of hearing, always took a long time to answer.
00:17:12
When she finally unlatched the screen door, she grabbed his head and pushed him toward the corner of the porch nearest the streetlight.
00:17:20
Satisfied that he was not one of the boys who broke the stems of her sunflowers and through the blossoms onto the street, she invited him in the house to exchange the new plate for last week's plate.
00:17:36
Mrs.
00:17:36
Gilly's living room spilled out on the front porch and if her lot hadn't been so small, she probably could have decorated the front yard.
00:17:46
The mahogany rocker and footstool near the porch banister matched the other dark furniture in the living room.
00:17:55
Johnny stood across from the faded sofa.
00:17:58
The tapestry cushions, prompt against the window, blocked what little light came through the yellowing window shade.
00:18:06
"Have a seat, young man," Mrs.
00:18:09
Gilly whispered.
00:18:11
Johnny boys sat on a hasake near the fireplace and looked up at the pictures on top of the upright piano.
00:18:18
He was about to trace the diamonds in the carpet when he saw something he had never seen in Mrs.
00:18:24
Gilly's house.
00:18:25
Cautiously, he rose and looked at the neat stack of magazines on the floor.
00:18:32
There were copies of that magazine Doug read.
00:18:36
The one his father hated.
00:18:38
He could not imagine why Mrs.
00:18:40
Gilly would have Doug's magazines.
00:18:44
He was just about to turn a page when Mrs.
00:18:46
Gilly came from the other room and saw him gazing at the floor.
00:18:50
"See a mouse?"
00:18:52
she asked, bringing the clean plate down to his level.
00:18:56
"They come out sometimes when the room is quiet like this."
00:19:03
He held out his arms and she carefully placed the plate in his hands.
00:19:06
"Tell your mother I thank her," she said and guided him out of the door.
00:19:14
Mrs.
00:19:15
Gilly stood behind the screen until he was past the apple tree and out in the streetlight, carrying the blue plate in front of him.
00:19:33
Now, let's get back to our story.
00:19:48
From Saturday morning after breakfast, his mother called him back to the kitchen.
00:19:55
"Hurry up," she said, "we're out of Spic and Span and you have to go to the store."
00:20:01
Johnny Boy's mother made him pin the dollar bill inside his shirt pocket.
00:20:06
"Spic and Span comes in a can."
00:20:09
He sang to no one in particular.
00:20:11
"Hold still," she said.
00:20:15
On the front porch steps, he reached up to the mailbox and took his hat from the magazine holder.
00:20:22
Johnny Boy put on the cap, bent down and began thumping every other pink flower growing along the walkway.
00:20:30
He was about to walk up the street when he suddenly remembered to watch.
00:20:36
That was funny.
00:20:37
He forgotten he ever had a watch, but it was buried somewhere around here, right under the orange marygold on the end.
00:20:46
Johnny Boy wriggled his fingers in the reddish brown soil until he touched something hard.
00:20:52
All last month, he practiced extra hard learning to tell time.
00:20:57
When he finally could tell the time and read the hand on the left side of the clock, he'd asked his father for a watch.
00:21:05
They had given him one all right.
00:21:08
One dug had outgrown a stupid Mickey Mouse watch with a red strap.
00:21:16
He fished the watch out of the dirt and began brushing it on his pants legs.
00:21:20
The red band had turned a funny color and poor Mickey's face was now a strange tan.
00:21:29
Satisfied that the watch was almost beyond recognition, he re-barried it in the same hole.
00:21:35
He smoothed over the dirt, pulled some grass to stick on top, and ran down the driveway up the street to Mr.
00:21:44
Potter's store.
00:21:47
He walked a block, stomped, and sniffed the air.
00:21:51
He could still not smell the rain coming like Mrs.
00:21:55
Gilly.
00:21:56
He guessed his mother was right.
00:21:59
"Rain?"
00:22:00
she said.
00:22:01
"Is in other people's bones."
00:22:04
He was almost up to her yard now, and not a thing was moving.
00:22:10
He heard his father say that the niggers could march to Washington and back.
00:22:16
Past Mrs.
00:22:17
Gilly's yard, and she would never budge to find out who was singing, "We shall overcome."
00:22:24
One of the dogs was draped across the old rocking chair on the porch.
00:22:28
He was about to walk another few feet when he noticed a clock standing on Mrs.
00:22:33
Gilly's porch.
00:22:35
The clock, the color of mashed peanuts, was mounted on a low table with four wheels, like roller skates.
00:22:43
Two little knobs looked like they were attached to a drawer, and the long glass front sparkled out of place on the front porch.
00:22:55
Johnny Boy was not sure, but he thought that was a dish towel dangling from the top.
00:23:03
He went to the edge of the yard for a closer look, and then hurried up the street to the store.
00:23:09
He had never seen such a big clock on anybody's front porch.
00:23:20
Ten minutes later, he was on his way home, carrying two brown paper bags.
00:23:25
Mr.
00:23:26
Potter asked him to deliver yesterday's bones to Mrs.
00:23:29
Gilly, because she had not come after them herself.
00:23:33
Now, over the top of the bags, Johnny Boy could see Mrs.
00:23:36
Gilly, sitting on the side of the porch nearest the apple tree, reading one of those magazines.
00:23:44
She did not seem to notice him until she heard his feet squashing apples near the porch.
00:23:50
He looked at Mrs.
00:23:52
Gilly trying to think of something to say when she spoke.
00:23:57
And morning, young man, her voice was harsh like she had not yet gargled with her mouthwash.
00:24:05
Morning Mrs.
00:24:06
Gilly, Johnny Boy answered, "Mr.
00:24:08
Potter sent you yesterday's bones for the general and that other dog.
00:24:13
He said he hadn't been able to get away to the drugstore.
00:24:17
Thank you, young man, put them on the banister."
00:24:22
He plopped the bones on the railing and stopped to look at the clock.
00:24:26
The wood, smooth and freshly polished, was cut into swirls which rushed up and curved at the top, like dragons' heads.
00:24:36
It was such a big clock.
00:24:39
He was about to reach out and touch the surface when Mrs.
00:24:42
Gilly spoke.
00:24:43
She looked at him and at her magazine, "There comes a time," she said, "when one can no longer pretend situations do not exist.
00:24:57
You might tell your brother that I thank him for the reading literature."
00:25:03
Johnny Boy nodded and turned to pick up the groceries.
00:25:07
"Wait one minute, young man, I'll send your mother some fresh, fall leaves."
00:25:16
He started to say, "No, thank you.
00:25:18
If there was anything his mother did not want, it was a handful of leaves."
00:25:23
But Mrs.
00:25:24
Gilly bent over and began clipping leaves from the Gardini bushes.
00:25:29
She had a hard time trying to find enough green leaves.
00:25:33
Of the bunches of leaves, some had begun to wither and turn round.
00:25:38
Without turning to face him, she began to speak.
00:25:41
"I assume your brother is commuting this term.
00:25:46
He's still doing well at school.
00:25:50
He's not going to school now.
00:25:53
He doesn't want to go back to college."
00:25:55
Johnny said, "Well, what does he want to do?"
00:26:02
Johnny hesitated.
00:26:03
"Could have missed a sippy, but nobody wants him to go."
00:26:09
Daddy says he's silly to get mixed up with those people, but he still wants to go.
00:26:16
He felt vaguely uneasy as if he had broken a family confidence.
00:26:21
"So, Douglas will be a fighter for freedom."
00:26:28
Mrs.
00:26:28
Gilly stopped clipping to look at him.
00:26:31
"I think that is what such people are called in the magazines."
00:26:36
"Yes, ma'am."
00:26:38
And Johnny was silent.
00:26:40
"When does your brother leave?"
00:26:44
He's catching the bus Sunday morning.
00:26:47
And even saying the words, he felt a strange loss.
00:26:51
Before, he had always known that Doug was coming home and Thanksgiving or Christmas.
00:26:57
Now, there seemed to be no more holidays left.
00:27:03
When Mrs.
00:27:03
Gilly had a fistful, she reached back and wrapped the leaves in a dish towel, hanging from the clock.
00:27:10
So it was a dish towel.
00:27:12
When Mrs.
00:27:13
Gilly polished the leaves one by one, Johnny boy stared at the clock.
00:27:18
His eyes following the swinging pendulum.
00:27:21
"Do you like my clock?"
00:27:24
She asked, fondly patting the wood.
00:27:26
"It's my third clock, you know?
00:27:30
I have one in the bedroom, one on the back porch, and one in the kitchen.
00:27:37
Two months before he died, when Mr.
00:27:40
Gilly and I were married, my grandfather gave this one to me.
00:27:46
"This is the kitchen clock," she said.
00:27:50
"I try to air it out once a year."
00:27:55
Grandfather was fascinated by clocks.
00:28:00
Mrs.
00:28:00
Gilly was looking over his shoulders at the vacant lawn across the street.
00:28:05
I kept only one of his ten watches.
00:28:09
The others are buried with him.
00:28:12
When my father considered my brother's young man, each one received a watch.
00:28:19
Why, my brothers would no more have thought of being careless with their watches than they would have courted a northern girl.
00:28:29
Johnny watched Mrs.
00:28:30
Gilly slowly pull the knobs of the clock drawer.
00:28:33
Of course, until it was sold, I kept the big gold watch in a safety deposit vault at the bank.
00:28:42
But this one went all through the war with my grandfather.
00:28:48
He never did believe in letting those foreigners get close enough to touch his watch.
00:28:56
The drawer glided all the way out, and she pointed to a small grayish white box.
00:29:02
"Young man, have you learned to read a watch?"
00:29:07
Johnny boy nodded his head.
00:29:09
"My father used to say," Mrs.
00:29:11
Gilly said, resting her hand on the porch banister.
00:29:16
"Every young man ought to have a Confederate flag, a horse, and above all a watch.
00:29:26
She motioned for him to lift the box.
00:29:29
I can still hear him lecturing my brothers, telling them that a man's honor is like his watch on duty 24 hours of the day."
00:29:44
Johnny boy's hands wiggled with excitement.
00:29:47
He was almost afraid to touch the box, but suddenly the top was off and there was the watch.
00:29:55
He couldn't help smiling.
00:29:58
There was exactly the kind of watch he'd always wanted, the kind that was in those pioneer stories.
00:30:05
The watch was round and shiny silver with a long silver chain.
00:30:10
And there was a clasp to pin it inside his pocket.
00:30:14
He wanted to run his fingers over the case and around the silver numbers, but with Mrs.
00:30:19
Gilly standing there, he hesitated to pick up the watch.
00:30:26
Mrs.
00:30:26
Gilly asked, looking down at his wrist.
00:30:29
Again, he shook his head.
00:30:32
"I thought all the youngsters had watches these days."
00:30:37
Then without warning, she closed up the graying top and shut the clock drawer.
00:30:43
"Thank you.
00:30:45
Tell your mother I send my regards."
00:30:50
Johnny boy picked up the bag of groceries and Mrs.
00:30:54
Gilly stuck the leaf bouquet on top.
00:30:57
Until he turned the corner, she stood alert on her porch, waiting to see if a leaf slipped to the ground.
00:31:04
His mother wondered where he had been, but she knew he was not far enough from home to get lost.
00:31:10
She said how nice of Mrs.
00:31:11
Gilly to send the leaves and promptly stuck them in an empty man he's jar.
00:31:18
After all the change had been accounted for, and some of the dirt brushed from his pants bottom, his mother fixed him a picnic lunch to eat out of doors and out of the way.
00:31:29
Now, let's get back to our story.
00:31:47
Everybody went to bed early that night, and when Johnny boy awoke, he could smell cinnamon buns baking in the kitchen.
00:31:54
His mother made a plain loaf from Mrs.
00:31:57
Gilly, cut off the crust and wrapped the soft bread in a clean dish towel.
00:32:02
Johnny boy would deliver the loaf after dinner.
00:32:06
The kitchen windows were wide open when the family sat down for breakfast.
00:32:11
Pushing the curtains aside, Johnny sniffed the air and didn't smell a single drop of rain.
00:32:18
He was still somewhat sleepy from trying to stay up and listen to his parents last night.
00:32:24
They spoke softly, though, as if they did not want him to hear.
00:32:29
He was sure he had heard his mother crying just before Doug came upstairs to dress for bed.
00:32:36
And then he didn't remember anything else.
00:32:40
He slid into his place being careful not to upset anything.
00:32:45
The table was set with the good tablecloth and silver, but no one looked very happy.
00:32:52
His father brought out the Bible and had begun reading the Sunday scripture when someone knocked at the door.
00:32:59
His mother looked at his father.
00:33:03
When his shrug announced that he had no knowledge of a visitor, she went to the door.
00:33:08
"Good morning, Mrs.
00:33:11
Gilly."
00:33:12
They heard her say, "Don't you come in?"
00:33:16
Mrs.
00:33:17
Gilly?
00:33:18
What was she doing at his house?
00:33:20
Johnny boy swung around in his seat but was stopped by his father.
00:33:24
"Practice your Bible, verse."
00:33:27
He said, "Your mother will tend to Mrs.
00:33:30
Gilly."
00:33:31
As soon as he spoke, Mrs.
00:33:33
Gilly followed Johnny's mother into the kitchen.
00:33:37
"I have come to see Douglass," she said, addressing all of them.
00:33:46
"I have something for his trip."
00:33:49
She wasted no more words and turned immediately to Doug.
00:33:53
"I am not certain you are right, but I think my grandfather would have liked for you to have this.
00:34:04
My grandfather," she paused.
00:34:08
"My grandfather was a man of his time.
00:34:13
I think he would have respected you as a man of your time."
00:34:20
She placed in Doug's hand a small box, carefully wrapped in brown grocery paper.
00:34:27
"Take care with it."
00:34:32
Then as if she had completed a very formal ceremony, Mrs.
00:34:36
Gilly turned to leave.
00:34:38
"I can find my way to the door."
00:34:42
She said, "Please do continue your breakfast."
00:34:48
Before his mother even remembered the crustless bread, Mrs.
00:34:52
Gilly had issued her order and walked to the hall.
00:34:59
Johnny Boy's mother looked puzzled, "What on earth?"
00:35:04
she asked.
00:35:06
"It's probably a list of grandfathers' relatives," Doug will have countless invitations to tea.
00:35:14
His mother ignored her husband's sarcasm, waiting for Doug to untie the string.
00:35:20
He pulled off the paper and there was that same faded box that had been in the clock drawer.
00:35:27
Johnny Boy must have been seeing things, but no, there it was, on the kitchen table.
00:35:34
Mrs.
00:35:35
Gilly had given Doug her grandfathers' watch.
00:35:40
"Must be quite valuable by now," his father said.
00:35:44
"A real antique?"
00:35:47
He passed the box to his wife.
00:35:49
She can't afford to give her valuables away.
00:35:52
"I think she can," his mother answered.
00:35:56
Knowing the watches with Doug is more important to her.
00:36:02
His mother stirred her coffee and looked the watch.
00:36:06
She handed it to Doug to wine and they listened to the steady ticking until the meal had ended.
00:36:13
Without him even asking, Doug let Johnny Boy hold the watch.
00:36:18
He clipped the clasp to his pocket and let the chain dangle almost down to his knees.
00:36:24
His mother looked down and started to say something, but was quiet.
00:36:30
Finally, she turned to her husband, her eyes steady.
00:36:34
"If your son cannot have your good will, I think you might give him your respect."
00:36:42
"My son has not grown up," he said and turned to look out of the kitchen window.
00:36:50
"So, there would be more talking until Doug was on the bus and actually riding away from this house."
00:36:59
Johnny Boy felt sad without being able to tell himself why.
00:37:04
He wondered for a minute what his parents would talk about when his brother no longer came home.
00:37:11
Now, at least their voices were softened, knowing that in a few hours, Doug would be gone.
00:37:21
He did not want to listen and unlatching the screen door, Johnny Boy walked straight to the backyard swing.
00:37:29
Touching the watch, that would go with Doug.
00:37:33
He settled himself in the swing and with a big push, he was up in the air, looking over the whole neighborhood.
00:37:42
He held out his hand with the chain and circling his wrist and the watch swung with him, making silver arcs in the air.
00:37:51
From the swing, he could see everything.
00:37:55
Doug's suitcase was set on the side porch, sunlight shining on the deep leather scratches.
00:38:03
Mrs.
00:38:04
Gilly's house looked as it always did.
00:38:07
The dogs were lying still in the cleared-off spot under the tree, and although the clock was gone from her porch, there was the mahogany footstool.
00:38:19
He could even see Mrs.
00:38:23
Gilly.
00:38:24
Sitting on her rocker, slowly moving with a wind.
00:38:44
It's a deceptively complex story, because the first couple of times I read it, it seemed really sort of simple, but then it dawned on me that Mrs.
00:38:57
Gilly, this bastion of southern gentility, seemed to have an open heart to the civil rights movement.
00:39:07
I mean, she was breathing Doug's magazines and her response to Doug going away was to give him one of her most prized possessions,
00:39:19
knowing he was going south to register black people to vote.
00:39:27
As I say, it's a deceptively complex story.
00:39:34
And then there's the narrator's voice, Johnny Boy.
00:39:39
I really had difficulty at first figuring out his stream of consciousness mind, the way he focused on things that just didn't seem to matter to the narrative at all,
00:39:55
the squish of the apples or the weather.
00:39:59
It felt to me like these were all sort of red herrings that were distracting away from what I interpreted to be the real point of the story.
00:40:10
The conflict in this family about the oldest son's decision to go and do something that they certainly considered dangerous and neither of them considered brave or right and just.
00:40:28
The story really took some figuring out from me.
00:40:33
It is unlike most stories that have a child protagonist in that she really puts us in Johnny Boy's head.
00:40:42
All of the sort of mindless things he does and thinks about, whacking every other flower while on his walk to the neighborhood store.
00:40:56
These are things that in my adult mind, I just don't think about anymore.
00:41:05
And so it was weird for me to really kind of struggle a little to find the narrator's voice of this young boy and bear with me here because like Johnny Boy,
00:41:20
I'm going stream of consciousness, but mice and rice soup.
00:41:28
Now that mice and rice soup was like, whoa, because it was just said matter of factly that she caught the mice for mice and rice soup,
00:41:45
whoa, okay, that can't be true, can it?
00:41:51
I mean, eating mice, is that an indication of the state of her purse?
00:41:57
Is she that poor that she can't afford chicken and rice?
00:42:02
Is the neighborhood taking care of Mrs.
00:42:05
Gilley sending meals over to her a couple of times a week and bringing her the dog bones and scraps?
00:42:15
Are they for the dog or is she really living off of these things?
00:42:25
And I don't know that we live in that world anymore where neighbors really take care of neighbors.
00:42:34
I'd like to think it still happens.
00:42:36
This is one of those stories for me when the author really puts a lot of details out there in the story in a very ambiguous way and it's really up to us as the reader to fill in the blanks of the story.
00:42:51
You could go a million different ways just depending upon how you interpret the musings of this young boy's mind.
00:43:14
My thanks to the estate of Diane Oliver for allowing me to read her story today.
00:43:19
You can find it in the print collection entitled Neighbors and other stories by Grove Press and in audio form from DreamScape media.
00:43:31
Both are out right now.
00:43:34
Our producer on this episode of Lovar Burton reads is Julius Smith.
00:43:39
She is the best in the business y'all.
00:43:41
Our fabulous researcher is L.D.
00:43:43
Lewis, always happy to have you aboard my sister.
00:43:46
We had additional research support this season from Tallinn Stradley and Josephine Martiharana, theme music by the extraordinary Brendan Burns.
00:43:56
Editing and sound design courtesy of the fantastic skills of Mr.
00:44:01
Casey Holford.
00:44:02
If you enjoyed this podcast, please tell a friend about it or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts like I say, share the short fiction well.
00:44:12
Lovar Burton reads is a production of Stitcher and Lovar Burton Entertainment.
00:44:17
Our executive producers are Josephine Martiharana and yours truly, Lovar Burton.
00:44:23
And if you want to find me on the internet, I'm Lovar.Burton on Instagram, @LovarBurton on X or you can simply go to LovarBurton.com.
00:44:32
You can also join my book club at fabel.co/Lovar.
00:44:38
I'll see you next time, but you don't have to take my word for it.
00:44:43
Stitcher.
00:44:54
(gentle music)
00:44:57
[Music]
00:44:59