Crackle & Wheeze

By Susan Obijiski

Crackle & Wheeze tells the story of Agitta Marie and her younger sister, Bedehlia. It is a story of life on the road in the mid-1900s, and a mother who sells her children into prostitution.

Agitta writes of her life, and her struggle to rise above, in hopes of being understood...and remembered. She shares her efforts to protect her young sister and her decline into hopelessness and defeat.

Crackle & Wheeze is a tale of poverty, betrayal and survival, and a cautionary reminder of the damage done to children in our society by predators and unfit guardians.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Susan Obijiski
• Release date: Jul 31, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370772520

Susan Obijiski

Author, Susan Obijiski is the Author of the trilogy, Legacy of Dreams (Dreams of the Many, Dreams of the Few and Dreams of the Exile), and a contributing author for 'Sedona Awakenings'; published by Auricle Books (www.BooksForHealingBodyMindAndSpirit.com). Her novella, Crackle & Wheeze is available in eBook format.A message from the author: "I hope that my books resonate with my readers and give them pause to consider the challenges, fears and demons that sometimes control our lives, and the importance of living with passion and courage, and pursuing the dreams we hold dear.”

Book preview

Crackle & Wheeze

A Novella

By S. M. Obijiski

Crackle & Wheeze

Copyright © 2017 Susan M. Obijiski All rights reserved.

Published by Susan M. Obijiski at Smashwords.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the permission, in writing, of the publisher.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

ISBN: 9781370772520

Table of Contents

For Starters

Louella May

Petunia Sue

Early On

Wheeze

Crackle

Louie

Fairytale Ending

Wheeze Grows Up

Exit, Aunt Pet

So It Goes

Philadelphia

Cutting the Ties

The End of the Line

About the Author

For Starters

It's not time yet. But, it will be soon. I don’t know when - not exactly. The day and time of my departure will depend on how long it takes me to finish this. I have to write it down, you see. It is as much for me as it is for you. Yes, I want you to understand why I am doing this, but I also need to remember. If I remind myself, it will be easier to do what has to be done.

I haven’t done it yet but I will and, when I do, there won't be any reason to stay.

I apologize in advance for my scattered thoughts, and for the fact that my story won't be linear.

But that's appropriate. My life hasn't been linear.

Oh, the timeline plodded along as I aged but the chaos of my existence has always made life surreal. It loops around and comes back to remind me that, no matter how many times and ways I try to run, I can't escape.

Louella May

Mother was sixteen in 1935. That was the year I was born. She wasn’t the youngest on the Charity Ward, but she was far from the oldest. She named me Agitta Marie, a name I loathed and never used. I was nearly bald until the age of two, and most people mistook me for a boy. I was different from other babies in another important way. It was the thing that earned me my nickname, you see.

When my joints moved, they would crack. They still do.

My mother took to calling me 'Crackle', and the name stuck.

Mother’s constant companion was Aunt Petunia. She wasn’t really my aunt, but her name really was Petunia. The three of us cut a swath across the U.S. and back again, at least ten times in the first five years of my life.

When I was five, Mother declared a sort of independence. She said she was too young to have a child, that I was cramping her style. I was instructed to refer to her as my older sister, and Aunt Pet, who was barely ten month her elder, became the eldest sister of the triumvirate.

From that day forward, it was Pet, Lacy and Crackle – the Sisters Bonne Amie.

Our story became legend.

I heard her tell the tale in church vestibules, soup kitchens, grocery stores, hospitals and on street corners. Of all the stories Mother told, this was the only one that never changed.

It went something like this: Our mother and father were racing to the hospital with my younger brother, Noah, in the car. A very large truck slammed into the side of our dear old Dad’s Buick sedan, and the three passengers were killed instantly.

The tragic tone of the story was heightened by the quaver in Mother’s voice and the single tear sliding down her rosy cheek.

I said that this story never changed, but that isn’t quite right. One detail did change from time to time.

Sometimes, she would say that my brother’s name was ‘Wallace’, but most of the time she stuck to the script. Personally, I preferred the more biblical, ‘Noah’. I thought it added a note of reverence that ‘Wallace’ didn’t quite achieve.

Mother was born Louella May Borden in Sulphur, Oklahoma to Redd and Emerald Borden. It took me nearly twenty years to discover this simple fact. By then, I had learned and forgotten so many different versions of our family history that I found it hard to believe the truth.

Eventually, I visited the town where mother was born and, among other things, discovered that, Lacy, the name mother took to replace the much-maligned Louella, was, in fact, the name of a Lake just outside the town of Sulphur.

As for my father, he played no role in my life, other than to linger in the shadows of my childhood as the mystery man my mother would never discuss. At age thirteen, I demanded