Stories & Essays
Niagra Falls
Chapbook-Short Story: “Niagara Falls”
Redbird Chapbooks
44 pages
8.5″ x 5.5″ single signature, hand sewn binding
Published October 2013
Niagara Falls [excerpt]
In the summer of 1978, the whole family was supposed to go to Niagara Falls. Peggy Finch had started selling Mary Kay cosmetics to her friends and neighbors, and her husband Frank insisted that she keep every dollar. He called it her “pink money” because everything that Mary Kay1 sold was packaged in pink. Her husband was the owner-operator of a funeral home going back three generations, and his hobby was planning vacations for his family that never happened.
The morning before their scheduled departure, Frank explained to Peggy and the children that, once again, their travel plans had been thwarted by the unexpected. Someone, tragically, had died. He would definitely take them all to Niagara Falls next year. Or someplace even better.
But people died. That was to be expected, actually.
Peggy said, “What about Bill? He could help the Hendersons with their arrangements.”
“But they’ve used us for years, Peggy. You know I couldn’t do that to them.”
What he didn’t say: he would do this do this to them, to her, again.
It was the same story every summer when Frank planned another vacation that never materialized. Once there was supposed to be a trip to the Grand Canyon, including an overnight stay on a small dairy farm in North Dakota with lanky third cousins the children hadn’t met and Peggy recalled from a wedding long ago.
“You can milk a real cow,” Frank had told the children.
“Don’t they use machines for that now, Frank?” Peggy had asked.
“Well these work too,” Frank said, raising his fists, tugging at imaginary teats.
There were times (used to be times) when the family felt as if they really had traveled somewhere together–the way memories and story gently accumulate to create meaning. Months before a trip, Frank conducted extensive research and composed well-informed inquiries to the Visitors’ Bureau. When a package arrived, Frank gathered the family around the kitchen table and spread brochures and pamphlets (all color and bounty) like a feast before them.
Now, Peggy waited for the children to weigh in. Tiffany was the oldest. At sixteen, the girl was almost entirely self-absorbed and the family did not expect much from her anymore.
“I don’t want to go anywhere with you people anyway. Are we done here? Can I go upstairs and use the phone?” she said, and was off.
Ceci, the baby, was under the table poking at the cat and said nothing.
Randy was nine years old, forever the boy in the middle. He spoke up, “That’s alright Dad. It’s work. It’s not your fault.”
Frank looked at her, a half-smile, as if to say: You see? Even the children understand. But this was even worse. When had they all become so resigned? When had they all grown used to routine disappointment?
…
1 A multi-level marketing company, geared toward homemakers and founded in 1963 by Mary Kay Ash (1918 – 2001) and based (ostensibly) upon the principle: “God first, family second, career third.” (Elizabeth Ahern. “The Benefits of Pink Think: A History of the Mary Kay Cosmetics Company in Domestic and Global Contexts.” Tempus 12.2-2011).