Two or Three Things I Know for Sure (11 page)

I touched the wall and the brick fell away.

My mama had her hand on my neck. She was handing me pictures. She was saying, “I didn’t want to know who they were. I don’t know what happened. I never wanted to tell you what happened. You make it up for yourself.”

I put my hand on the photograph and the window opened onto a movie. I was eight years old. Cousins and aunts and strangers were moving across the yard. I was clinging to my mother’s neck. I was saying “Mama” in that long, low plea a frightened child makes.

She reached for me, put her arms around me. I fell away. She was holding onto her mama’s neck, saying the same thing, saying “Mama” in that same cry. My hands met the brick of her flesh. She fell away.

My son was climbing up my lap into my arms, putting his arms around my neck.

He said, “Mama.”

The last brick fell down. I was standing there looking up through tears. I was standing by myself in the rubble of my life, at the bottom of every story I had ever needed to know. I was gripping my ribs like a climber holding on to rock. I was whispering the word over and over, and it was holding me up like a loved hand.

 

THE PHOTOGRAPHS

 

 

PAGE 5 Ruth Gibson, 1952.

6 Dorothy and Anne, 1955.

9 (Top) Dorothy and the cousins, 1952;
(lower lefl)
Granny and the Twins, David and Dan, 1965;
(lower right)
Billie and Dorothy, 1953.

14 Ruth Gibson Allison, 1975.

16 Patsy, 1949.

17 The Twins, David and Dan, 1949.

20 Ruth Gtbson, 1950.

23 One of the lost aunts.

25 Ruth Gibson and best friend, 1952; Ruth Gibson Allison’s health card for waitress work in Florida, 1963.

29 Uncle Brice and friend, honky-tonking, 1955.

30 Uncle Brice in work clothes, 1956.

33 Ruth Gibson Allison and her sister Dorothy “Dot” Yearwood, 1981.

34 Dorothy Allison, 1958.

38 Aunt Dot as a young wife, 1952.

39 Aunt Dot at 63, a year before her death. 1981.

40
(Top left)
Dorothy, 1954;
(top right)
Dorothy and Anne, 1954;
(bottom)
Dorothy and Anne. 1956.

41 (Top
left)
Dorothy and Anne, 1960,
(top right)
Dorothy, Wanda and Anne, 1963;
(bottom)
Dorothy in Easter outfit, 1957.

48 Dorothy with friend, 1974.

49 Dorothy, 1974.
(Photo credit: Morgan Gwenwald)

53 Dorothy and friend, 1974. (Photo
credit: Morgan Gwenwald)

60 Dorothy, self-portrait, 1974.

67 Dorothy and friend, New York State, 1975.
(Photo credit. Morgan Gwenwald)

70 Dorothy, New York City Gay Pride March, 1982.

76 Dorothy and Anne, 1954.

87 Dorothy. Wolf and Alix with their dog, Bubba, 1994.
(Photo credit. Bob Giard)

AUTHOR’S NOTE

 

 

Two or Three Things I Know for Sure
was written for performance in the months following the completion of my novel,
Bastard Out of Carolina.
First performed in August 1991 at The Lab in San Francisco, the piece has been performed in a variety of cities and has changed with each production. For publication the work has been substantially revised. The names of most family members have been changed and other characters are composites—creations based on friends, family, and acquaintances.