Penny from Heaven

“Mother,” I say, “Uncle Ralphie says he’ll hire me and Frankie to work at the store a few days a week. Can I? It could be my summer job.”
Uncle Ralphie is one of my father’s brothers. He owns a butcher shop.
“What will you be doing?” she asks.
“Sweeping up, stacking, delivering groceries.”
“Deliver groceries to strange people’s houses? You’re a young girl,” Me-me says, sounding appalled.
“I don’t think so, Penny,” Mother says, which is what she always says.
My mother’s afraid of just about everything that involves fun. I can’t go swimming because there might be polio in the public pool. I can’t go to the movie theater because I might catch polio there, too. I can’t go on the bumper cars because I could hurt my neck. Don’t do this, Penny! Don’t do that, Penny! It’s too dangerous, Penny! Anything could happen, Penny! Sometimes I want to say that the most dangerous thing in my life is Me-me’s cooking.

“Please? We’ll be working at the store most of the time,” I say.
My mother and Me-me share a long look. Mother doesn’t like it when I spend a lot of time with my father’s family, although she tries not to show it. The two sides of the family don’t get along. I’ve never even seen them in the same room together. I know it wasn’t always this way because of the famous story my Italian relatives like to tell about my parents’ engagement party. Apparently Uncle Dominic used to be a real practical joker, especially with Mother. At the party he gave my mother a box with a big pink bow. My mother opened the box expecting to find candy, but lying there in tissue paper was a pair of lamb’s eyes.  “So you can keep an eye on Freddy,” Uncle Dominic told her.
It’s hard to believe that she laughed as much as they all say she did.
“Please?” I plead. “I’ll be real careful.”
Me-me shrugs, and my mother turns to me and says, “All right. But tell your uncle that I said Frankie has to go with you on the deliveries. Understand?”
“You bet!” I say, and I can’t keep the excitement out of my voice.
Me-me says, “Bah. That boy?”
Everything is quiet for a moment, and I push a few mushy gray peas around on my plate. Next to me Pop-pop burps, and we all look at him at the same time.
“What?” he says.
“The bills are due,” Me-me tells my mother.
My mother gets up and goes to the front hall. When she returns, there is an envelope in her hand. She hands it to Me-me.
Me-me studies it and says, “Slave wages.” Then she goes into the kitchen and takes down a white jar with a picture of a cow and the words “Milk Money” on it and drops the check in. It’s where Me-me keeps money for grocery shopping.
“A perfectly good education being wasted,” Me me says.
“Don’t start, Mother,” my mother says. “I’ve had a long day.”
But Me-me is like Scarlett O’Hara when she gets it into her head to chew something to pieces.
“You were the best nurse in your graduating class,” Me-me says.
“Enough,” my mother snaps.
“I’ve held my tongue too long as it is,” Me-me snaps back. My mother stands up without another word and walks out of the room, slamming the door. Me-me gets up and carries her plate into the kitchen and bangs it on the counter. Scarlett O’Hara starts barking and Pop-pop says loudly, “Where’s the steak? I thought you said we were having steak.”
And me?
I just sit there, listening to the silence.