Scorpion or Rose?

Date: 12/28/2022

Mom is hunched over in her chair, watching me check the lights she gave me for Christmas before putting them up. They are little elfs on a string like the ones she used to fuss over when we were kids. I had reminded her of them just a few weeks ago at my last visit, and made her smile. How delightful! She beams. There are two strings: one with full body dancing elves close together, and the other, just heads, bigger and spaced far apart. I plug them in and nothing happens. Where the two strings join there is a push-button switch. One push has them blinking. Push again and they light up solid. "Kind of like them under that (I forget the name) desciduous tree out front. We need more light there. Don't tell me. The beech tree." It's a beech tree, right? "Black Maple," Mom blurts out with a big grin, big grin like her father's. But that's not right, either. She doesn't approve of the location, though, because of all the scorpions close to the front door. The lights will give them something to hide behind. "Scorpions?" "Bigger problem than I've perhaps let on," she admits, my Mother who spent all her life outdoors. "Is that a rose in the grass, Mommy?" She asks in a mocking voice, and grins again. Wow, it was a scorpion? I try to remember if that was me or one of the other many children.