Old Kentucky Home

Darlene Daniels never thought she would ever go back to her childhood home in Booneville, Kentucky. That was until cheating boyfriends and too much fast living under the crescent moon changed this simple minded country girl. With nothing more than a small goodwill handbag and $10 to her name, it was her only refuge. Darlene figured that spending some slow evenings under the shinning light of the Kentucky moon was going to be able to be the cure of her wandering heart. As she stepped off the Greyhound she was exhausted from a two day bus ride from New Orleans to Booneville, but her soul was slightly rested the second that she saw her grandmother waiting outside the Conoco gas station in her bright red sun dress and evergreen hand bag.
“ Well praise the good Lord today, for one of his lost sheep has finally come home!”
“I guess now I'm found. It does my heart good to see you here Mimi.”
“It sure did take you long enough to come to your senses. I knew that big city boy you run off with would do you wrong one day. Pay no mind to it, there will be plenty of time for us to bad mouth
him at the dinner table.”
“Honestly, I don't wanna even think about that insignificant bastard. I came back home to clear my head and not be brought down by none of my troubles.”
“We can do whatever it takes to make you feel better. If I could be honest with you Darlene, I am just glad to have my granddaughter back home where she belongs. You don't know how many nights I stayed up praying on these weak old knees for you to come back home. Your Momma would be so proud if she were here today.”
Darlene looked far off into the empty space of the Kentucky skyline.
“Yea, I wish she was here too, but I have come to terms with her death. I am not the same girl I was when I ran off eight years ago, I am a new woman with new problems.”
“Regardless of who you was and who you is now. I'm just happy to hear your sweet heavenly voice. I hope that you ready to sing at the church bluegrass jamboree this Sunday.”
“I sure do hope that I can. It has been years since I sang anything, anywhere. I am not sure if I still remember those old songs Momma taught me”
As Darlene and Mimi drove down Hwy. 11 to their family farm, Mimi could sense that there was something missing from her only granddaughter. It is little details such as this that all grandmothers know how to spot immediately in their grandchildren.
“So Darlene, is there anything that you wanna tell your Mimi?”
“Not right now. I just want to go back home and work on a few things, but thanks for offering and taking me back.”
“Don't you make anything of it. You know something, you don't look much different now then you did when you was a little thing singing with your Momma playing the fiddle upstairs in your old room. I would listen to yall while making supper and it would always bring a tear to my eye.
“Mimi, you know I love you and appreciate everything you've done, but I have been relying on other people my whole life and last week I told myself that I can't live my life depending on the kindness of others. I need to start relyin' on me.”
“Well I am really happy for you, but the good Lord put us on this Earth for a reason. If he wanted you to be with your problems by yourself, then he would have done so, but he didn't. He put us together for a reason.”
Darlene listened intently to Mimi for that is what she was trained to do as a child, but she was hell bent on becoming an independent woman.
“Well, I am sorry Mimi, but I don't have the Lord on my mind right about now”
Mimi began to shed a tear for her poor granddaughter. She suddenly began thinking of her daughter's blood shot eyes, but if there is one thing that country living has passed on to her is that while the good Lord keeps the blue moon shinin' over Kentucky there will always be hope. She just wished that she could have let understand that piece of advice before she hit the bottle a bit to hard.
As Darlene and Mimi reached the old family farm there was absolute silence. Darlene stared at the beaten tire swing that swung above the tiny pond from a mighty oak in front of the Daniels' red brick home.
“I guess that tire swing hasn't seen much action since I left”
“It sure hasn't, but I let the kids from Sunday school play in the swimmin' hole on hot summer days after church.”
“I am sure that they all appreciate it. Lord knows I did.”
“Well I bet a shinny silver nickel that the good Lord knows a bit more about what you truly appreciate more than any young city boy can.”
“It is so easy to get caught up in the big city, but things ain't always what they really seem to be in the end. I am just glad the mighty wind brought . . .
Darlene stoped herself and realized the kind of trap that her Mimi was putting her in.
“God Damn Mimi, there you go again trying to pick at my brain! I told you that I did not want to talk about what I'd been doin' for the past eight years and I really need you to respect that right now.
“Control yourself child! I ain't a tryin' to do no such a thing. Besides, I know that I had done taught you better to cuss like that. That must be that big city talkin'.”
“I'm really sorry Mimi, I just have a lot of anger since I left and I guess I forgot how a country gal should behave.”
“It's fine honey, just don't let that anger slip again. Life is too short for all dat fussin. Why don't we get you inside to bed, you must be tired from your journey.”
Darlene and Mimi walked into the old house and Darlene made her way up the red wooden staircase to her childhood bedroom. As she walked into the room it looked just as she left it. Everything seemed to be in place just as she liked it. Finally, she had something that she could could relate her to her simpler form. As she stared around the room, she noticed that there was something odd at the foot of her bed. It was the old Sears-Roebuck fiddle and case that she pawned in New Orleans for her $250 bus ticket home.
The old beat up fiddle was an heirloom that Darlene's Momma gave to her right before she died. At first Darlene was only able to get $15 for that fiddle. However, with some old Kentucky innocence and tears she was able to swindle the money she needed for a bus ticket. With this transaction came the guilt of giving up the one thing that she had of her mother at first, but she had no other way to get home.
Darlene stared at the old fiddle and could see her Momma's delicate hands over the strings playing a soft southern lullaby. The melody was still fresh in her mind, and she would give anything to hear her Momma play it one more time. Then, for the first time since she was a child, she cried for her Momma.
Mimi could hear Darlene crying while she was preparing the evening supper, and she knew that it was time for her granddaughter to experience the purest form of love and compassion. She was not going to let Darlene's poor attitude stop her from giving a stern life lesson. In that very instant she mustered up all the courage that her 70 year old body could take and marched up the red steps and stood at the doorway of Darlene's bedroom. Darlene sat at the edge of the bed with her Momma's fiddle in her tiny hands.
“I thought that when I left New Orleans I was leaving behind this old piece of trash. Why does the past come back to haunt me like this.”
“The past ain't hauntin' you Darlene. I was surprised I got that call from a pawn shop owner a week ago, right after yours actually. The man said that he could not in good measure take a lowly country girl's fiddle. So he called the number on the fiddle's handle and sent it express. You should be thankful that it fell into the right hands.”
“That does not change the fact that I don't want any part of my Momma with me any more. I am my own woman now, and I can't have this childhood mess.”
“Good gracious Darlene haven't you been listening to a word I've said. Both you and I know that you have something that you ain't lettin' go of, but sooner or later that load is gonna break in half. Now, I commend you for wanting to be so strong, but being a strong southern lady means to be proud of your so called 'childhood messes' and not letting anythin' stop you from followin' the path that the good Lord graced you with. Your Momma had no intentions of leavin' you the way she did, and if she saw you now she would tell you the same thing. That fiddle is one of the last pieces of treasure that your Momma passed down to you and regardless of who was or who you is, you will always be her little girl.”
Darlene had never seen this side of her docile Mimi before, but she knew that she did not want to see any more of it.
“I just wish you would just leave me be. I am tired of livin' under pressure and I came home to relieve myself of all these burdens. I have been craving for this simple life and that is all I need. I don't need my Momma's cheap fiddle understand who I am.”
“I've grown tired of your thick headed ways. Do as you will, just as long as you're down for dinner in 20 minutes. You can still eat dinner right?
“I guess I can. I have been cravin' some of your home cookin' since I have been in the big city. All the fancy restaurants on St. Charles Ave. can't compare to your country cookin'.”
“Just be down in 20 minutes Darlene.”
Mimi never thought that she would have to relive the mistakes that she made with her deceased daughter, but it is hard to break an entire generation of hard headed behavior. Mimi did what everyother country Grandmother knew how to do. Fill their broken hearted family with good country cooking and some warm hearted conversation. If that does not work then there will be nothing under the Kentucky moon that will save her family.
While Mimi was cooking supper in the kitchen, Darlene finally gave what Mimi said some thought. She once again picked up her Momma's old fiddle and began plucked the rusty strings that desperately needed a new set of strings among other many things. The one song that Darlene could remember that her Momma taught her to play was the Kentucky state song, Old Kentucky Home. Every child brought up in Owsley County learned to sing this song by heart in grade school, and despite being gone for eight years the song came to her like it was in her blood. Her fingers hurt as she played, but that old song began offering a form of comfort that she could never find in the big city lights of New Orleans. There was a flood of positive memories of her Momma that came through with each note coming from that fiddle. Darlene's rusty fiddle playing and heavenly voice could be heard all through the Daniels' home. This was the sound that Mimi had been praying for. It was the sound of sweet redemption for the Daniels family. As Darlene got to the last four lines, Mimi felt compelled to sing softly along in sweet harmony.

Weep no more my lady.
Oh! Weep no more today!
We will sing one song for my old Kentucky home
For my old Kentucky home, far away.

When Darlene finished recalling her sweet childhood memories she felt that she could smell the pot roast and biscuits coming from the kitchen downstairs. She could tell from the smell alone that it was supper time. She kissed the rusty strings of her fiddle before delicately placing it back in its leather case and ran downstairs for supper like she used to do when she was a child. When she reached the living room she noticed the spread of southern traditions that Mimi had made for her homecoming and sat in her usual place at the table.
“So Darlene, why don't you tell me what that insignificant bastard did to you down in the New Orleans. I have been dying to hear.”
“He did what every bastard does Mimi, he lied, cheated, and broke my heart. I don't know why it took me so long to come back home. He promised me the moon, but he kept giving me Mars. After eight years of tryin' and cryin' I just gave up on him.”
“You did not give up on him. You are a Daniels girl, and we never give up. It is that bastard who gave up on you, but it is ok you were better off without people like him in your life.
“Well what about Momma. She gave up on me and I still am not quite shure if I could ever get over that. I love her for the good that she did, but I don't know if I could ever forgive her for leavin'.”
“You have every right to be angry. I was angry too at first, but we have to learn to let go of our anger and frustrations. Your Momma was a sweetest young girl that I had ever known and I see a lot of her in you. Her problem was that she could not let go of your father. He too was a big city boy from Atlanta and when he left you and your Momma she was devastated. I did what I could to stop her from all that drinking, but if there is one thing that is prevalent in the Daniels clan it is we have hard heads from time to time. Aside from her drinking, she loved you dearly though and she never wanted to hurt you.”
Darlene stopped eating and stared deep into Mimi's aging eyes and noticed that maybe there was some truth behind those years.
“I think you are right Mimi. I know that I still have a ton of learnin' about this world to do, but I am glad that I have had someone like you for a teacher. I am sorry I got so hard headed, I just wasn't thinking straight, but I think that this meal has given me the strength to get my head right.”
Mimi nodded her head in accomplishment and was glad to know that she was finally able to save this old Kentucky home.