Saturday Drive

Saturday Drive Natasha Trethewey (bio) for my mother Saturdays, Uncle Son drives slow; that ‘59, white-walled, cash-money cadillac—neighborhood El Dog—creeping down Highway 49 past the curb market liquor store car wash barber shop. Beside him, the girl folds lace gloves in her lap and smoothes the taped-down edges of a cigar box turned coin bank, a single slit in the top just big enough to look through and see nothing but dark. A right turn on I-90 and Son Dixon speeds up, heading West, the green Gulf on one side, the white-columned mansions of folks with names like ours—Dixon, Dedeaux, and Davis—on the other. Flip side. On the last bridge outside New Orleans she measures the air’s heady scents—leather, shave tonic, tobacco—each one a way to recall this drive, the long reflection in flat water. Noon sun overhead, a sheet of black glass below. At the downtown shop Uncle Son buys every record just pressed—new music for his Owl Club juke box—the promise to a young girl that she’ll have each one soon, those black discs unscratched, still shiny enough to see her face in. Selected works by Natasha Trethewey: • Accounting • Beginning • Calling His Children Home • Closing Time • Deedywops • Delta Sharecroppers, 1930 • Expectant • History Lesson • Hot Comb • The House Down the Street • Saturday Drive • Secular • The Four Corners • Laying the Waves • An Interview with Natasha Trethewey Related Articles: Accounting Related Articles: Beginning Related Articles: Calling His Children Home Related Articles: Closing Time Related Articles: Deedywops Related Articles: Delta Sharecroppers, 1930 Related Articles: Expectant Related Articles: History Lesson Related Articles: Hot Comb Related Articles: The House Down the Street Related Articles: Secular Related Articles: The Four Corners Related Articles: Laying the Waves Related Articles: An Interview with Natasha Trethewey Natasha Trethewey Natasha Trethewey, a member of the Dark Room Collective, is studying for the Ph.D. in English at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst), where she received the M.F.A. in creative writing in 1995. Her poetry has appeared in a variety of periodicals, including The Massachusetts Review, Seattle Review, Agni, The Southern Review, African American Review, The Gettysburg Review, and Callaloo. Copyright © 1996 Charles H. Rowell

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