Heavy Lifting by Suzy McKee Charnas Id be lying awake watching some late-night game on my bedroom TV and Id hear Mom pacing. Shepaced when she thought she was going to see Richie and she hoped shed see him every night.After six years she still said she saw Richie a couple of times a month. So Id get up and go sit with her for an hour or so or the whole night if it was a bad onewhile she drank cup after cup of Lapsang souchong strong and smoky to help her stay awake soshe wouldnt miss him. I said Id seen Richie too but only so that shed let me keep on livingat home. Dad was long gone so she was holed up alone in that big house. Sometimes I thoughtthat my being around helped keep her from seeing the ghost even more often. She probablythought the opposite which was why she let me stay. It wasnt easy living there. Mom talked about Richie all Richie all the time. What could Isay quotLets not talk about him anymore. I know the story as well as you doquot Mostly I said quotIts okay Mom I cant sleep either.quot She was a wreck. Dad was also a wreck out in California. At least hed stopped nagging yourstruly Preston Marshall Bridge Jr. about following his CEO-sized footsteps Harvard and thenHarvard Business School and then a lifetime of dazzling financial wizardry to make the old manproud. Just the idea of a board room turned my brain off. Ive always been at my best when mymuscles did the thinking. This doesnt mean Im stupid. Miss Rooney explained this to me inninth grade. But she didnt convince Dad and I wasnt smart enough to explain it to himwithout setting off a firefight in the living room every time I tried. Now he spent his timetraveling with his girlfriend No-Nose Diana Valley Princess of Cosmetic Surgery and Ihardly ever heard from him. Fine with me. Sufficient unto the day