I snort. “I guess that would be one way to solve this.”
He laughs as he walks up the stairs.
Marry Magnolia. It’s not as though it’s the scariest ideathat’s ever crossed my mind. In fact, it doesn’t fill me with trepidation like I thought it would.
I walk into the large kitchen and pull out my phone to call my mom.
She answers right away. “Hi, sweetie. How are you?” The concern in her voice is evident, even over the phone.
“Grandpa is going to pull through.”
“Well, that’s good. But I’m not surprised.”
“You’re not?”
“Of course not. He’s too mean to go peacefully in bed.”
I laugh loudly at that.
Unfortunately, my mom has a long, complicated history with my grandfather that dates back to her marrying my dad. She wasn’t ambitious enough for Grandpa at the time. She was from a small town, raised on a ranch, and she was perfectly happy to continue that lifestyle. My dad not only fell in love with her, but he also came alive, working on a ranch. And that was how they raised me. Hard, rewarding physical labor, with the importance of family and community. Money was way down on the list of priorities. Money was simply a tool, not the end goal. It’s a philosophy I try to keep.
“Did he end up having surgery? Is that what turned things around for him?” Mom asks.
“Well, not exactly,” I say, not sure how to tell her that it was a person.
“Did they try a new medication?”
“Actually, he had one last request—to meet my fiancée.”
Mom snorts. “And the thought of meeting her scared him into living?”
Mom never liked Jane, and she made it no secret that she thought Jane was a money-grabbing person. It’s theonly thing my mother and grandfather ever agreed on. They were both united in their distrust of my fiancée, and it was a harsh lesson learned: that I should pay attention to the people who love me, because their concerns were valid. Grandpa’s was based purely on how quickly an engagement had come about. He’d never even met her. My mom had met her and didn’t like her.
I like to think that I’m able to see through people, but I guess when emotions are involved, my judgment gets cloudy.
“I didn’t bring Jane to meet him,” I tell her. “I brought a stranger.”
There’s an awkward silence before Mom says, “What? A stranger?” Mom knows the truth about Jane breaking up with me. She was pretty blunt about the whole ordeal. She had told me, ‘better to find out what kind of person they are before you start a family together.’ She was right about that.
“Yeah, it’s as bad as it sounds. I met a woman when I was leaving the building after the fire alarm went off—remember, I told you about that?”
“You told me about the fire alarm going off, but you didn’t tell me about meeting a woman,” Mom says with a laugh.
“We ran into each other when we were coming down the stairs, and we ended up having a paperwork mix-up. I accidentally took some of her boss’s papers home with me, and her boss fired her for not keeping track of them. Anyway, I found out she was fired, and Mary called me to tell me that Grandpa was about to pass. His last request was to meet my fiancée. I kind of panicked, and I asked Magnolia to pretend to be my fiancée just to grant Grandpa’s last wish.”
Mom snorts. “This’ll be good. Please, tell me more.”
“Well, Magnolia came and met him, and she was actually very kind and considerate about everything we were going through. She pretended to be my fiancée. The problem is, Grandpa woke up the next morning asking for her. His blood pressure was normal, and his heart rate was healthy. It’s almost like he snapped back to how he used to be. He’s angry that we’re not letting him run around town right now. All he wants is for me to move Magnolia into the house with him.”
I don’t hear anything for a minute, and I think Mom is stunned into silence. But then I hear gasping in the background.
“Are you laughing?” I ask her.
There’s more chortling—because if there’s anything I know about my mom, it’s that she does love a good laugh.
“You brought a stranger and introduced her to your grandfather, and she gave him the will to live?”
When she puts it like that, it is a little bit funny.
