Page 8 of Not My Problem

“Yeah she’s doing some kind of silver singles cruise from the sounds of it. She’s due back in a little more than two weeks.”

“What’s Jan like?”

I’d talked to her on the phone twice. The first time was when I called her to break the news about my mother’s death and let her know about me. The second was after I sent her documentation of who I was. My grandmother was clearly still mentally fit. She’d been sure I was a scammer until she saw the proof for herself. Then she’d been so excited to see me that I’d been uncomfortable, afraid to disappoint her, and embarrassed that I couldn’t afford a ticket, so I’d declined her invitation to visit, even when she offered to send me a ticket.

Yesterday I would have told you that I regretted that, and I guess I still did, but coming now the way I had gave me a chance to spend time with Gretchen. Hopefully, we would spend even more time together. Yesterday I thought she was an uptight bitch, someone I’d never like, but today I was seeing a different side of her. A side I liked a lot.

“Jan is awesome,” she told me. “We’ve been neighbors for a while now and we look out for each other. She’s super active and outgoing, everyone she meets is her friend. I guess her husband died about twenty years ago and as she says, she’s been playing the field ever since. She’s always complaining about how terrible the dating pool is at her age. I keep offering to fix her up with one of my lesbian friends but she’s like…” Gretchen changed her voice in an imitation of my grandmother, “I like outties Gretchen not innies.”

I burst out laughing. “Well at least you tried.”

“Listen I have to run some errands today…”

“You don’t have to entertain me,” I said quickly. “I can uh… get out of here for a while if you want to leave. I know you probably don’t want some rando to be alone in your house while you’re gone.”

She studied me for at least thirty seconds before answering.

“You can stay here if you want,” she finally said. “Just don’t make me regret it.”

“I won’t.”

The truth was I was exhausted after my mad dash across the country on the bus. I’d slept well last night, but with the time difference between Seattle and Chicago I’d woken up early, my stomach gnawing with hunger. Now that I’d eaten I could easily go back to sleep.

“Okay I’m going to get dressed and head out. I’ll be back in a couple of hours. Do you want anything from the grocery store while I’m there?”

“No thanks,” I answered quickly, mentally calculating how much money I had left.

“Any food allergies?” she pressed.

“Food allergies are for people who have the money to be particular about what they eat,” I said, parroting something my mother always said.

Gretchen raised an eyebrow but didn’t respond. She got up to take her plate to the sink, grabbing mine as well.

“Leave those, I’ll do the dishes,” I said quickly. “It’s the least I can do.”

“Okay. Do you need anything before I leave?”

“I wonder if it would be okay to use your computer? I don’t have a smart phone or anything and I’d like to look for some of those videos you suggested.”

“I can lend you my iPad,” she said.

I wondered if she thought I’d hack into something on her computer, or if she just figured an iPad would be easier for me to manage.

“Thanks. I appreciate that.”

I rinsed the dishes and put them into the dishwasher, then cleaned the pan in the sink. By the time I was finished Gretchen was back, dressed in faded jeans and a baggy sweatshirt, her light purple hair pulled back in a stubby ponytail.

“Okay I’m off,” she said, handing me her device and a piece of paper. “Here’s my iPad, just navigate to the YouTube app and you can search from there.”

I hesitated to ask for help, but not wanting to mess up her tablet I said, “If you don’t mind, can you show me how to work the iPad? I’ve never tried one before.”

I wasn’t super tech savvy, truth be told. When I needed a computer, I went to the library. But I was used to using point of sale machines at my jobs, and it turned out using an iPad wasn’t much different.

Once she’d shown me the basics Gretchen handed me a sticky note. “Here’s my number in case you need me when I’m gone.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll text you from my phone, so you have mine as well.”

“Great.”