AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One
Hannah
April 9th…
I’ve been trying to convince my grandma, Enola Champion, to move in with me, but she won’t have it. She keeps telling me, “I’ve lived my life. You need to live yours.” Which, apparently, she thinks I can’t, or won’t, do if I relocate her to Sweetville to stay with me.
It’s not that she’s sick, or even elderly. What she is, though, is set in her ways.
Secretly, I believe she found a boyfriend there and doesn’t want to leave him. A theory that’s confirmed when I walk toward her apartment door and actually find her two from it.
With a man.
I’ve never met him nor do I know anything about him other than the fact my grandma appears smitten. And the feeling is mutual from what I can see.
There’s a familiarity that speaks of decades together as opposed to weeks. I know it can’t be more than that as the space was empty before then. Which is right about the time I amped up my attempts to get Grandma out of here and home with me.
It’s weird seeing her this way. She loved my grandpa, of that I have no doubt, but she hasn’t been the same since we lost him five years ago. It’s almost as if she couldn’t wait to be with him again, which is understandable considering their love story.
Now, though? Whoever this guy is, he’s also clearly a wizard of some sort because his effect on her can only be considered magical.
And while I’m happy for her, for them, I’m saddened as I know I’ll never get her to leave now. I want time with her. I feel like there’s not enough left and we’ve already lost so much. That wasn’t her doing nor mine, it’s just how it is.
We could blame my parents, her son and daughter-in-law, though they were merely being true to themselves. Who can fault them for that? My childhood was spent traveling the world, my dad and mom unable to land in one place for long before getting itchy feet and needing to uproot us once again. If either had been in the military, it’d make sense to constantly have to adapt to new surroundings. That wasn’t it, though. They existed on whims, choosing where we’d based on a fancy.
Texas? That sounds fun. Let’s go there.
New York? I love apples. Come on.
Michigan? Go Blue. Pack your bags.
At first, I’ll admit it was exciting. What kid doesn’t love adventure? Then I got older and realized that being carefree actually came with numerous restrictions.
Lack of friends.
Always a different school.
No pets.
No ties to anybody other than ourselves.
Which meant I barely got to see my grandparents. A visit here and there, mostly if we were passing through their town on the way to our next destination. We stayed a couple days at most, my dad and mom chomping at the bit to resume our trek.
I won’t lie, there are some perks to growing up as I did.
The sights I saw…some of those trips were once in a lifetime experiences.
I learned at a young age how to be self-sufficient. Admittedly, I can be too much so.
Being homeschooled gave me a leg up and allowed me to get my diploma at seventeen, a whole year earlier than had I gone the traditional route.
When I applied for and was accepted to my top choice college, I didn’t hesitate to fill out the forms and make it official.
To this day, I’m still not sure who was happier when I left. It’s not that I don’t love them and vice versa, we’re just different people who want different things. They found what makes them happiest and I can say with absolute certainty that path is not for me.
Having a literal home base, a constant address I can use, a house with walls full of my stuff, a routine that I follow every day is priceless. I’m living my dream.
All that’s missing is my grandma.
