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“Hey, Grandma.” I hand her the bag of donuts she requested.
“Oh, thanks. Dori actually brought them for me yesterday. But I didn’t want you to feel useless, so…” She hands them to the guy next to her whose head has fallen forward in sleep. “Earl! Wake up. Here are the donuts.” She drops the bag in his lap and stands, but not before I notice her swipe a coaster from the table and slide it into her pocket.
She sees me notice and I shake my head at her. A few years ago when I noticed she started stealing stuff, I asked her about it and her exact words were, “I’m at the tail end of this schtick and I don’t get much excitement in my life anymore. I like the rush of not knowing whether I’ll get caught. Let an old gal live a little, will ya?”
My grandma gives me a look like she’s daring me to challenge her for taking the coaster, but I just roll my eyes.
“Let’s go to my room,” she says. “We were up late last night so…”
“Nice. Playing cards?”
She glances back and pushes up her black-rimmed glasses. “Sure, sweetie. We were playing cards.”
I inwardly shudder. Why do I even ask?
“Have you seen your parents?” She broaches the subject I don’t care to discuss with her—ever.
“No. They don’t know I’m in town this time.”
She shakes her head. “Just passing through? Heading to the airport again?”
“Yeah.” The lie tastes bitter on my tongue, but if Grandma knew how much time I spent here, she’d want more of it as well. This way no one in my family knows exactly how much time I’m spending with either.
“You need to settle down.” She opens her apartment door and it smells like her perfume.
“Says the woman who can be found in a different man’s bed every month.” I raise an eyebrow.
She shakes her head. “I loved your grandfather, but I don’t want to be married again. I’ve told you before, my sexual needs didn’t change when your grandfather was buried. We had our time together, but it’s done. My life has to continue until I join him.”
“Yeah, I know, Grandma. My career doesn’t allow me time to have a relationship anyway.”
“I’m sure you could find some beautiful woman to follow you around to all those exotic places. You’re young. That’s what your youth is for.” She sits in her glider chair where her feet don’t touch the floor. “Want to watch Price is Right?”
“If you do.” I check my watch. “I have to go soon.”
“Always on the go. If I fix you up next time you come to town, will you go out with her?”
I shake my head. “No. I told you. I’m not going to entertain a relationship with anyone until I pull back on my career. I don’t want the guilt when I go on excursions, and I don’t want to ruin someone else’s life because of it.”
She shoos me with her hand. “You’re way too practical. Just like your father.”
“I’m nothing like him.”
She must hear my tone because she backs down immediately. “No, you’re not. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Maybe you should just reach out to him. You are his mother,” I say for the millionth time since we’re on the subject anyway.
“We’ve been over this. I’m his mother, he needs to come to me.”
Always the same. I should be used to it by now, but it still feels like someone is twisting a dagger in my back.
I sit and watch fifteen minutes of ThePrice is Right before telling her I need to leave. After kissing her cheek, I walk down the hallway where Earl is now fully awake.
“Bye, son,” he says.
I could be the protective grandson. But what am I going to do, tell him to watch her hip when they’re between the sheets? I shake my head. “See ya, Earl.”
On my way out, LeeAnn stops me at the front desk. “Noah, hey, we’ve been going over the paperwork and we need some forms filled out.”
My grandma handles everything herself when it comes to the retirement community—mostly because when she entered, I was too young to be responsible for her. So my confusion must be obvious.
“We just need an updated emergency contact. Midge said she’d like you to be her point of contact.”
I take the pen and see that there are two spots for emergency contacts. I fill out the first section, but they’ll never reach me if I’m in the wilderness and cell service is horrible. LeeAnn leaves to go take a call, and while she’s spouting off the amenities, I write down my dad’s information for the second person. Flipping over the page, I put the pen on top and wave goodbye to LeeAnn.
The chances are slim that my dad would get a call, but maybe he needs to take a little responsibility for his mother after all these years he’s stuck me in the middle.
