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THEN
Isabetta
“Nonna, please take your medicine.”
My grandmother shakes her head, her short, white curls shaking with the movement. “They’re trying to poison me,amorina.”
“They’re not. They’re trying to help you. Please take it.”
She eyes the plastic cup the aide is holding like she still doesn’t trust him but tosses the pills in her mouth, swallowing. The aide lifts his eyebrow and Nonna huffs before opening her mouth to prove that she did indeed swallow the pills. I mean, the aide’s not wrong to ask for proof. I’ve seen her act like she’s swallowing pills and then spit them out when she thinks no one is looking.
Without her medicine, Nonna’s moods become unpredictable at best and the nursing home she’s in has made it clear that if she becomes…uncontrollable again that she will have to find a new place to live. She likes it here, so I try my hardest to make sure she does as she’s supposed to. A dull ache forms behind my eyes. I don’t even want to think about having to find her a new place to stay.
It’s something no one my age should have to worry about, but I’m the only person who looks after or even cares about Nonna.
The aide says, “Thank you, Mrs. Angelo.”
Nonna huffs again, and the aide and I share a smile as he leaves.
“How are you feeling today?” I ask as I take a seat next to her bed.
“Bah. The same. These fools don’t know what’s wrong with me or how to fix me.” She looks somewhere over my shoulder. “I’ll be glad for the day that I see my dear Tommaso, which is soon, I hope. Maybe tomorrow if I’m lucky.”
My grandfather passed away before I was born, but I’ve heard about him my entire life. And Nonna has said the same bit about hoping to see him tomorrow for just as long.
“How was school?”
“Fine.”
Her gaze narrows, as if she doesn’t believe me, which is fair since I’m lying. School was anything butfine. It was miserable, just as it’s been for the last three and a half years. Thank god I graduate in May. Only seven more months… I snort softly to myself. It’s best not to think about the actual time until I’m free of that place. It’ll only depress me, and god knows I have enough to be depressed about as it is.
“Are those girls still giving you a hard time?”
“No.”Yes.
She sits, though it’s a struggle. “I can call the school and speak to your principal.”
“Nonna, it’s fine, I swear.”
“What does your father say about it?” Before I can answer, she waves her hand. “Never mind. I probably don’t want to know the answer to that.”
Nonna has never liked my dad. Both she and my grandfather were against my mom marrying him, but Mom was pregnant with me and wanted to make sure I grew up with two parents in my life, the same way she did. Only, she didn’t plan on dying right after I was born. I sometimes wonder if she would still feel the same way knowing how things are now. That my father hates me and drinks because he says I look too much like her. That he spends his money on booze leaving me to work two part-time jobs after school just to make sure the bills are taken care of. That I hate my life…
I smile convincingly, a skill I learned a long time ago, and say, “Nonna, I promise school is fine.”
“If you say so.”
She must be tired because she’s willing to let me change the subject.
“I heard from my cousin in Rome. She said you can stay with her when you visit.”
This time my smile is real. “Really? That’s great!”
Nonna is sending me to Italy when I graduate, so I can see where my mother’s side of the family came from. She’s paying for everything because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to go. I only wish she could go with me.
As if sensing my thought, she says, “These old knees aren’t what they used to be, or I’d be right there with you, showing you my favorite places to eat. Did you find your mother’s camera?”
