She Says

Barber placed his hand in his grandmother’s cold, clammy, hand. Grandma was sleeping in her bed just as she had for the past ten years. His stomach filled with butterflies not knowing where to begin. Her subtle breathing and closed eyes revealed she was in another world. Barber pretended she was awake and listening as he leaned closer to her.

“Hi grandma, how are you doing today?”

There was no answer; her condition hadn’t changed for the past four months and the phone call from the nursing home urged him to see her today. Barber looked outside to see the snow blowing in the wind. It was cold outside, more than any other day but it was the intuition that grandma was leaving that he dreaded most. He rested his head on grandma’s warm chest and heard her heart beat. Then slowly, he lifted his head as he wiped his eyes and looked at her.

“I’m so happy to see you today,” he gasped as the tears rose from his eyes.

“There is so much I want to say to you and I don’t know where to begin,” he choked in a laugh and wiped his eyes again.

“My mom, dad and sister got to visit Paris with my sister as a field trip the school set up. She’s having the time of her life, but she’s thinking of you. Caroline finished her floral design and has a certificate. May is almost finished with ninth grade and will be a sophomore.”

“You’re special to me grandma and I want you to know that. You were always there for us,” his voice trembled as he revealed a smile on his face to re-live the memories in his life.

One of the memories gave him pleasure to re-live and made him laugh. It filled his soul like a picture of water pouring into a flower bed filled with roses. It was this memory that unfolded in such flashbacks.

“Grandma can we play checkers?” asked Barber as he lifted the checker board for her to see. Beneath the thick glasses his grandma grinned at the young eight year old.

“Set it up!” she smiled.

Barber placed the pieces on the board until she was finished cooking the soup on the stove. He was black, she was red and when it was all set up he made the first move.

“Hey Grandma, what is that big wooden thing on the book shelf?”

“It’s a nut,” she answered and carefully moved her round checker.

“The stuff in the dark wooden dresser down stairs, who’s is it?” he asked as he moved his checker piece.

“That belonged to your grandpa; someday when you’re older you can have it,” she answered before moving her red checker piece.

Barber quickly double jumped two checker pieces. His grandma hesitated for a minute realizing what had happened.

“I think you’re cheating,” she chuckled.

After the game, they spent the hour reading Three Little Pigs and The Gingerbread Man. They ate chicken sandwiches and vegetable soup while they talked about the importance of saving money. Save your pennies, dimes and nickels is what she would always say.

“In school I can run like the Gingerbread Man,” Barber insisted as his grandma laughed. The powerful taste of ginger snaps and Fig Newton’s filled his stomach with such delight.

He didn’t want it to end and when he was that young, time stood still. Surely grandma could live forever to play checkers and read Three Little Pigs.

“We had a lot of good times, grandma. Every year on Thanksgiving and

Christmas we would play Monopoly. Every summer I would mow your lawn

and you would pay me twenty dollars for doing it. I remember you telling me the value

of saving money to accomplish your dreams. I think back on it and would give every cent of it back just so you could rejoice to me right this second the way you did when I was young.” Barber lightly caressed his hand over her forehead and into her grey, curly hair.

He sat in her bed and looked at her as he tried to think about all the things she had said. Barber could still hear grandma’s voice inside his head and when she visited him at school in second grade for grandparent’s day he felt so special. She nurtured him when he was sick and he helped her get out of bed when he was older. Grandmas and grandpas are very important to the world, but his grandma was his second mom.

To Be Continued 

"She Says" 

Red and Blue Dragon Fantasy LLC. 

Ryan Keith Johnson 

Copy Right 2012  and 2015

All Rights Reserved. 

Available on Blue Dragon Fantasy: Faded Memories and Short Stories 

and the Legacy Anthology. Coming soon as an e-book