Like Death by Tim Waggoner

Author:Tim Waggoner [Waggoner, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Apex Publications
Published: 2011-11-13T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

SCOTT SAT AT GAMMY’S KITCHEN table, despite the fact that she had died from heart failure when he was in college and he had sold her house a few months after the funeral. He wasn’t a child, but rather his normal almost-middle-aged self. That meant this wasn’t a memory; this was happening now. Dream? Hallucination? He supposed it didn’t really matter anymore.

Gammy stood at the stove—it seemed she was always there—stirring the contents of a small pot. Other pots of various sizes sat on the remaining burners, and a pumpkin pie was cooling on the counter. The oven light was on, and though he couldn’t see past Gammy well enough to make out what was cooking inside, he could tell by the smell that it was turkey. Gammy wasn’t wearing her usual house dress. Instead, she had on a white blouse, red vest, blue slacks, and black shoes. Her hair was done up, and Scott knew she had just been, as she always put it, to the “beauty parlor.” The signs were unmistakable: it was Thanksgiving.

She turned and gave him a smile. “Glad to see you could make it. Want to help me check on the turkey?”

Scott was dressed for the occasion: light blue shirt, tie, navy slacks, and dress shoes. He pushed back his chair and stood, grimacing as a cramp hit his lower gut. It hurt to stand all the way upright, but if he leaned over it was a little better. He hobbled to the stove, feeling older than his grandmother.

Her smile fell away. “I’m sorry to see you pained, Scott, though you did bring it on yourself.” She sounded disappointed, just like the time she had found his secret stash of Playboys. She pointed to the cupboard over the stove. “Be a dear and get a couple potholders for me.”

Since sixth grade, the year he became officially taller than Gammy, it had been his job to do all the high reaching around the house. Scott stepped to her side and saw the pots on the stove were filled with corn, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, lima beans—all his favorites from childhood. He stretched his hand toward the cupboard, the cramp clenching in protest as he straightened, but he gritted his teeth against the pain and managed to get the potholders. He doubled over then, and the pain eased, though it didn’t subside entirely.

Gammy frowned. “I don’t think you’re in any shape to take the bird out yourself. Tell you what: you give me the potholders and open the oven door, and I’ll do the rest. And don’t try to tell me it’s too heavy. You know I always get a small turkey for the two of us.”

Ever since the lake, it had been just Scott and Gammy for Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays… He still had some relatives on his father’s side—an uncle in California, a few distant cousins scattered around the country—but Gammy was all the family he had in Ohio. That was okay; she was all the family he needed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.