The War with Grandma by Robert Kimmel Smith & Ann Dee Ellis

Author:Robert Kimmel Smith & Ann Dee Ellis [Smith, Robert Kimmel & Ellis, Ann Dee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2021-07-13T00:00:00+00:00

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Meg 1, Grandma 0

25

Strategy and Supplies

The next morning I woke up to the sweet sound of Grandma saying, “Stephanie, did you move our clothes?”

I sat up.

“What clothes?” Mom asked.

“I put out those clothes for Meg and me for the competition today.”

“No,” Mom said. “Nothing was out here when I got breakfast.”

Grandma started walking back to the room and I hit the deck and acted like I was sleeping.

I heard her come in.

I heard her watch me.

I heard her feel the pain of war.

I held very still like a piece of wood.

She left.

I heard her ask Dad.

I heard her ask Hattie.

I stayed in my sleeping bag laughing in my heart.

When it was almost time to go, I got up and put on a tank top and a pair of cut-offs. Grandma hadn’t come back in the room.

I went to the kitchen and she and Hattie and Dad were eating cereal. Grandma was wearing a T-shirt, another one of Mom’s long-sleeved flannel shirts, some jeans, and a pair of tennis shoes. She had a bandana around her neck and Mom’s beach hat on her head. She picked up her orange juice and drank it without looking at me.

Why was she wearing the hottest clothes possible? Was she worried an unexpected blizzard would move in today?

“How’d you sleep, Meg?” Dad asked.

“Fine.” I sat down and poured some cereal.

“We need to get going,” Grandma said. She didn’t say anything about my clothes. Instead she handed me some sunscreen. “Put some of this on.”

I looked at her. “I already put some on in the bathroom.”

“What’s the SPF?”

I had no idea but I said, “One thousand.”

Dad looked at me. “Meg. Come on.”

Grandma smiled. “We’ll get over this. Don’t worry, Peter.”

Grandma went to call Grandpa Arthur to check in.

I got my lunch ready and put in like fifteen Double Stuf Oreos for energy, a root beer, a handful of corn chips, half a grapefruit, a hard-boiled egg I found in the back of the fridge, and some Swedish Fish. I put my lunch sack in a string backpack I got free at the movie theater once. An abundance of supplies is key to keeping warriors refreshed and energized. I added in another Oreo.

I called Lin to tell her that I was prepared and to find out what time she was coming. Then Grandma got her lunch ready while I looked for my baseball hat and Hattie was singing a Beatles song called “Strawberry Fields” really loud and Dad said, “Hattie, please.”

I kept forgetting things like my ChapStick, my sunglasses, and a good-luck stone duck that I won at Strawberry Days two years ago that I try to keep in my pocket at all times.

Grandma kept yelling, “Meg, we’re going to be late!”

And I kept yelling, “We don’t get to start until nine-thirty!”

And she kept yelling, “I told you I wanted to get there early!”

And I kept yelling, “We have tons of time!”

Finally, we were in the truck. Dad was going to drop us off and then come back and pick us up at the end of the day.

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