They're Always With You by Lockman Mary Clare

Author:Lockman, Mary Clare [Lockman, Mary Clare]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Wise Ink Creative Publishing
Published: 2013-08-06T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Daniel

Instead of going to the hospital after school, I went home now. It became my favorite time of day because I went to the sunroom, now Gramp’s bedroom, as soon as I got home. Sitting in the sunroom with the quiet all around us, Gramps talked and talked.

Aunt Florence had said that after a stroke sometimes the person’s emotions got really funny. Not laughable funny but just different than before the stroke. She used a strange word, labile, meaning the emotions were close to the surface.

All week Gramps had been talking. He went back over Ellis Island, Giovanni, and, of course, saying goodbye to his mom. Then he jumped ahead to when my mom and Aunt Florence were little and back to how he met Grandma Rose. There were times when I didn’t even know what year we were in. He had been emotional at times, crying over Giovanni’s short life, for instance, but other times he was matter-of-fact. He said things like, “No one said life would be easy,” and “You just have to take it as it comes.”

Well, anyway, we were talking about all the things we were going to do in the summer such as putting up a new garage, when Gramps started crying. This crying was different than any I had ever seen because even his shoulders slumped and his whole body shook. I thought for a minute he was going to have another stroke.

As the sun warmed me from the outside in, I heard something that I thought would literally knock my socks off. Even though I’d been waiting for this my whole life, when I heard the name Daniel, I didn’t even react.

“I can never forgive myself for what I did to Daniel.” Gramps didn’t even look up.

I didn’t move. I didn’t know if he was even aware of me being there.

“He was such a good boy. My son. My poor, poor son.”

There have been times in my life that I’ve been shocked like when I found out Aunt Florence had a wicked hook shot. This time shock didn’t begin to describe how I felt. It was too mild. In fact, I had no word in my vocabulary that even came close. It didn’t matter if I had a word or not because the dam had burst and Gramps couldn’t stop talking and weeping. And when I say weeping I mean furrow upon furrow of tears running down his cheeks until it looked like a waterfall. Niagara had nothing on Gramps.

Gramps cleared his throat, wiped his eyes, and blew his nose. “I’m sorry, Colette. I didn’t mean to talk about this.” He blew his nose again.

“It’s okay. I don’t mind.” I meant it too because I wanted to hear everything about Gramp’s life. And I now understood what Aunt Florence meant when she talked about the funny emotions of people with strokes.

“Daniel came to me and showed me his enlistment papers. He had joined the Army.” Gramps squeezed his good hand into a fist.

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