For Grandmother
Parker Mendel
Copyright 2014 Parker Mendel
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Epilogue
Prologue
Mrs. Alessandra Robbins is a pretty old lady with graying wavy hair that she ties in a high ponytail. She had a quirky smile that softened the wrinkles around her jolly brown eyes. She was a very common 64-year-old lady, but in the eyes of six-year-old Luna, she was the most amazing grandmother anyone could ever have.
“Faster gran'ma. Faster!” Luna giggled as she waved her hands in the air, balancing rather carelessly on the back of the old lady.
Grandma Sandy laughed along as she ran as fast as she could across their front lawn. The sky was blue with floating fluffy cumulus clouds and it was a warm cozy summer morning. After a few minutes of running and laughing, the old lady felt the rush of old age. Her back started to feel heavy and cramped as her heart beat like horses galloping on a race. She paused for a few seconds to catch her breath and then she turned her head to look at the still giggling little girl on her back.
“Let's rest for a while, my sweet. My age seems to have caught up with me,” Grandma Sandy said, trying to breathe through her smile.
“Okay gran'ma,” Luna replied, smiling sweetly back at Grandma Sandy.
The old lady bent down and allowed the child to take her time going down. The two of them laid on the drying grass of the lawn and they looked up the sky, trying to look for various animal figures from the clouds above.
“Oh look gran'ma. A duck!” Luna pointed excitedly as two white irregularly shaped clouds collided.
“Oh yes, it is a duck.” Grandma Sandy nodded although she could not see where the little girl was pointing at, exactly.
As the two of them rested, joggers from their neighborhood and probably from another, were passing by. Most of the joggers were wearing earphones or headsets for either listening to music to drown the world around them or talking over their mobile phones chatting away their businesses as they catch up on their morning run.
“No!” one man shouted as he stopped on the street in front of the Robbins' house, getting the attention of Grandma Sandy and Luna. “There is no excuse for that. How do you expect our clients from London to understand?” He continued, pressing his left ear with his index finger and hitting his forehead with his right palm.
Grandma Sandy listened closely and then she started to chuckle. Luna looked at the old woman with her eyebrows moving closer to each other. Just as Luna was about to open her mouth to ask, Grandma Sandy pressed her index finger on her lips and softly shushed at the little girl. Luna immediately placed one hand over her mouth and waited until Grandma Sandy allowed her to speak.
“The coast is now clear,” Grandma Sandy said as the man jogged away from their house, still talking loudly over his headset.
“What was so funny gran'ma?” Luna finally asked, tugging at the old woman's red cotton shirt.
“Come with me and I will show you.”
Grandma Sandy pushed herself up and helped Luna to her feet. She held the little girl's tiny hands and then she lead her to the low fence towards the street and to a spot close to where the man was standing.
“You see that brownish smudge over there?” Grandma Sandy said, pointing at the hand-sized light brown smudge on the ground. Luna nodded slowly with her eyebrows still close to each other. “Earlier, before that man came, Mr. Bennings' dog, Shelby, seemed to have treated the street as his personal toilet, and when the man shouted, Shelby got scared and ran away. I think the man did not see what Shelby left on the ground that he stepped on it.” Grandma Sandy laughed as Luna crinkled her nose and hid her head behind Grandma Sandy's hand.
“I think we should tell Mr. Bennings that he needs to clean that.” Grandma Sandy continued laughing as she carried her disgusted granddaughter towards the house.
That night, Grandma Sandy read to Luna, in the little girl's bedroom. A few sentences away from the end of the book that she was reading, Grandma Sandy noticed the slow paced breathing of her granddaughter. Luna had fallen asleep. Grandma Sandy closed the book and smiled at the sleeping girl. She watched the rising and falling of the girl's chest and then she pulled the blanket higher, towards Luna's round chin. She tucked Luna's black wavy hair behind one ear and then she kissed the little girl's forehead.
“Good night my sweet.”
“Good night gran'ma. I love you.” Luna sleepily mumbled, slightly opening her eyes and holding up her hand to Grandma Sandy.
Grandma Sandy reached for Luna's tiny soft hand and then she smiled.
Luna was the happiest six-year-old because of Grandma Sandy's wide variety of playtime ideas. But, four days before Luna's seventh birthday, Grandma Sandy's body seemed to have lost all its energy. She was often tired and her jolly laughters turned to weak coughs. Her leukemia had become stronger and her body could no longer contain it.
Luna did not quite understand the gravity of the situation. Every day, she would go to Grandma Sandy's room to show the old lady a new picture she drew or to simply hear one of her grandmother's funny stories. At night, Luna would bring a book and have her grandmother read it for her. Luna would keep herself awake as she listened to the soft, shaky voice of Grandma Sandy. Twice or thrice Grandma Sandy would cough, waking the little girl, and then Luna's father would come in and ask Luna to go to her room for Grandma Sandy needed to rest.
One evening, Luna excitedly ran to Grandma Sandy's room to show her the gift she received from her parents. She opened the door with delight and saw her grandmother holding a book on her lap, obviously anticipating the little girl to come. Grandma Sandy smiled when she saw Luna enter.
“Gran'ma look!” Luna jumped on Grandma Sandy's bed and waved a thin white rectangular gadget which was as big as the book that the old lady was holding.
“That looks so fascinating, what is it?” Grandma Sandy asked,tilting her head on one side while she stifled a cough.
“It's an ebook reader gran'ma. Mommy and daddy gave it to me, they said I could read from here and they could add books for me.”
“I see. Would you like for us to read now, my sweet?”
Luna simply nodded and she sat closer to Grandma Sandy. Luna offered her ebook reader but the old lady shook her head and then she set the device down on the bedside table. Grandma Sandy then opened the book on top of her lap and allowed the little girl to look at the pictures with large eyes and wonder.
“This was my favorite story when I was your age,” Grandma Sandy introduced, placing a hand around Luna's shoulders.
Luna looked up at Grandma Sandy and then she hugged the old lady back. Then they started reading the book. They were a few pages to the end when Grandma Sandy stopped to catch her breath. Luna looked at Grandma Sandy once more with a worried expression.
“What's wrong, my sweet?” Grandma Sandy asked in a small voice as she let the book lie on the child's lap.
“When will you be better, gran'ma? It's nearly my birthday and I want us to go and have a little picnic,” Luna replied, holding Grandma Sandy's hand.
“Soon, my little darling. Soon,” Grandma Sandy replied, smiling at the little girl as she stifled another cough. “Would you like to continue reading for grandma, my little one?”
“Okay, gran'ma,” Luna replied as she took the book from Grandma Sandy's feeble hands.
As the little girl read, Grandma Sandy fought to keep
herself awake. Once in a while, the little girl would ask how to read a word or two and the old lady would whisper the correct pronunciation and then Luna would continue reading. When Luna reached the end of the book, she happily looked up from the book.
“I finished it gran--” Luna stopped as she noticed her grandmother's eyes already closed.
The little girl watched Grandma Sandy and then she embraced the old lady. Luna rested her head on the shoulders of Grandma Sandy and then she closed her eyes.
“Good night gran'ma. I love you.”