Chapter Fifteen– Grandma’s Advice
It wasn’t all that far to jog to Grandma’s. Only a couple of miles. Keith had given up his apartment and sold his car when his mother had died. He hadn’t realized how close to bankruptcy his parents had been from all Joana’s medical expenses. Now he was able to help pay off some of the bills, and moving back home hadn’t been so bad. Not having his own car sucked, but his dad had gone out to run errands.
Keith jogged most of the way, but cooled down the last half mile, because he didn’t want to be all sweaty when he hugged Grandma. He had to hug her, for Joana’s sake, at least.
Who am I kidding? I’m gonna hug her for my sake! He wanted to start running again, he was so anxious to get some Gram Time. But he still didn’t know how he was going to explain about Talia. Crap. What had happened to him from that moment when Clark had knocked on the door and told him she was gone?
Grandma’s apartment building loomed before him. Keith tramped up the walkway and into the foyer, and buzzed Grandma’s number.
“Who is it?” Grandma’s voice sounded like the old gramophone recordings she had played for them before the parts and money ran out to fix the thing. Timeless and sweet, even with the scratchiness.
“It’s Keith, Grandma,” he answered, and the buzzer sounded at once. He turned down into the main hall, and saw Grandma standing in her doorway, her key on that coiled thing hanging on her arm, her extra-milk hot chocolate face all full with smiling. She hobbled around in a half circle with her walker and led the way back into her apartment.
“Your father just stopped by. He was on his way home. What brings you here, Keith?”
“First, Joana says hug, hug, hug,” Keith grinned, and demonstrated, making the last one a little tighter and a little longer, and for him. Grandma smelled like eucalyptus, since she always had breathing problems and always kept rub on her side tables. Keith loved that smell, and still used Vicks when he had a cold, rubbing it on his chest, putting on a sweatshirt, and putting his face down inside to breathe the vapors. It always made him feel better, like hugging Grandma did.
“Something’s troubling you,” Grandma observed. “What is it?”
“Grandma … I don’t know how to explain this ... this girl I met,” Keith stammered.
“You better not be meeting a girl, young man. She better be a woman.”
“Well, yeah, of course. She’s a woman. Her name’s Talia Ramin, and she’s the new English teacher at the school. We also team-teach a class. We kind of clicked, you know? And we’ve gotten pretty close. She took care of Joana a couple of times, and Joana loves her.”
“Then I expect I’ll love her too. When are you bringing her to meet me?”
“I’m … I’m not sure, Grandma. Right now I guess she’s out of the country with a family emergency.”
“You guess? What’s that supposed to mean, you guess?”
“I tried calling but all I get is voicemail and ‘no signal’ messages.”
“Where did she go? How did you even know there was a problem?”
“Clark Johnson found her in her car. He said she was really upset, told him her uncle had been hurt, and he escorted her to the airport.”
“Well, then, I don’t suppose Clark, of all people, is lying to you. Have you got some reason to think she would lie to you? And that she could persuade the real-life version of Barney Fife to lie to you as well? Clark might be a little foolish, but I can’t imagine him being party to some plot – ”
“Yeah, I can’t either,” Keith grunted. “So I’m crazy, and I need to be patient, and she’ll explain everything next time I see her?”
“I wouldn’t say that. Keith. Sometimes things are going on in a person’s life that they can’t explain to an outsider. What does Joana say about her?
“She says she’s not not not not not not not a liar.” Keith grinned.
“I agree. And patience seems to be your only choice. Patience and prayer, of course. It’s impossible that this young woman does not need your prayers, Keith. Just impossible. You pray pray pray pray pray for her, like Joana would say.”
“I will, Grandma.” Keith hugged her again.