It didn’t stop his daughter from rushing forward. Agent Ortiz stepped between her and Thelma, who lifted a hand to indicate it was okay. The closer her granddaughter grew, the more Thelma smelled perfume that smelled like sugar and roses. Her yellow T-shirt showed her bare midriff, and her denim jeans sagged around her curvy hips. But Thelma was not in a judgmental mood. She immediately detected the unmistakable sensation of her own flesh, her blood rushing through this girl’s veins as their hands touched.
“Wow…” the girl continued to repeat. “I’m dreaming. There’s no way this is real.” She looked back at Robbie, a ponytail flipping over her shoulder. “Dad! Can you believe it? It’s Grandma Thelma! Straight from the ‘50s!”
Robbie almost collapsed. Both of the agents behind him had to prop him back up, Thornwood calling for a nurse.
“So dramatic…” The girl scoffed before turning her attention back to Thelma. “Oh! Right. You don’t know who I am!” Both of her hands landed on Thelma’s arms. “I’m Megan! Your only grandchild!” She giggled. “Call me Meg, though. Everyone else does.”
“P… Pleasure to meet you, Megan.” Thelma removed one of her gloves and shook her granddaughter’s hand. “Is he all right?”
“Sure. You wanna talk to Dad?” Megan backed away, motioning for the old man to step forward toward her. “Get over here! You’re beingsorude to your mom!”
Thelma would have been aghast at the way this young woman spoke to her father, but she was too entranced by Robbie’s twitching upper lip and the disbelieving sneer that developed a few seconds later. “It’s a joke,” he gruffly said with a voice not too dissimilar from Thelma’s father. “This is a cruel joke put on by the American government!” He wagged a finger in her direction. “You’re dead!”
Thelma gasped. The agents intervened.
“Come on, Mr. Van der Graaf,” said Thornwood. “Let’s go get some coffee and discuss this more.”
“No…” Thelma rushed ahead. “Let me see him!”
Before Robbie could shrug her off, Thelma had grabbed him, standing stalwart in her heels as she gazedupinto her son’s face.
For a moment, they were back in their house, a little boy asking to stay home while his mother shushed him.
“I’m sorry…” Thelma sniffed. “I’m sorry I didn’t let you stay home.”
She didn’t mean to erupt into a cataclysm of tears that required the assistance of Miriam and the nurse who arrived on the scene. Both women pushed Thelma back into the meeting room, one asserting orders while the other cooed at her to calm down. Megan stood off to the side, dumbfounded, while Agents Thornwood and Wilcox conferred about what they should do.
Robbie continued to sneer at his mother, as if he could will himself to wake up from this exhausting dream.As if I haven’t tried…
“Come on.” Wilcox patted Robbie’s shoulder. “There’s a lot to go over. You two can catch up later.”
As for Thelma, who sat back down on the couch with her face in her hands, there was no getting used to this again. She had faced her aged son, met her granddaughter, and encountered irrefutable proof that this was now her life.
Megan’s head remained on a swivel between her father and grandmother.
“Can I stay here?” she asked Agent Ortiz. “Can I talk to her?”
Miriam glanced at Thelma, who slowly nodded.
They sat together on the couch. Megan kept her hands to herself, but she seemed the type of touchy girl who had to actively hold back her desire to prove to her five senses that her grandmother was real.
“Sorry about my dad,” she said. “You’ve gotta understand… my whole life, I was told you were missing. Probably dead.”
Thelma swallowed.
“Now, here you are. Looking just like your pictures. Like you haven’t aged a day at all.”
“Well, that’s where you’re wrong.” Thelma opened her purse and withdrew one of her candies she kept for her breath, or when an oral fixation got the best of her in public. “Ihaveaged a day.” She handed Megan the candy. “One whole day.”
Megan slowly opened her hand. The candy landed on her palm. “What’s this?”
“Something grandmas do. They give their grandchildren candy.” Thelma looked away. “My daughter… your Aunt Debbie. She loved them.”
Nobody had told her what happened to Debbie. She was afraid to ask.
“Aunt Debbie’s still alive, you know.”
Thelma’s head swerved back around. “She is?”
