“Ow, granny! Unhand me, woman.”
This was my fault. When my granny told me to bend down close to her on the couch, I thought she wanted to greet me with a kiss on the cheek like always.
But her fingers wrenched around my ear cartilage instead, and now she wouldn’t let me go.
“You been looking at me all summer and you ain’t said nothing.”
“I just did,” I hissed, jerking my head away from her. But her grip was blessed by God himself because she still had her hold on me.
“You know what I mean, li’l boy.Beforenow.”
My neck pulled from the way I was holding my head, and still an amused snicker left my lips.
After a while, Edith Westbrook let me go and tsked at me, her gray brows pulling into a deep frown and the deep dimples she passed down to Harlow making an appearance, even though her mouth was turned down in disappointment.
“I was waiting for Harlow to tell her mom.”
“And what am I? The red-headed stepchild? Ain’t nobody told me a thing.”
She loosened her hold on my ear, but glared up at me as she stood, patting down the pockets of her housecoat. “My poor grand baby, I need a cigarette. Let me call her. Where is she? Why didn’t you bring her with you?”
She fired off the questions on her way outside, not leaving a pause longer than an inhale between her next string of words.
I joined her on the porch, rubbing the back of my neck. She wasn’t paying me any mind as she fished around in her pockets for a lighter and I shook my head.
“Granny…”
“What, boy?”
“That’s all you gotta say?” She wasn’t reacting to the fact that me and Harlow were together, just the fallout it created with our parents. “You don’t care?”
“You grown. And y’all ain’t blood related.” She waved me off, pulling out a pack of Newports. She beat the bottom of the pack with her palm until a cigarette slipped through the opening atthe top. “Other grown folks' business ain’t got nothing to do with me. My opinion don’t change nothing.”
Why the hell couldn’t Ms. Yvie adopt her mother’s mindset?
I watched the only grandmother I’d ever known light her cigarette and inhale, squinting at her phone screen. “You ain’t as slick as you think, either. I got eyes, baby. They ain’t as sharp as they used to be, but I could see you loved that girl probably before you did. Soul and Christian too. Your eyes always told the story.” She blew out a plume of smoke, shaking her head. “All anybody with eyes had to do was pay attention.”
I stood there, using my body to keep her screen door open, knowing she wouldn’t fuss because she didn’t turn on the damn A/C for me to let any out anyway.
“I thought one of you would grow out of the crush and move on.” Her raspy laugh turned into a coughing fit before she clapped her chest and winked at me. “But I guess y’all found a different solution. I ain’t mad at it.”
Silence blanketed the porch, and I stared at her crepe myrtle in full bloom until my lagging brain connected the dots. Letting the screen door clang closed behind me, I walked to her rocking chair and peered down at her.
“Granny, who been bringing you cigarettes?”
“Grandson, I thought we were both minding our business.” She cut me a look, and my smile came without coaxing. “Now help me call Harlow.”
I could’ve hiredsomeone to take care of my grandma’s yard a long time ago. The landscaper who’d been up keeping my childhood home for years even offered to do it for free. But I liked doing it. It was the one guaranteed block of time I got to spend with her a couple times a month.
And when she wasn’t trying to detach my ear from my head, she was alright to hang out with.
I always knew my grandma Edith was a little different. She didn’t care too much about keeping up appearances or sending us home stuffed full of her home cooking. If there was one thing I knew when it was me and Harlow’s time to get dropped off it was thatwe were going out to eat. Edith knew her strengths and stuck to them. She could sew me an outfit from scraps she found around the house, and she could solve any puzzle somebody put in front of her.
That was enough for me.
Besides, it was during those visits that she taught me how to manage my money and cuss somebody out. I never cared about the rest.
Sweat dripping in my eyes, I blinked through the sting and turned off the push mower before walking back to her carport to get the weed eater.
