“He only did that the one time, and your grandmother was sitting out in the car waiting for him to come out.He’d only gone in to take the cart back and didn’t tell her that he’d taken over the job for two hours.I wonder what she was thinking, waiting on him to come out and take her home.”They both laughed at the antics that his mom’s dad had.“Then there was the time that he was disappearing for days on end because he was teaching science at the high school.Why on earth did he even think he could do that is beyond me.He’s forever getting himself into one thing or the next.”
“My favoritejobthat he had was when he decided that he could drive a school bus.He just went all over town picking up kids and their parents in the bus that might have needed a ride to someplace.He was two hours late for school, but people got to their doctors’ appointments on time with him behind the wheel.”Mom said that was one of her favorites, too.“Do you believe he puts it on his resume when he files one out for a job?I wouldn’t put it past him.”
“Me either.And please don’t allow him to apply for jobs.The next thing we know, he’ll be applying for your job.”He marveled at his grandparents.Grandma would fuss about Grandda being underfoot, but she’d make sure that he wasn’t getting into trouble too.Grandda was a good trouble maker from when he was a kid, and the seven of them, himself and five brothers and grandda would go out on adventures.If his mom ever knew about the things they’d get into, she’d never allow him around them at all.It’s a miracle that none of them had been arrested a few times.
~*~
Frank watched his favorite grandson play around with the doorbell.He’d broken it, of course, but he’d never tell him that.When Aaron declared that the doorbell was fixed, he wondered if he could get him to fix the lock on the front gate again.The stupid lock kept locking on its own, and he’d either be locked in or out depending on where he’d been headed at the time.He started to mention it when Aaron said that he had to go back to work.
“You only just got here.You don’t have to leave just yet.”He said that he’d been on his lunch hour and really did have to get back before someone noticed him missing.“I don’t know if you know this or not, son, but if they can’t find you, that’s gonna hurt your momma and grandma.They don’t love you as much as I do, but they sure do come in a close second and third.”
“Thanks, Grandda.I do have to get back.”Milly brought him out a sandwich just as he was getting in his truck.“Thanks, Grandma, this will hit the spot.You always make the best sammiches.”
Aaron had been calling them that since he was just a little kid.And telling Milly that she made the best of them, too.Waiting for his turn to be complimented, he was nearly to the truck when Aaron stopped and hugged him tightly.While holding him, he told him not to tinker with the doorbell again or he’d tell on him.He wouldn’t; it was a nothing threat.But he wouldn’t mess with the thing again; he’d been sick of not getting any sleep for the last few nights.
“The front gate is giving me some fits.You’ll have to come out later tonight to fix it.We’ll even have you over for supper if you want.”He asked what they were having, and after being told, Aaron said he’d be there.“I’ll make me up a list of things I’ve noticed going bad around here.Not only does the front gate lock up funny now, but the bathroom lights flicker on and off, too.”
“Grandda, what am I going to do with you?”He told him that he didn’t know what he was talking about.“Sure you don’t, and I’m a monkey uncle as you always say.You have me a list and I’ll get to them as I can.I might take your tools away from you if you don’t behave.I’m surprised Grandma hasn’t.”
“She knows that I can fix things, so she leaves it alone.”She’d fuss at him if he even pulled it, but again, he didn’t say anything about that.He looked around for his Milly and was glad that she’d gone back in the house.“I’ll see you about six then.You know that’s when we eat around here.”
“I know.”As his grandson drove off, he started figuring in his head about what had been giving him fits around the house.Not only were the bathroom lights going off and on, but there was something wrong with the barn door.Not that he’d had anything to do with that, but it was old like he was and needed adjusting.There were another dozen or so projects that he needed to have repaired, too, that he’d have Aaron work on.
About six months ago, he’d pulled out his tool bag and begun working on things that he knew he shouldn’t have.Then two weeks ago, he’d had the trouble with the bathroom.He’d thought that it was the light bulb, but he wasn’t so sure now that it kept doing that.He was fearful of it catching the house on fire and was going to have Aaron work on it first.He’d even let him use his tools if he asked nicely.Even if he didn’t ask, he’d still allow him to use them.He loved that boy to distraction.
He loved all his grandsons, but not like he did the first one.Aaron had been born when he’d been about as fed up with life as he’d ever been.Being depressed wasn’t something that his kind had ever dealt with, but he was about as depressed as he’d ever been when that little baby boy had been put in his arms.And just like that, it had all cleared up, and he’d been happy since.
Oh, there were days when he could barely get out of bed.If not for his Milly, he was sure he’d never get up again.But she needed him, and he was trying his best to make sure that he was therefor her.But like he thought, some days were harder than the ones before, and it was only one of the grandboys coming around that got him out of his funk.
“Are you going to go into town later, Frank?I have some mail that I need to get out if you’re going.”He said that he had to go into the post office anyway, and that would work out for him, too.“Good.I do hope you’re not ordering from that shopping channel again.The last time we had so much stuff, it took us forever to get rid of the boxes.”
“I only bought the one thing and I’ll have use for it.”It was a handy-dandy cardboard cutter that he’d ordered for the holidays.When he’d go a little crazy ordering things for the boys.He knew they were grown men, but he never thought of them that way if he didn’t have to.He would start buying Christmas items for them about January and not give up on that idea until the day before the big day.He loved Christmas almost as much as he did his birthday.And they’d get him so much for his one day that he’d be happy for it a month before it came around.
He figured he was in such good shape because he walked everywhere he was going.Like just today, he had not only walked to the post office, but he’d gone to the library and the grocery store too.Frank did help out at the store some, but he’d been run off by Harlin when he said he was smashing the bread while loading up bags.Not that he’d meant to put the bread under the eggs that had been bought, but he’d been talking and forgot what he’d been doing.
There was nothing that he could do at the library, so he only checked out books and talked a bit.They had a computer system in the place, and he wasn’t sure if he could run it without messing up the entire system that ran through the seven other libraries that were connected to it.No, he didn’t help out there.But he did enjoy a good book, and while there, he’d read over the newspaper for the bigger cities so he’d have something to talk about with someone when they stopped him.Frank thought of himself as a man who knew just a little about everything, so he could hold down his end of the conversation.
“Mr.Sharps.It’s been a while since you’ve been to this end of town.How’s that lovely wife of yours?”He said Milly was holding her own and tried to think who the man was he was talking to.“It’s Landry, Bo Landry.I’ve never forgiven my mom for naming me that, but you remember me, don’t you, sir?”
“Yes.I do.Heard you got yourself a wife of your own.How’s life treating you now that you’re all settled down?”He told him how his wife had left him for another man a few years ago.“I’m sorry to hear that.She must not have known you were about the best there was when it came to having a husband, now, did she?I’m sorry as I am to hear that for you.”
“I’m about over it now.Every once in a while, it’ll hit me how she left me for Baxter, and I get a little teary and upset, but like I said, I’m about over it now.”He nodded, so Frank found himself doing the same thing.“Your lovely wife came to see me a couple of days after she left.I was wallowing in my own self-pity when she got me going and back at work.I don’t know what I would have done without her being around me those first few days.She, surely as I’m standing here, made sure that I kept my job and my dignity.You tell her that I said that, too, would you, Mr.Sharps?”
“I will.You should go around and see her.I bet she’d like that.”She more than likely had done what he’d said she’d done and wouldn’t want any credit for him keeping his job.His Milly was like that.“I know that she’s a might busy lately, what with all the canning and jelly making that she does.But you make it a point of going to see her, and she’ll be happy for it.My Milly is a good woman to have in your corner.”
“That’s for sure.Well, I’ll be going.You tell her what I said and that I’ll be around to see her when I have the time.She’s a good person and I’ll love her to the end of time for what she did for me.”Bo walked off, and he looked a little taller to him.
Thinking about his Milly and what she’d done without saying a word made him think that it was about time he picked her up some posies.She had some in the yard, but he loved bringing her home some blooms that she didn’t have there.Just to cheer her up.
Frank ended up getting her not just a pretty vase full of flowers but also a box of chocolates.They were her secret passion that nobody knew about but himself.Or maybe their daughter, LouCinda, butshe’d not remember after all this time.At least he hoped she wouldn’t.
On his way back to the house, he saw and talked to a great many people.He’d been living here nearly all his life, and he had seen so much change going on that he had to think about it sometimes.By the time he made it back home, he was glad that he’d had the flowers and chocolates delivered.There’d be no telling what they’d look like with him toting them around all the time.They were sitting pretty on the counter when he walked in the back door.
“You old goat.”Milly kissed him on the cheek before looking at him sternly.“I don’t know if you’re buying them because you did something terrible, but I don’t care.They brightened up my entire day, and the other treats?Well, we’ll have some of those after dinner tonight, just the two of us.”
“I’d like that.Very much.”He got himself a glass of water and drank it down.“It sure is powerful work running around town like I have a job.”He told her about Bo Landry.“I felt bad for not knowing that she’d left him.”
“I told you, but it was so long ago now.But he’s better off without her.She hooked up with that Baxter person, and now he’s left her.I hear they had three kids, too, between them.What a sad state Bo was in.My heart just broke for him.I’m glad I was there when it happened.Might have lost his job and the house if not for me shaking him off and getting him going.Poor man.I hope he finds someone soon, I surely do.”Frank asked her what he did for a living.“He’s a teacher over at the big college.Not where Darius goes, but the larger one in Columbus.I heard that he has quite a name for himself as a good teacher.”
