Page 13 of My Thursday Throwback

“I’m not, but right now, we are all down and have to get on our feet, and I’m tired. I want a nice girl to come home to and a couple of kids after I travel the world a bit. I have worked my entire life taking care of Zelda and you, and right now, I am down. Persephone makes me feel tall. I stand tall when I am with her,” he said softly.

“I saw,” she said.

“Then you know where I am standing,” he said to his Grandmother.

“If she makes you happy, then be happy,” Lula told him.

“She does and Persephone is going to be a part of my life, but I am not going to bring her into my world if you are going to act ugly. If you force me to make a choice between the two of you, I will.”

“You would choose her over your own Grandmother?”

“If my Grandmother decides she can’t act right and wants to be rude, telling the woman her puppet is a conduit for Satan, then yes. Yes, I will,” Michael said to her.

“Well, then. You do what you feel you must,” Grandma Lula told him.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean I need to choose. I am asking you to be civil and treat her with respect. Are you telling me you are unwilling to do that?”

Lula said nothing as she went to the kitchen, looking for something to eat, her back to him and rigid as she opened the refrigerator. The heaviness in her heart was reminiscent of a similar conversation she had with her daughter before she returned home to a man that Lula knew was the devil incarnate.

“Be happy, Michael,” she told him. “Live your life and be happy.”

She had nothing more to say on the subject as he took a piece of cheese, a few crackers, and a bottle of sweetened ice tea to the guest room. Her Bible, the constant companion at her side, was flung across the room as she threw herself across the bed and cried. Her home was ruined, her relationship with her grandchildren shattered, and she cried for the loss of so much time. She mumbled into the bed covers, singing “Nearer My God to Thee” as the thought of not having her grandchildren in her life hit her hard.

“I can change,” she said. “I will change.”

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