Page 18 of Grounded
“You shouldn’t do all this cooking every Sunday, Grandma. You could take everyone to a restaurant instead. It would be so much easier.” Annie refilled her coffee, added real whipping cream to it and started to look at the nutritional value, but decided against it.
“I enjoy it, and so does Evelyn. We help each other, so it’s not too much work. After all, what else do I have to do on Saturdays? It gives me something to look forward to. I love to be around these young people. They lift my spirits.”
“Couldn’t you enjoy them at a restaurant?” Annie asked.
“Oh, maybe every now and then, but they look forward to a home-cooked meal. Most of them eat out all the time. This is a treat for them. And it’s a gift Evelyn and I can give. The arrangement suits us.”
Annie knew that was the end of the conversation.
After a few minutes of silence, Annie spoke. “I heard the conversation about local robberies before I came in for lunch. I can see why you were on edge last night. Are you locking your door now?”
“At night. I’m here during the day, other than running to town for this or that. I leave it open when I do leave, in case Joe needs to come in for something to drink.”
“Have you thought about selling the farm and moving to town? You could get a nice one-story with a pretty lot and old trees. It would be easier to take care of. I bet Joe would buy this place from you and keep it agricultural, if that’s your worry.”
Annie thought her grandmother looked very tired when she brought up the subject of selling. It was almost as if a yoke had been dropped on her shoulders. This place was weighing her down. The burden of it was spelled out on her face.
But when she responded, Annie was surprised by her steely tone. “I would rather be a little uncomfortable in a familiar place than comfortable in an unfamiliar place. I plan to stay here as long as the Lord allows it.”
Annie sighed. “At least consider a security system. If this drug problem persists, and it will in all likelihood, things will only get worse.”
“We’ll see,” she said, and once again, Annie knew that was the end of the subject.
Annie remembered with full clarity why she had hardly been home in the last two years. She couldn’t agree with her grandmother on anything. Her grandfather had been the bridge between them, the peacemaker, and now he was gone. After less than twenty-four hours in the same house, Annie felt their vast differences. But now, there was no Grandpa to fill the gap.
Might as well get it over with,Annie thought.Throw it all out there on the table.
“Grandma, there’s more to why I’m here than losing my job. I gave up my apartment with the intentions of moving in with Stuart. The day I was planning to move, I found out he lied about some important things—things I couldn’t ignore.”
Annie waited for a reaction, but her grandmother sat there with the usual stoic look.
“Anyway, I broke it off with him. I could have stayed in New York with friends, but I wanted to get out awhile and clear my head.” Annie fiddled with the handle on the coffee cup. It was blue willow, a pattern her grandmother had had as long as Annie could remember.
“Well, you should know a man’s not likely to buy a cow if he can get the milk for free.”
The words stung her. It was high school all over again, and Annie felt the weight of her grandmother’s calm disapproval, heavier than a tongue lashing.
It took her back to the summer after her junior year, climbing out of her bedroom window onto a branch of an old maple and sneaking off to meet the waiting car out on the road. The party in Von Linger’s field lasted most of the night. The next morning, her grandmother roused her from a short sleep. A long list of farm chores had to be done that day—not the normal things, but cleaning out the chicken house and moving the manure pile. Without saying a single word, her grandmother’s penetrating stare told her she knew it all and was dishing out the punishment.
Annie failed at controlling the irritation in her voice. “You’re right, Grandma. But times have changed. It’s hard to make it in the city without sharing living space. Besides, it’s unfair and extremely politically incorrect to refer to people as cows.”
Beulah reached across the table and covered Annie’s hand with her own. The gesture surprised Annie, diffusing the anger. She couldn’t meet her grandmother’s gaze, instead staring at the older woman’s hand. Skin thinning, with age spots and calluses; it was the hand of an active person. Years of using hoes, stripping tobacco, cooking and cleaning had marked them. They weren’t pretty hands, but they had character, as if they could tell their own story apart from Beulah.
“People aren’t cows. They have precious souls that can be easily damaged when too much is shared too soon.” She removed her hand and laid it firmly on the table. “Now, you are welcome to stay here as long as you like. Frankly, I’d be grateful for the help. We’re in the midst of putting out the garden, and I’m not getting around as good as I used to.”
Annie nodded. The dread of truth-telling gone, surely now the worst was over.
Chapter Six
Beulah gazed out the window while she washed the evening’s supper dishes. Long shadows spilled across the grass from the setting sun. The white blooms hung heavily on the locust trees out in the field, and the scent wafted in through the window screen. A rainy spring meant a good first hay cutting and it bode well for her garden. Seeing everything so young and green, with the full anticipation of summer stretching ahead, made her brim with hope and promise. It reminded her of the verse in Jeremiah she had taken for her own so many years ago:“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
If only the knowledge would take hold of Annie. She slept late her first few days at her grandmother’s and didn’t want to leave the house, other than to return the rental car. Annie hadn’t even bothered with television, even though the TransAir merger was all over the news: jobs lost, lawsuits popping up right and left— a regular mess. Having dozens of TV channels was something Annie surely enjoyed about big city life.
Beulah remembered when Annie first moved in with them at age twelve after her mother died
“Grandma, why can’t you get cable? I’ll pay the difference with my money.”
“I’ve never seen good come out of watching television.”
