Page 12 of His Atonement

"Perfect." I smile, a more genuine one this time. "Thanks, Al."

"I'd do anything for you, Frankie, and the last thing I want you to feel is alone. We're all we have left."

Brad comes into the kitchen slowly and I straighten up. "I gotta go for now, Allie. They're ready to take Granny for one last ride."

"Ok." She sniffles again. "Give her my love and tell her I'll see her soon."

"I will, Allie. Kiss the girls for me and tell Andrej I said thank you."

"Talk soon, Frank. I love you."

"Talk soon, Al. I love you too."

I hang up and press the heels of my hands into my eyes, wipe away the remnants of my tears, then turn to Brad.

"You ready, Ms. Masters?"

I nod. "Let's do it."

He smiles with a firm nod, but just before he turns I stop him.

"Can you ask them to play “Another One Bites the Dust” on their way to the funeral home?"

For a split second Brad looks horrified, but then a huge smile breaks out across his face and he begins to laugh. "You bet, Ms. Masters. They might look at me like I'm nuts, but I will make sure that's what they play for her on the drive over."

"Thanks."

I knew when I woke up this morning there were too many warning signs flashing in my head, but maybe they weren't all bad.

Granny isn't in anymore pain and I know exactly how I'm going to celebrate that.

And I plan to go out with an epic fucking bang.

Mountain Mama

"Jesus, I can't believe she still had this."

I lift my eyes from Granny's hope chest to find Allie sitting on the floor of her closet with a box in her lap.

A box I know all too well.

A box full of memories, both good and bad.

I crawl across the room, and enter the walk-in, then scoot up against my favorite person on the planet as she pulls two tiny little knit caps from the box, the blue, pink, and white stripes faded with time.

Allie lifts them to her nose, takes a deep breath and sighs. "They still smell like baby."

"Baby us.” I smile as I reach into the box and pull out our hospital bracelets. "It absolutely should not surprise you that Granny hung onto this shit."

She giggles. "No, I guess it shouldn't. It's just crazy to see this stuff after so long." Allie sets the hats on her thigh then reaches in and pulls out our first footprints, and the stats from when we were born. "She said we were like a different version of Irish twins, thought it was so fucking cool that her only grand babies were born hours apart on the same day, in the same hospital, with only a few ounces and an inch difference in size."

"I mean, it is pretty badass." I nudge her shoulder. "You're only older than me by a couple hours but I was bigger by seven ounces and almost an inch and a half."

Allie nods and continues rummaging through the box. "Which makes sense since you're so goddamn tall." Then she snorts. "Andrej's family is gonna shit when they see you. They think my five-foot-nine and a half is something? Wait til they get a load of your five-foot-eleven and three quarters, ultra-tattooed Amazonian beauty."

I roll my eyes and grab the stack of photos from the bottom of the box. "An Amazon with kinky curly red hair and hazel eyes." Eyes that immediately start to well as I sift through the pictures.

"You doing ok with this, Frank?" Allie asks as she leans against me, and takes a few photos from my hand.