Page 16 of Stronger Than Blood

Chapter fourteen

Mick

“I’m fine, Granny,” I repeated for the fourth time. I wasn’t fine. Not even a little bit. Facing that fear again with such a vivid memory was anything but fine.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you, I’m gonna be working for Brenda. She’s hired me to bake for the fancy bakery in the hotel.”

Granny Ida studied me a moment before getting to the one thing I hadn’t told her. “I thought you had a job.”

I cleared my throat. “Well, Mrs. Milner and I came to an, um… well, you could say an impasse.”

“Oh, that bitch fired you?” she asked, and her face began to grow red.

“Now, Granny, don’t let this get you wound up. You’ll give yourself another stroke.”

“No, I’ll give that woman a piece of my mind, though.”

I laughed at how, even at her age, and bedridden after a stroke, she was still ready to go toe-to-toe with our community’s legendary Karen.

“I’m going to be so much better off working with Brenda. You know, that’s my dream job, and she approached me. I think things are looking up for me, and I won’t be missing Mrs. Milner and her hateful attitude any, I can tell you that much.”

Granny huffed. “Well, you always were good at seeing the bright side of things. I guess I should just pray for that demon 'cause Lord knows her soul needs it.”

I couldn’t help but laugh and leaned over to kiss her on the forehead.

“I’m going out to the house to work the garden tomorrow.

Even got someone to volunteer to help me.

Elias Kennedy’s cousin is in town and said he’s bored enough to volunteer for some hard, sweaty work.

” When Granny burst into laughter, I immediately knew I’d stepped into it. “Not that kind of work. Jeez, Granny!”

“Hey, son, you’re the one who went there.”

“Anyway,” I said, changing the subject as fast as I could, “he’s a nice guy, been helping me out with Uncle Eddie’s mess. Why the heck didn’t he put his garbage in a trash can? I swear to all that’s holy, that man just tossed his crap into the back room.”

She shrugged. “Eddie always was a strange bird. Don’t get me wrong, I loved him with all I had in me, but well, he’d get something in his head and wouldn’t even think about the consequences.

But I’ll tell you this: he never did one damned thing, not one in all his life, without a reason.

If that place is full of trash, you’re likely to find something valuable underneath it all. ”

“Yeah, Mr. Kennedy basically said the same thing. I don’t really remember him being that way, though. He just seemed like a nice old man when I came to live here. I remember how sad I was when he died.”

Granny smiled woefully. “He liked you, said you were smart. Not like the wild hoodlums that ran in and out of his store all day. He’d be pleased it’s you tending to his final business.”

“I’d have been pleased if he’d made some better choices about where to toss his junk.”

She smiled. “Well, keep at it. I told the mayor last time I saw her we’d get it all cleaned out so she could get one of her highfalutin’ folks to take it over and turn it into something useful.”

“You know, I don’t mind it. I love seeing the little town changing, becoming something special. It’s looked half-dead since the last time I’ve been around these parts.”

“Oh, I don’t mean to disparage what Betty Sue and her boy Jeff have done, just you know, I guess I remember it from when I’s a kid.

The dime store was such a fun place to shop.

And the drug store with its fizzy drinks and ice cream sodas.

I felt so big when my sister and I put on our best Sunday clothes and went shopping with our mama. ”

I could almost see it in my mind. I hadn’t known Aunt Lucinda.

She’d died long before I moved here. But her daughter Joann was a wonderful woman, so I had to imagine her mom must’ve been too.

Not that someone’s mom defined who they were.

From what I understand, my grandmother had been one step below sainthood, and look how my mother had turned out.

“I’m guessin' it was strange to watch the town slowly close down,” I said, thinking about all the changes Granny Ida must’ve seen.

She frowned. “It didn’t happen overnight, and most of us didn’t really notice 'cause we were too busy livin' our lives. But, by the time Betty Sue retired and became the mayor, we all had to accept the fact that if something wasn’t done soon, the entire square was gonna fall in.”

“So, getting Uncle Eddie’s store cleaned out is our way of contributing.”

She winked at me. “It is, and I’m looking forward to finding out what it becomes. You know it was a bank when I was a kid. I reckon there’s still a safe somewhere in the back, although Eddie never could get the door open.”

“Hmm, well, treasure would be nice to find.”

“Then you need to get to the bottom of that trash pile. Imma tellin' you right now, Eddie—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I heard ya. But you ain’t the one in there cleanin' out his mess neither.”

She gave me a hard look and humphed. “Well, if y’all weren’t so dead set on me spending my time cooped up in this here hospital room, I probably could help.”

I laughed. “Well, get better and come back to help on the farm. That’s where you’re needed.”

“Speaking of,” she said without missing a beat, “you gonna move into the house or not?”

I cringed. “I haven’t decided. I’m honestly looking forward to seeing what Eddie’s old apartment looks like. Could it be worth saving?”

She scrunched her mouth at the idea. “Eddie was a messy housekeeper; that place was a rat trap when he was livin' in it, so I wouldn’t count on it being worth much. Besides that house—”

“That house gives me the creeps,” I said in a hushed voice, then sighed. “Granny, I’m not ready to face that monster again yet. Give me time… and maybe an exorcist.”

She didn’t contradict me that time; she just looked sad. “Well, when you’re ready, it’ll be there for you.”

I kissed her again and stood to go. “I’m gonna stop by after I finish in the garden 'cause I plan on staying late over at Uncle Eddie's. I’d like to get the first floor done before the weekend if I’m going to be working mornings over at Brenda’s,” I said, and she nodded.

“Well, son, I wish you luck, and I wish I could be there to help.”

“Oh, don’t you worry about nothing but getting better, okay?”

She patted my hand and sent me packing like she always did. My Granny Ida wasn’t one for lingering emotions. Focus and tend to your business; that’s how she lived her life, and that attitude certainly rubbed off on me.

I loved my life, even if it was chaotic—and haunted. My good life almost entirely came from what that incredible woman had given a scared and severely battered teenage boy she shouldn’t have had to deal with in her golden years.