Bad Blood

11.

When I awoke the next morning, the smell of bacon filled my room and my nostrils. It took me a few moments to realize what was going on. Had it all been a dream? Some horrible, cruel dream. Did I dare to hope that Gran hadn't gone? But it all came crashing back when I buried my head into the pillow and could smell men's aftershave. So Dan had really been here. I forced myself to get up, my body aching and so tired. I pulled on my jeans and followed my nose down to the kitchen and was shocked to find Dan at the stove, cooking. Shocked mostly because he was still here.

'Wow. I didn't know you could cook.' I laughed, croakily. He turned around, spatula in one hand and a stupid smile on his face.

'Well, that makes two of us.' He flashed me a grin. He then pointed to the table. 'Take a seat.' He put a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich in front of me after a few minutes of concentrated silence.

'I don't think I can...' I muttered. Eating was the last thing on my mind right then.

'You need to. Come on.' He rubbed my shoulder and then sat with me. 'I am so sorry about Granny. Let me know if I can help with anything.'

'You've done enough already.' I took a tiny bite of the white bread and then realized how hungry I was. 'I just hope I haven't invaded in your busy schedule.' I said through a mouth full of food.

'Nope. I'll help you get things arranged here, if you like?'

Truth be told, it would be nice to have someone help because I had no idea what to do. The hospital were suppose to get in touch with me about when they'd release her body so I could begin funeral arrangements. But where did I begin? I needed to find her will so I could at least figure out what she wanted to do when she'd gone. We had never spoken about anything like this.

As it turned out, Dan was a great help. Or at least his parents were, via phone calls. We spent the day going through her paperwork, trying to find the will and bank accounts so I could close them all down. Ringing the telephone and electric companies. There was so much to do. Mostly we stayed in different parts of the house, each searching a room at a time. Though Gran had led a simplistic lifestyle, she sure had a lot of boxes of stuff.

By lunch time I was beginning to lose hope at ever finding anything. And the thought of having to donate or throw away all her belongings was saddening. It seemed somewhat disrespectful. She had lived in this house her entire life and here we were, boxing and bagging everything up. She hadn't even been gone but a day. Her smell still hung in the air and I could still imagine her pottering around downstairs. The emotion began to build up in my chest again, making my breathing heavy. Until Dan called from the study.

'Gracey, come see this.' I found him sat crossed legged on the wooden floor with a box open on his lap. I sat next to him and he handed me stacks of photos and letters. I gasped and smiled.

'It's all the things you sent me. I didn't know she'd kept them...' There must've been dozens of unopened letters. I had thrown every last one away, yet here they were. The photos I had torn up, she had carefully pieced back together with tape. Concert tickets, movie tickets, train tickets. Even the stupid notes we'd written to each other in school. Everything of Dan's that I had discarded, all here, perfectly preserved.

My cheeks hurt from smiling at the pictures. Both of us gasping and laughing at them. We took it in turns to recall where all of them were taken.

'First day of junior school.' I said, pointing out our blue school uniform. Both of us stood there with matching lunch boxes and grins. 'I had two front teeth missing because we'd pulled them out with the string on the door trick.'

'Oh this one is that summer that was so hot, we basically stayed in the paddling pool at my house for three months.' We were in our swimming costumes, pointing water guns at each other's heads.