My Year with Grandma

When you Need to Know it

I think I am finally getting used to the skunk. He still makes me jump when he's shows up out of nowhere, but I've gotten used to him coming in to sleep with me on occasion. And I don't mind that so much because every time he does, I dream of Jude which just solidifies my theory of him being Gram's familiar. Every dream of him takes place in the hospital room like the first time. Each time he tells me more of what was going on at home with his dad. The more I learn, the madder I get but the easier it is for me to forgive him for what he did to me. Not that I want to be with him, I don't, but I don't hate him and I'm no longer angry. Pregnancy hormones probably have more to do with my change of heart, than the skunk or the dreams, but those make a better story.

Gram was gone all day yesterday for some reason. She's been a bit off since the kitchen incident last week and Mom's visit didn't seem to help the situation. I've been staying at May's until Gram gets back so I've gotten to get to know her kids better. Her son, Backus does most of the cooking because he wants to. He said he was going to be a chef one day. I still can't make toast. Their dog Bruno and I finally came to a truce. He doesn't come near me and I don't freak out. He's called an English Mastiff which basically means 'a horse that barks.' He 's crazy huge and they let him in the house. And on the couch. He has his own bed even that I'm pretty sure it's bigger than mine.

But then, everything in their house is huge. They are all really, really tall people, so the house was built to accommodate them. Have I mentioned how small I feel here? Even Alexa, their fourteen-year-old daughter is almost six foot already. Backus is as tall as his dad who isn't much shorter than May. I'm 5'8" but next to them I'm a five-foot-midget. It's no wonder they have a moose for a dog. And a large dog for a cat. Well, two cats. I didn't know they had cats until one of them jumped in my lap. Sitting on my legs, that cat's face was level with mine. I was on the verge of freaking out when May took the cat from my lap and snuggled it. "This is my little Beanie Baby." She cooed. It purred.

"Little? That's your definition of little?"

"He's a Maine Coon. Just a big sack-a-taters. Milly over there is his littermate. She's a bit shy." I looked at the cat across the room. It seemed disinterested but it looked like it could kill a person without even trying. "Oh, speaking of littermates, I owe you the twin tale, don't I?"

"Oh, yes. I've been wanting to hear that one. Especially since it seemed to annoy Mom so much."

"Oh?"

"Don't worry. She told Gram that I could hear it."

"Well, I was hoping to have Gram's help because there's parts of it I don't know, but I'll tell you what I do know and let Gram fill in the rest another time."

"Okay."

"You already know that your mother spent a year here when she wasn't much older than you are now. What you don't know is why." She grabbed a photo album from the shelf and sat by me on the couch. She flipped to a picture of two girls standing side by side, all smiles. "Her mom, Stormie and my mom, Windy; not Wendy, Windy and yes, there is clearly a story there, but I don't know it. Anyway Stormie and Windy were identical twins and were very close. While Windy married my dad, Stormie remained unattached and lived with my parents until your mom was born. Now my dad was your mom's favorite uncle and it seemed that she was his favorite niece. Now, he died of cancer when I was twenty-two; she was sixteen."

She flipped through the pages showing me my mother's childhood along with her own. They all looked so happy I couldn't understand why Mom never talked about them. "Just before he died, when he knew he didn't have much time left, he called all of us kids into his room. Me and my five siblings along with your mom which we found odd because, as you can see in this picture, we had a lot of cousins, not just Sarah. Dad was one of seven and Mom was one of four and they all had kids. There was over forty of us by the time he passed. He told the seven of us that day that he was your mom's father."