I sat at the tiny table and pulled out my book.
“What are you reading?” Her frail voice surprised me.
“Just a romance,” I said.
She sat up. “Did I fall asleep? What time is it?”
I looked at my watch. “Six fifteen.”
“Early still. I must be worn out from yesterday.”
I think she knew why she was worn out. We both did.
“Do you need anything?” I asked, getting up.
“No. I’m just enjoying the quiet. It’s been a train station around here this week.”
“Do you want me to shorten the visits?” I asked.
“Oh no. I’ll rest when I’m dead.”
“Ha.”
She smiled. “Come over here. I want to give you something.”
I put my book face down on the table and made my way to her bedside.
She slipped her jade bracelet off her wrist. “Here. This is yours.”
My face went soft. “Grandma, I can’t take this. Grandpa gave you this.”
“You can take it. I don’t want to be buried in it. In fact, I don’t want to be buried in any of my jewelry.”
“What about your wedding ring?” I said.
“No. People bury the silliest things. Why would you throw something like that away?”
“Because it’s yours. It should be with you.”
She shook her head. “Let it be with someone who will love it. Sell it if you don’t want it. Let it be a gift for a stranger. Things should bring joy. If these organs weren’t ninety years old, I’d say don’t bury these either. Donate them so someone else can live.”
I smiled a little. That was very her.
I peered around the dim room, the sunlight etching the edges of the drawn curtain.
“You know what I wish I would have done?” she asked.
“What?”
“Had sex with strangers.”
I barked out a laugh.
“What?” she said. “It’s true. That’s not how things were for women back then, we didn’t have birth control like we do now. Lord knows I would have taken some of those men up on the offers I got—before your grandfather, of course.”
“Of course.”
She sighed. “You’re so lucky to be young when you are. When I was your age, women couldn’t even serve on a jury. Couldn’t run a marathon or get a credit card without your husband’s permission. Now you don’t even have to get married.” She took the bracelet from my hand and slipped it on my wrist.
I held it up to look at it.
“It’s perfect on you,” she said. Then she closed her eyes again. “I just need to rest a little. I still have so many things to tell you. Maybe tomorrow. I think I will take a little of that pain medicine,” she said. “If you have time.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and went to get her morphine.
When she fell asleep, I slipped out for a few minutes to get some air. There was a courtyard in the complex. It had some pretty landscaping and a bench. I wanted to sit there, clear my head. Touch some grass.
I stopped at my car to get a sweater first. When I got there, I checked the tire to see if the card was still there. It wasn’t. There was a nurse bobblehead instead.
She was in light-blue scrubs with a stethoscope around her neck. She had brown hair like me—a coincidence, I’m sure. There was a little note attached.
H, I saw this and I had to get it for you, so you can tell your car apart in the endless sea of white Hondas. Thanks for the gift card. I was glad to help.
I laughed and held it, leaning against my door. I loved it.
I don’t know how, but it felt like this stranger was a guardian angel. Like the universe had put him here to be there when I needed him with his small giant acts of kindness.
That’s the thing about kindness. You never know how big the ripple is. How one little selfless gesture can make all the difference for the person who receives it.
When I got home, I was going to make a small Thank You sign out of cardboard and glue it to the bobblehead so it looked like she was holding it. I’d put it on my dash in my car so he’d see it the next time he walked past. I hoped he got to see it.
Because I wouldn’t have a reason to come here much longer.
John
CHAPTER 8
Iwas out in the courtyard, walking Doobie. We’d just gotten back from the store. I’d had to run out to Home Depot again for caulk. Frank said he got some, but what he actually got was a bottle of glue.
How my brother and I sprang from the same parents and were raised in the same house was beyond me.