“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Putting the silverware drawer in order. Your mother never did understand how to properly organize a kitchen. Which reminds me, I put the whiskey glasses with the water glasses because it just doesn’t make sense to have two cupboards for glasses, especially when you live here all by yourself. Who needs this many glasses?”
“You don’t think it makes sense to keep the whiskey glasses – oh, I don’t know – with the whiskey?”
“There’s no reason you can’t come in here to get a glass when you need one, no matter what it’s for. Your mother always did spoil you with all these things. I’ve never seen anyone with so many things.”
Zach forced himself to take a deep breath. It wasn’t that he thought his mother had been perfect – it was just that he didn’t appreciate other people badmouthing her. Especially when it came to his father’s mother, who had never liked her daughter-in-law and had never given her the respect she deserved for being a fantastic mother, flaws and all. And besides, it wasn’t like Grandma was any better…
But Zach knew where this train of thought led and it was never as satisfying as it initially promised to be. So he took another deep breath and walked away, clenching and unclenching his fists to relieve the tension.
Just ten more weeks, he told himself. Just ten more weeks and then I can send her off to Arizona and then she’s someone else’s problem.
************************************************************************
“Zach, listen, we’re not going to be able to take Grandma next month.”
“What?” Zach gripped the phone closer to his ear, as if he hadn’t heard his sister correctly, and by holding the phone closer he would hear what she surely meant to say, which is that they would be able to take the old woman off his hands earlier, not later. Certainly, they wouldn’t leave her with him indefinitely.
“I’m sorry, but Marie just got a new job in New York, so we’re pretty swamped with packing up and moving.”
“I can send her to New York when you get there.”
“Zach, we can’t bring her out there. She got lost the last time she came out here and couldn’t figure out how to use her cell phone to call someone for directions. She’ll be hopeless in New York. It’s just not safe for her.”
“And what makes you think she’s safe with me?”
“Zach?”
Zach breathed in for four seconds and out for four seconds, then in again before responding. “She’s talking trash about Mom.”
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry. I know that’s hard to hear, but I’m sure she doesn’t mean anything by it. I think she really did love Mom, you know, in her own way.”
“If that way is condescending and judgmental, then she can shove her love where the sun don’t shine.”
“Come on, Zach, she’s Grandma.”
“And she was Mom.”
There was a pause before his sister replied. “I know. I miss her, too.”
“And yet you’re not here listening to this.”
“I’m sorry, Zach, but I have other responsibilities.”
Zach hung up.
To be continued…