Page 11 of Fly's Path

There doesn’t appear to be any visible bruising on her face or hands, but that doesn’t mean anything. It’s so easy to hide pain from the world around you. “Some days, I just need a good cry, but occasionally it helps to talk to someone about what I’m going through. A stranger. Someone who can just listen without judgment. A person who will walk out of your life as fast as they entered it.”

The tears slow, but don’t stop. “My grandson was hurt.”

Oh no.

“It’s bad. They sent him to a special clinic. Just like my son. I lost my son. Then I lost my husband. Now I’m going to lose my grandson, and I just…I can’t take losing one more family member.”

“You can handle it because you have to.”

The tears stop in that moment.

“You don’t get a choice to fall apart, because you haven’t lost him. People think it’s the hardest to be the sick one…the broken one. They’re wrong. It’s always the people who have to hold it all together for the ones who need them the most that experience unimaginable amounts of pain.”

“How? How do I do that when he won’t see me?”

That’s something that I understand. “Do you have a bad relationship?”

She shakes her head. “He loves me. He’s always been a good boy.”

“Has he told the medical facility that you can’t visit?”

“No.” She shakes her head.

“So, make him want you to visit. The food at those places is barely edible in the best circumstances. Terrible most of the time. Show up with food…his favorites. Bring a little extra for the nurses and staff.”

“Cook for him…”

“Or pick up food from his favorite restaurant if you don’t cook.”

The woman stares at me like she’s judging me. “Who was sick?”

What? “We aren’t talking about me.”

“Who was sick?”

Why not tell her? “My grandmother.”

“How long did you care for her?”

“Almost a decade.” And I still am, even though what I can do now is seriously limited. But that doesn’t seem to make it any easier mentally.

“Ahh.” She pats the cushion of the seat next to her. “Tell me about her.”

I sink down onto the surprisingly warm chair. How do I explain a woman who I love as much as I hate? “Grams wasalways the strongest person that I’ve ever known.” She definitely wasn’t the smartest or the kindest, but she made up for that with sheer determination. “When I was five, I moved in with her. She taught me all the things I needed to survive.” Never to thrive. But she didn’t know what that word meant. There was no point in her life that she did anything but make it through.

The woman smiles. “My grandson lights up a room when he walks inside it. I’ve never met anyone that just knows how to make people smile.”

Kids can be like that.

“Whenever he visits, he always runs up and gives me the biggest hugs. He’s such a good boy.”

Aww. She really loves the kid.

“Would you help me?”

Huh?

What?