sneaky

I got a call from my grandma last night.

‘Neily can you come over? I need to speak with you. Its very important’ she said in a frail voice barely audible through my cell phone. We often have trouble speaking to each other over the phone because I have an accent she can hardly understand (even though she was born in Australia and her sisters and brother live there) and she has a voice that is so quiet that she could fool one of those animals that can hear their predators from miles away – I cant think of any!

‘Ok, grandma. Is everything alright? Ill be there after work. Around 5:15pm’ with that I hung up the phone and wondered why she would make such a call. She never calls me, for the very reason I mentioned before so I usually just pop over once a week to say hello to her and my ailing grandpa who is riddled with cancer and has deteriorated so much he thinks he is still on the Air Force some 60 years after retirement.

The next day at work I had a field trip to one of our projects to assess what the recent storm had done and on the way I figured I would stop by grandmas house to see what the previous nights phone all was about.

Ding dong…

The door opens and standing before me is my mum. She sneaked into the country without anyone knowing, both of us startled because she was expecting me at 5:15pm and I was expecting the maid.

Grandma had mischievisly called me to come over so I would be surprised by mum. Everyone had gotten a shock but I was particularly happy for my grandparents because my grandpa is bored and has nothing to do all day and my grandma is finding things hard to deal with because she is lonely being with a man who doesn’t remember her or what they last had a conversation about.

My mum is here for 2 ½ weeks. She is sure to get on my nerves but I think I can handle it so long as she gives my grandpa his second wind and gives grandma some conversation worth remembering.