Chapter 1 #3
“I feel like I’m about healed up, too. It’s amazing.
I’ve never felt like this after a good beating from them.
” Pop-pop told her that he wished he could have done more, but he’d been afraid of them hurting him, too.
“You did the right thing in hiding from them. Don’t ever put yourself in a position where you are going to be hurt by them for me.
I should have known that they’d be around.
They just caught me off guard there, and it won’t happen again.
Not so long as I can get the jump on them. ”
“It scared me a bit when you could barely breathe. And all that blood, too. I never seen the likes of it.” She watched as he shivered and put his slice back on the box.
“I tell you something, baby girl. I’m thinking that I’m getting too old to have them coming here and beating on me.
I’ve been thinking of giving you this house and moving into a nursing home.
I’ve even been looking at the best ones. ”
“We don’t need to talk about that now, do we?
” He nodded and told her that he’d given it a great deal of thought and wanted her to take him to the one he’d been looking at.
“I don’t want you to do that, but if you have your heart set on it, I’ll take you there in the morning.
I sure will miss coming here to be with you. ”
“That’s the thing about this place I’ve been looking into.
It has two bedrooms for those who want them, and you could stay with me for a while when you come home.
You don’t have that much longer to go, do you?
” She told him how many days she had left to be in the service.
“No time at all when you think about how long you’ve been in it.
I tell you, it was the best advice I could have given you when you turned eighteen and joined the service.
You’ve been able to help me when I needed it, and I’ve loved all the stories that you’ve told me.
Those are stories that I’m going to take to my Sally when I go.
She’ll be tickled pink that I have so much to tell her. ”
“She will at that.” She thought about the nursing home and knew that if he’d done any research on it, she’d be happy with what he was doing. “I’ll take you there tomorrow. How much more than your check is it going to cost you? You know that I’ll help you when you need it.”
“Nothing much more than what I’m paying now.
Without having to pay for the utilities and such, I’d be coming out ahead.
Not to mention I’d be getting three meals a day that I don’t have to mess with.
I like that part best of all. And having a nice room for you to stay in when you come to visit me.
The best part is that I’ll be safe from my son and grandsons.
They won’t be able to get into the place without me telling them that it’s all right.
I decided that the only person that I’m going to allow to visit me is you.
” He took her hand into his much larger one and patted it.
“I love you, Molly, my dear. I miss you so much when you’re gone. ”
“I love you, Pop-pop.” He wiped his napkin over his face and told her that he loved her more. “We’ll head over there in the morning to get you signed in. With dad in the hospital still, we’ll be able to get you there without him knowing. I think that’s going to be our best bet in keeping you safe.”
“This will work out better, you’ll see.” He finished up his half of the pizza and took one of her slices.
She wasn’t as hungry as he’d been, apparently, and she was glad that he had such a good appetite.
He wasn’t a big man, but tall. Since he’d always eaten so well, she never worried about him having any trouble with being too thin.
She loved the old man and would move heaven and earth for him if there was something that he needed.
The next morning, after pancakes for breakfast that she’d made them, he was ready to go.
He’d even been packed to stay when they got the paperwork finished.
He’d really put a lot of thought into this, and she was happy that he was going to be safe.
Now, if she could figure out a way to make herself safe, she’d feel so much better.
But she was leaving in a few days and would be about as far from them as she could get.
They wouldn’t know how to get in touch with her either.
The place had charm, she’d give it that. As soon as the paperwork had been filled out and filed, he was set to be living there. As he pulled out his luggage from her rental, she felt like he was running away from home and told him as much.
“I sort of feel like that. Like I’m on some new adventure too.” He laughed, and she had to smile. “This will be one more thing that I can do for myself before I’m kicking up roses. You’ll come here to visit me, won’t you, little bit?”
“Nothing could keep me away.” He nodded as they set up his room.
he wasn’t allowed to cook in his room, for which she was grateful, and he could have a coffee pot so long as he didn’t leave it on all the time.
He only drank one cup a day and rarely, if ever, had more than that.
She was just putting the last of his clothing away when he turned to her.
“What is it? Have you changed your mind already?”
“The house is in your name. It has been since you were home the last time.” She said that he didn’t have to do that. “I do. It belongs to you. Please tell me that you’re going to find you a nice young man and bring the house to life again.”
“I’ll look, but the chances aren’t all that good that someone is going to take me on with my family around.
” He told her that he’d feel better about things if she were to at least try.
“I’ll try. I don’t want anything to do with the men that I see every day.
Perhaps when I get out, I’ll find me a nice young man and have twenty babies. How about that?”
“So long as you’re happy and safe, I don’t care if you have fifty children.
” They both laughed, and she hugged him.
“Now, let’s go see what they have to offer for lunch.
That was nice of the woman who signed me in to tell us that you could join me for lunch.
I think that my first meal here should be with the one person that I love more than I do myself. ”
The lunch was better than she thought it would be.
It was stroganoff and homemade noodles. She had a bit of sour cream on hers, and he sopped up his gravy with her slices of bread.
She thought her grandda looked better than he had in the last few days, and she thought that he’d figured that she’d not be all right with him moving into the nursing home.
It was more like an assisted living, but she was fine with it.
Telling him that she felt better about him being someplace where someone was going to be watching over him made them both feel good.
As soon as she was ready to leave, they both got teary-eyed.
“I’m going to miss you tonight.” He said that he’d call her later. “You’d better. I can’t go to sleep without you telling me goodnight.”
“I know the feeling.” He didn’t tell her goodbye like he would have if she were leaving him.
Instead, he told her that he’d see her later.
On the way home, she bawled her eyes out, missing him already, but she knew in her heart that this was for the best, no matter how much she didn’t like being in the big house all on her own.
The house seemed so empty to her now. Since she wanted to stay there until she had to leave, she ran the vacuum and did the few dishes from this morning.
By the time she was finished dusting, Molly figured that she’d cried about a bucket of tears and was missing her grandda more than she thought possible.
She kept telling herself that he was safe and that’s all that mattered.