After we dropped off the biscuits at Jura’s, it was nearly nine. The night air was thick with an unseasonable fog.
“Curious weather,” Miz Tromp said. “Do you mind if I—?” She pointed at the radio.
Tom said that would be fine.
“. . . thirty percent chance of snow with temperatures dipping below freezing,” the radio announcer said. “The Department of Transportation warns commuters to expect delays in the morning. Y’all be sure to drive careful.”
“I’m glad we left when we did,” Tom observed. “As it is, you three might need to stay overnight.”
Stirring things up with Penny Walton and spending the whole night out? Gram would be beside herself!
I reckoned there was no point in putting it off now. “Tom, could I borrow your phone?”
He passed it to me gladly enough, but it took some help from Travis to figure out how the dang thing worked. Finally, though, I managed to dial home.
Gram answered on the eleventh ring.
“You all right, Gram?” I asked.
“Fine, fine. I was just nodding off,” she replied. “What time is it?”
“It’s late,” I replied. “Listen. I need to tell you something, so try not to worry, all right?”
That caught her attention. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine. Everything’s fine. It’s just, um, I may be spending the night out.”
“Out! Don’t be silly! Out!” She laughed.
“I mean it, Gram. Something’s come up.” And then I told it to her. All of it. Edie’s tears, Penny’s sickness, the bad weather. “We might have to wait for the roads to thaw in the morning.”
Gram was silent for a time.
You could have knocked me over with a feather when she finally said, “That’s a good idea, Gen. You don’t want to be traveling if the roads get icy.”
“So—you’re not mad?” I asked.
“Mad that my girl wants to help a neighbor? Mad that she can’t let the suffering of another human soul pass her by? This is what the legacy’s for, Gen. To help. To heal.”
“B-but what about Loreen Walton, and Ma, and all that big to-do?” I protested. “What about small wishes and not offending folks?”
She sighed. “I was being silly.”
“Gram, you’re never silly!”
“Not true! Remember the year I decorated my Easter hat with caladium leaves because the lilies didn’t bloom? That was downright silly, if you ask me.”
That had been silly, but still—“Gram, what on earth has gotten into you? Just a few days ago, you were full of dire warnings and woeful tales!”
“Life is short, Gen. We got to do what good we can,” was all she said.
“What about Penny’s sickness?” I wanted to know. “Can the stars cure it?”
“Truthfully, Gen, I think they can do most anything,” Gram replied. “But we have to let them. If Penny is willing, the stars’ll answer. If she’s not, well then, bless her heart and come on home.”
I thought that over. “Some people think when it’s your time to go, you ought to face your destiny with your head held high.”
“So they do.”
“How’s a person to know which is which? When it’s destiny and when to let the stars help out?”
“I reckon . . . there’s a certain quiet knowing,” she told me.
I looked over to see the glint of the streetlights reflected in Travis’s eyes. I reached out and poked him in the knee. Not sure why. Maybe I wanted to check-see if he was really there.
“You’re sure this is all right with you?” I asked Gram. “Will you be all right alone tonight?”
A little snappishly, she replied, “I’m a grown woman, ain’t I?”
“Well . . . all right, then,” I said. “See you around lunchtime, prob’ly.”
“Come at your own gait, honey.”
She hung up.
I held out the phone so Travis could shut it off.
“Everything fine?” he asked.
“Ye-ah.” I gave an uneasy shrug. “Something just feels, I dunno, peculiar.”
He glanced at Tom and Miz Tromp in the front of the jeep. “I know what you mean.”
Somewhere about midway through the drive, I drifted off. When I woke, my head was on Travis’s shoulder.
“Sorry,” I said, peering through my unruly hair. “I didn’t drool on you or anything, did I?”
He laughed. “No.”
Up front, Miz Tromp rifled through her bag and came out with a water bottle for each of us. She handed one apiece to Travis and me, then murmured something to Tom. He smiled and took a bottle.
“Can I ask you something?” Travis asked me.
“Sure.”
“How come you wanted me to come along tonight?”
“I couldn’t very well invite your ma and leave you sitting at home,” I teased.
“Naw. Really.”
The truth was, it had just seemed like the natural thing to do. I was getting used to having Travis around. If I was gonna do something hard, he should be there.
“I reckon it’s because”—I chewed on my lip—“you help me feel strong.”
For a second, I thought he was going to try to hold my hand. He seemed to think better of it, though, and gently bumped me on the arm with his fist.
“Someday soon, I’m gonna ask you to wish-fetch me a new pair of pants,” he said.
“Oh? Why’s that?” I asked.
“’Cause you sure do make a fella feel like he’s too big for his britches.”
It was deep dark when Tom pulled his jeep into the Ardenville Cancer Center. The halls were quiet, and most of the patients were asleep. When I glimpsed Penny from the hallway, though, she sat wide awake, a mound of pillows and plush toys threatening to crowd her off her own bed. In the harsh hospital lights, her skin had a troubling, greenish cast. But it was still Penny, poised with a pen over one of those sudoku books, looking as angry as I’d ever seen her.
I was crossing her threshold when she swore, “Dang fool thing!” and threw the booklet across the room. It landed at my feet.
Penny saw me and snarled. “You!”
I picked up her game book and set it on a table. “Miz, uh—”
“W-who! Who told you?”