Her brothers were not little children. She picked up a towel and looked at them as she shook it straight. Aeden wasn’t wearing a shirt and his muscles bulged when he caught the small ball and sent it flying back to Donovan, who was affectionately called “Donnie” by everyone in their little New York country town. The population was mostly Irish and many were kin to each other. She herself had many relatives nearby. It was like they had just brought Ireland over to New York and claimed a bit of land.
But the officials in town weren’t Irish. They were Americans and they let all the Irish people know it. She didn’t like it. She didn’t like the way they treated her relatives one bit.
Gabby’s thoughts ran in roundabout fashion, coming back to her personal situation when her eyes focused on her brothers again. They had stopped throwing the ball and were wrestling all over the lawn. Donnie’s shirt was also off and their tan bodies were sweaty. She reached up, pulling her apron up to her forehead and wiping her own sweat away.
They weren’t expected to do any chores around the house. Gabby’s family owned one of the largest general stores in town. Aeden and Donnie ran it. She narrowed her eyes, throwing yet another sheet up on the line to dry. She straightened it, stewing in her exasperation. They didn’t really do anything. They just told other people what to do. They never did anything around the house.
She heard a bell ringing from inside the house and peered in through one of the windows on the second floor. She saw a hand waving. Her grandmother needed something. She glanced over at her brothers, who had now stopped wrestling and were just sitting in the grass, talking. They didn’t move. She knew they heard that bell. But were they going to go help Nana? No. Of course they weren’t.
She sighed heavily and abandoned the remaining part of the wet laundry to attend to her grandmother. Both of her grandparents were elderly and frail. It seemed amazing that she had lost both her parents, who had been so strong and vibrant, in a tragic train accident and was left with grandparents who couldn’t even get out of bed by themselves most of the time.
She was disgusted that all her life was about was cleaning, caring for her grandparents – though she truly did love them – and doing menial chores like an old spinster. She didn’t go into town to do anything, she had only a handful of friends and they were marrying off faster than she could blink.
Gabby went up the stairs to the second floor with determined feet.
One foot after the other, she thought. This is the way it’s always going to be for me. Aeden and Donnie will never do anything but frolic with the ladies in town and take care of themselves.
She pushed open the door to her grandmother’s room and went in.
“You all right, Nana? What can I get for you?” She smiled as she went in the room, not wanting to give her grandma the impression she didn’t want to be there helping her. She cared for the old woman greatly, whether or not she wanted to be stuck in her life like this forever.
“Hello, little flower.” Her grandmother was tiny, sitting in a rolling chair near her window where she’d been looking out. “Little flower” was always what Nana called her and she didn’t mind. It was better than Gabby, a name she had despised from the first time it had come from her brother’s mouth. Her older brother, Aeden, had first called her that and the rest of them just followed along. As usual. Except for Nana. Nana always called her “little flower” no matter how big she got and gave her a sweet smile to go along with it. “Do you think you could make me a cup of hot tea?”
“I would love to.” She nodded. “I’ll be right back.”
Anxious to retrieve hot tea for her Nana as quickly as she could, she hurried down the stairs and into the kitchen. One glance out the window told Gabby her brothers had not bothered to help her out by finishing the laundry for her. But it was okay. The two sheets and cases she’d left in the basket where theirs. They would have to deal with wrinkled sheets.
She set a pot on the stove and waited for the water to heat up. She set the flame to the highest she could and waited. She took another smaller pot and set it on one of the other areas of the cooking-stove and dropped in three heaping spoonfuls of tea. When the water was boiling, she poured it over the tea, enough to make at least three cups worth.
When the tea was brewed to her satisfaction, she removed it from the heat and poured it into two mugs, one for her and one for her Nana.
She took the two steaming cups of liquid up the stairs carefully and pushed Nana’s door open with her backside. “Here we go, Nana. I thought I’d join you for a bit of tea, if you don’t mind.”
“Oh of course not, dearie.” The old woman replied. “I love to sit and have time with my garin?on! I love to talk to you.”