I took a breath and slid up next him, fiddling with the candy bar getting soft against my leg. His hat was tipped crooked, and he too was fiddling, but with a cane, something I’d never seen him with before.
He moved his lips but didn’t make a sound. It felt like standing next to a ghost, and for the first time it really dawned on me: maybe Papa was sicker than I’d thought. Maybe the great man looking through me didn’t have a clue as to who I was at all. I could have been anyone off the street.
Papa looked me up and down. “What do you want?”
I stepped back, glanced around to see who was behind me. But it was just us. He was talking to me. I ducked my head and smiled. “What’d you say, Papa?”
I wasn’t sure if I heard him correctly. For a country minute, I stood there, looking at my grandfather and wondering if Mom had been right about me being here all the time. We certainly didn’t seem like family right then. I didn’t know this Papa, and he sure didn’t know me. It was like my whole life, everything we’d done together, had bloomed and died, the petals swept up and thrown away.
Behind him the fountain gurgled along. I swallowed down the lump in my throat and forced some sound in my voice. “It’s me, Papa. Caleb.” I pulled out my secret weapon, the melting chocolate bar from my pocket. “Brought you something you might like. It’s…”
He jabbed his cane at me. “I don’t need anything from you or the rest of them.”
He may as well have hit me with it, the way it felt. My own Papa stared me down without a trace of kinship. I’m not sure why it got to me so bad. Could’ve been the way it was broiling out there, or the way the sweat rolled off my armpit and down my rib cage. Or the way he said I was like the rest of them; how my own flesh and blood sat at some sad little fountain and forgot his whole life.
Man, for him to shoo me away like a stranger, well, I’m not ashamed to admit a big fat tear hit my cheek. And before I knew it, I’d dropped the soggy chocolate bar and ran for the door.
Inside, the cold air hit me head on, and I sprinted off, down the hallway and past those stupid paintings no one ever noticed.
How could he not remember? Was it a joke he was playing? If it was, I’d get him good for it.
The rest of them.
I wiped my eyes, running like I’d stolen something, working up to a full stride as I rounded the corner, ready to hit the front door and sprint all the way home. I’d teach myself to play guitar. I’d never come back again. See how he liked it then.
But when I turned, a blur of color appeared. I was hauling it pretty good, so there wasn’t much else to do but plant my foot down and duck before I crashed into a woman dressed like a rainbow. We both fell to the floor.
“Oh, heavens to Betsy,” she said. “Where’s the fire?”
The fire was on this woman’s head. Piled high and shiny, orange and red battling for supremacy. She was an explosion of color, on her scarf, her robe, and slippers. I scrambled to my feet.
“I’m so sorry. I was just…are you okay?” I looked back down the empty hallway.
“Oh, yes. I’m fine,” she said as I helped her to her feet. She fixed her turquoise scarf around her neck and brushed off her flowery robe. “Why, I haven’t been roughed up like that since my second husband took me out dancing.”
“I’m really sorry, ma’am,” I said, catching my breath and my tears. I felt all kinds of terrible. First Papa out there, and now I was tackling residents. At least she may have been a resident, but I wasn’t so sure. How could I have missed her? The way her red hair was nearly pulsing, deep and rich, casting its own blazing hue on the wall. And her eyes, so green with life, like the thick of the forest after a good rain.
I stood there with nothing to say. “Are you a…?”
“Edith Magnolia.”
She had a slight accent to her words that gave them an eloquent touch. She took my hand, her wrist rattling with silver bracelets. Her eye lashes fluttered and she held onto my hand but I couldn’t exactly take it back considering the circumstances.
“Well, aren’t you a piece of work?”
“I’m, well…” I couldn’t come up with anything to say. She was staring at me and smiling, and she still had my hand like I was handcuffed to her. Two nurses came rushing up to her aide.
“Mrs. Magnolia, are you all right, ma’am?” Miss Vickie and another nurse I didn’t know both looked at me like I was a stray dog.
“Oh, just wonderful,” Mrs. Magnolia said, nudging her hair with a palm. “I had no idea there’d be handsome young men to run into here. I should have come sooner.”
She let go of my hands and I knew I was blushing hard enough to blur my freckles by then. I’d forgotten all about my wet eyes until she wiped my cheek.
“Now listen, uh, um…”
“Caleb.”
“Caleb. Is everything okay, dear?”
I turned back toward the door, thinking how my own grandpa didn’t even recognize me. Now I had this colorful woman standing before me. “I don’t know.”
“Caleb, why don’t you join me in the dining hall, and we’ll discuss things.”
She hooked an arm in mine and the nurses backed off. I could tell by the way she spoke and carried herself she was a woman with some pull, and now she was pulling me down the hall toward the cafeteria.
We were sitting in the cafeteria when Miss Cheryl rushed in. Mrs. Magnolia assured everyone all was fine. Mrs. Magnolia looked at me and said it was only her first week at Autumn Springs and she was loving her stay so far. She was cracking me up, too, like when she said at eighty-four years old she was ready to be pampered. Literally.
Again, I could tell she was treated differently from the other residents. It was clear by the way Miss Cheryl nodded and nodded, then scolded me some with her eyes. It hurt, but there was no time to worry much about it because right then Papa walked in.
His face was still folded up with a scowl as he searched for an empty table or a bar fight; it was hard to say. I turned to Mrs. Magnolia. “Ma’am, could you excuse me for a moment? I have to check on my grandfather.”
Mrs. Magnolia’s face lit up with her smile, her reddish hair bouncing with her nods. “Oh, yes, my dear. Go right ahead.”
I approached Papa like I would a copperhead in the woods, not knowing who or what I’d find inside his bucket head. He looked at me and I stopped. “Hey.”
“Caleb.”
“Yeah, Caleb,” I said, fighting back a mist in my eyes. Truth be told, it would have crushed me if he hadn’t said it. And I’m not ashamed to admit I plowed into him with a hug.
He chuckled, that old grumbling laugh of his. “Oh, boy. What’s going on?”
I took a step back. Noticed some chocolate at the corners of his mouth. “What was that all about? Outside?”
“What? Oh, just my thinking time. I don’t like to be interrupted and those nurses are always coming out and pestering me.”
Fair enough. I was about ask if he knew it was me out there, but I figured it best to let it go when I saw Mrs. Magnolia watching us with a smile. “Hey Papa,” I said, looking him over. His hair was flopped over, his face was a mess. I smiled. “There’s someone I want you to meet.”