Stacy Matthews - Dear Mary 01 - Think Twice Before You Order Read Free Page A

he has.
    The house was quiet and dark. Of course my mind jumped
straight to “he’s probably unconscious by now from the pain and or lack of
water.” I flipped the switch and the lights in the living room came on. I
haven’t been in this house since I was seven years old and it looks exactly
like I remember.
    Considering the year the house was built it has a very open
floor plan. From the doorway I could see the living room, dining room, and a
small part of the kitchen. None of which had an unconscious man on the floor.
As I made my way to hisbedroom, I checked all of the rooms down the hall, three
other bedrooms and the bath. I can’t believe it. You can fit almost two of my
apartments into just this section of the house. He is fifty some years older
than me and yet this house is cleaner than my 500-square-foot apartment. It
appears the cleaning gene skipped me as well. It's amazing how much I'm
learning about myself. Even more amazing is the fact that I'm actually writing
it down.
    I had tried to convince Grandpa to let the E-Mafia do a
little bit to help him. Maybe let them cook for him or some light housekeeping
and laundry. He refused. Said those women had been trying to get to him since
the day Grandma died. Turns out he had been doing all of it on his own, and I
am the one who is in need of someone to keep things in order, and would gladly
pay for them to do it.
    I made it to his room. Seeing as how the first two scenarios
hadn’t played out, thankfully, the obvious conclusion was when I opened the
bedroom door he would be lying across the bed. I kept my fingers crossed, took
a deep breath, and opened the door. The bed was neatly made and no one was
draped across it. I went to the bathroom and checked the medicine cabinet.
Everything was there, medicines, toothbrush, and shaving kit. I checked the
closet and it appeared all of his clothes were there. If he has gone on a trip
he's going to have to buy everything new. Nothing seemed to be out of place. I
made my way to the kitchen. No dishes in the sink, overflowing trash or
recyclables stacked up waiting to be taken to the bin.
    I am a much worse housekeeper than I thought. I knew I was
bad, but this is getting ridiculous. I thought maybe one of his friends would
know something, so I went to the “information center” as Grandpa likes to call
it. It’s the desk against the wall as you come in the kitchen. Even that was
organized. Above the desk is a bulletin board where he keeps a lot of pictures,
coupons, and little clippings from the newspaper. It's also where the phone is
located. As I was going through the drawers to find the address book, I
happened to notice several pictures of Grandpa and a woman I've never seen
before. They looked to be very close. Okay I can deal with this; Grandpa has a
girlfriend. I am a little surprised that he hadn’t mentioned it to me. I
thought we were closer than that, but I guess not. From the looks of it, they
have been together for a little while. There were pictures of them in the
backyard, by the lake fishing, and what looked to be like a party at someone’s
house. She is a very pretty woman, a little young for him I think, actually a
lot young. She can’t be much older than me, but I am glad to see he is getting
out.
    I found the address book and started thumbing through it. At
the front of the book there was the name Dr. Niemeyer and a phone number out to
the side. That was really the only name and number I didn’t recognize. The rest
of the book is filled with the numerous friends of my grandparents, most of
whom live here in town and a couple of distant relatives on Grandma’s side of
the family. I know Grandpa has a lot of friends, but not only would Charlie
know where or what Grandpa is up to, he would most likely be up to it with him.
It’s four thirty in the morning so I’ll wait and call him around seven. I’m
going to try and take a nap.
    Later

June 7 th
    Dear Mary,
    Well, I got a couple hours of sleep. I