Unfaded Read Free Page B

Johnny Cash. She loved music and even had her own iPod, something that I had insisted on getting her last Christmas. She was holding it in both hands, swaying back and forth, and the volume was up really loud since she was almost deaf. I could hear Johnny singing about a Boy named Sue.
    “Hi Granny.” I turned on the lights and waved at her. She smiled and waved back but there was no recognition in her eyes. Granny had Alzheimer’s so talking to her could sometimes be a real challenge. She forgot things like where she was and she was doing half the time. Sometimes she’d wander off and we’d have to go looking for her. She didn’t always know who I was either.
    “Hello Helen,” Granny said. Helen was my mother’s name. Sometimes she got the two of us confused. She used to tell me stories about her when I was a little girl. She still talks about her but more in the way someone with Alzheimer’s talks about people in the past. Usually the events will spill from her mouth with no rhyme or reason.
                  “I’m Myra, Granny,” I said. Sometimes it sunk in.
                  “Ok, Helen.”
                  Sometimes not.
                  I helped Granny down to the table for dinner which went uneventfully. Usually when there are accidents on the highway Dad manages to use it as a perfect opportunity to lecture me on unsafe driving. He thinks Connor drives too fast. I think he’s being too old. Dad forgets what it’s like to be young but every now and then you can get him talking about his youth. He used to race cars back in the day and even he’ll admit he used to drive a whole lot scarier than my boyfriend.
                  But tonight Dad must have had something else on his mind because he didn’t say a single word about our crash visitors. He had a look on his face as if he was trying to figure out nuclear physics. The frown lines on his forehead were deeply impacted and he barely touched his meal.
                  Of course my phone rang halfway through dinner. I jumped out of my seat and was halfway across the living room to grab it out of my jacket.
                  “Mai, what have I told you about that damn phone?”
                  “Sorry, Dad,” I said. “But I’m expecting a call.” I picked it up and checked the caller id. It was Connor.
                  “Dinner is family time,” Dad yelled from the table. “Tell that boy of yours to stop calling while we’re eating.”
                  “I will,” I said and I answered the phone.
                  “Hey,” Connor said. “Wanna meet up at Bean’s in an hour? Study night?”
                  Bean Town was the local hangout for the teenagers. It had internet and late hours which made it appealing to those who actually studied. For others, it was a place to hang out and get wired on lots of mochas and espresso. My group of friends were kind of in the middle. Sometimes we studied; mostly we hung out and had a good time.
                  I glanced back at Dad and Marley and they weren’t paying attention to me in the slightest. Granny had spilled some of her chilli on the floor and was trying to pick it up with her fingers. Marley knocked her chair over in her mad rush to clean before tomato sauce ended up everywhere.
                  “Yeah, Ok,” I said. “Do you want to meet there?”
                  “Sure,” he said. “Love ya.”
                  “Love ya.”
                  Back at the table no one lectured me a second time. Marley and Dad were used to my interruptions, regardless of how annoying. It’s not that I hadn’t tried to get Connor to stop calling during dinner. He just kept forgetting.
                  “I’m going to be at Beans tonight,” I said as I forced a mouthful of chilli. “I’ve got a big