Those Who See Them

Granny was different in many ways, and some people just said she was crazy. Now people were starting to think Summer wasn’t right.   She could feel something about to happen before it did. But Granny wondered if everyone had that ability but only some people chose to use it, as it was easier to not see something happening.

Summer squinted when she walked out to the parking lot. She had been feeling tired a lot lately and was becoming more sensitive to lights. Was she losing what was left of her mind?  Did she really do those things she had been accused of doing? She stood beneath the cumulus cloud and felt no joy. A branch crackled somewhere in her mind. a gust of wind rushed through the leaves.  She stared ahead; there was no redemption or deliverance. She heard the sounds of voices and imagined them returning from distant places, moving through a dump truck town.  The golden leaves were her friends and they fell so quickly. soon the trees would be barren again. she had the feeling that she could know someone she’d already known for a long time.

The word theft kept going through her mind. When she opened her car door, she noticed her Visa card was on the car seat. Did it just fall out of her pocketbook? She would check her card when she got home. She thought about how she had gotten drunk with Hal the week before she was arrested. When she returned from using the restroom, he was snickering and playing on her laptop. She was afraid again: of mornings, afternoons, and especially evenings.

She had always thought there was something odd about the University. She felt a queasy feeling in her stomach prior to the Uncle Fester fiasco.  The presence she felt was more palpable whenever she walked down the halls of the fine arts building. She wondered if the place had done something horrible to someone else. She returns to the place daily; like a stranger-a mere shadow of herself.

After Summer revved up the engine, she tried to remember everything that occurred during the past week. Events became more distorted, and memory never seemed reliable anyway.   Theft.  Theft. Theft. Theft. Her eyes ran in panic. She had felt tired and dizzy and had moments when it was difficult to stand. Was it just from all the stress or was she getting sick?

Summer floored it through the yellow light and headed towards the East side of town. She drove through her grandmother’s neighborhood that had been a mill village. The town was renovating the old mill village. She pulled into her grandmother’s white clapboard house.  Granny had been putting out all her fall décor. Summer admired the fall wreath on the porch door.

Summer knocked three times, and the blinds finally moved. Her grandmother would not answer the door for everyone, so she would peek through the blinds.

“What you want?” Granny said.

“Just stopped by to say hello.”

“Well hello,” Granny said and playfully shut the door. Granny usually didn’t come to the door for other people.  Granny noticed the birthmark on Summer’s neck. Granny had a birthmark in the same location. It skipped a generation, as her daughter didn’t have one. Granny touched in neck. 

Summer waited for Granny to open the door again.

“Just made a lemon pound cake. You’re in luck. “ 

“Thanks,” Summer said. Her stomach rumbled.

Summer sat down at the oak table while sliced the cake. No one could make pound cake like Granny. 

“So what you got yourself into? “

Granny placed a bowl in front of her. Granny sat down at the table. Her eyes narrowed.

“Nothing new,” Summer said.

“It don’t matter if you did anything. . Cause people think you did it. And I told you, you only got one shot at getting that degree, so you can get you a good job.”

Summer wanted to say, “Thanks for the encouragement, Granny,” but she bit her tongue. Even though Granny was the least judgmental person in her family, it still seemed like everything was always her fault. It has always been that way since she was little, so he was constantly second-guessing herself.

“I still don’t understand what happened.”

“Yeah, well you done messed up things for your stepdaddy cause his realtor won’t have anything to do with him anymore. ”

Summer took a sip of tea.

“It’s all so strange

“That big lying lazy lump just makes me livid. I never did like that Hal. Mr. silly britches,” Granny said.

Summer bit her lip.

“Have you decided what you’re gonna do?”

Summer shrugged.

Granny’s eyes studied the angles in her face.

“You can’t just sit around and wait for someone to get you out of this mess. Time to come up with a plan. “

summer nodded and played with her napkin.

“I will.” But she found it was so hard to make a decision about anything; even though a part of her wanted to fight back as hard as she could. No, she would not go gently into that night. Summer saw a million bloody glass shards and then the image disappeared before it appeared. She was having more of these spacing-out moments.

 “You come from a line of stubborn women,” Granny said. 

“That girl is just crazy. Wants attention.”

Granny nodded. 

 Sometimes the fun thing about getting into something is getting out of it. Just make sure it’s worth it,” Granny said. Granny picked up the telephone directory. Summer hadn’t used a directory in years and wondered if she could ever teach her grandmother to use the Internet. Her grandmother was still trying to get used to having a cell phone.

Granny glanced at the telephone directory. 

“Yes, Dickerson. The realtor. Yes, that family is something else. You need to go down to the records at the courthouse and find out what you can.”

Summer finished her last bite of cake.

“Want another piece?”

“No thank you.”

“Well, let’s go on in the living room.’ “

Summer placed her plate and fork on the counter. She followed her grandmother to the living room. Summer plopped down on the sofa. Granny sat in her recliner. Summer studied the cracks on the hardwood floors.

“You know we’re alike in some ways,” Granny said with a smirk.  Summer smiled. She suspected there were so many things she didn’t know about her grandmother. “I sense that you’re starting to figure out what you already knew.. And don’t let people convince you that you’re crazy. ” Granny said. Summer’s lip twitched.

“I think that sometimes,” Summer said. She started to have these pins and needles type of feeling. Yes, she always knew Granny was different. Summer could see things before they happened. Initially she thought it was all some coincidence, but now she sensed there was something more. She had dreams about being locked up months before the Uncle Fester Fiasco. And now she had dreams about standing in front of a large audience. What did it mean? That someday she would get to tell her side of the story?

Summer sensed something as transparent and clairvoyant as death. She shuddered and Granny looked pensive.

“I heard about some of the things you did.” Summer said trying to break the uncomfortable silence. 

Granny’s eyes sparkled. She was getting misty-eyed about her hell-raising days.

“There’s a lot you don’t know cause I never got caught. And there are things you do know and you know it’s better to just keep quiet about some things. ” Summer searched for clues in her grandmother’s face. What did she not know? What did her grandmother know about the situation that she didn’t? Granny always dropped little clues and wanted Summer to figure things out.

“You sometimes have to take the puzzle apart and put it back together again,” Granny said.

Summer leaned forward. 

“You know I’ve always heard these little voices that warned me about stuff. If only people would learn to listen.”

Summer wasn’t surprised that her grandmother heard voices. Somehow she knew. Maybe now she was starting to understand what Granny meant and she would have to learn to listen to those voices, or was it just a voice that came someplace from deep within her? She took a sip of tea. “ I suspect you have them too. People might think we’re a little off or something. But it’s just they don’t hear them. ” Granny cleared her throat. “Some people just refuse to hear and see right is what in front of them.”

Granny started to doze off. Summer pulled her cell phone out of her pocketbook and checked the time. 

Granny snored and then abruptly woke up.

“Want some cake?”

Summer shook her head.

Granny rubbed her eyes.

“You see we are alike in ways. Would you believe I saw this ghost at your mother’s once? It was your great-grandmother.”

Summer’s wrinkled her brow.

“Yeah, don’t you believe in ghosts?”

Summer shrugged.

“I believe in spirits,” she said.

“Yes, it’s all the same. And we can hear them,” Granny said. ”

Summer felt her pulse race. What was her

“I think you know,” Granny said. Summer looked at the picture of Rainbow Row and thought she saw a shadow moving across the picture, behind the buildings. It must’ve been the light.

“Yeah, you know what I mean,” Granny said. Granny looked over at the picture and then back at Summer. The picture took on the expression of someone who was unnerved.

Summer felt like someone wanted something from her, but she couldn’t figure out who or what. Someone thought she heard an unfamiliar name, a name she didn’t remember. A car door slammed in the distance.

“I gotta go.”

“Well, don’t be a stranger. “ Granny got up and walked Summer to the porch door. 

“Now you behave yourself.” Granny wagged her finger. 

“ And you get down to the courthouse.”

“Okay.” 

Granny stood by the door and waved while Summer back out of the driveway. She wondered how long Granny would stand in the driveway after she left.  Granny liked to sit on the porch and watch the critters and plants. Sometimes she’d sit in the Burger King parking lot and watch people for hours.

Granny pointed at the magnolia tree in her front yard.

“You be good to her,” she mumbled before she walked back into the house.

“She’s young,” Granny wagged her finger. 

Granny closed her eyes. She thought about the time her parents yelled at her for breaking a vase. She tried to explained she didn’t break the vase. Daddy gave her a whipping for lying. 

“It couldn’t break by itself,” he said.

Then there was the time her cousin was thrown to the ground after they had an altercation. Granny didn’t get a whipping that time, as her cousin was too shocked to say anything. The kids always regarded Granny with caution, and there was a loneliness that still haunted her. She would sit alone or play by herself. She heard her parents whispering at night about her. Eventually Granny learned what she needed to do in order to fit in.  She had to control her temper and her will. 

But she could use her will to somehow make things work out like the time she prevented the tree from falling on her neighbor’s house. Maybe it was too grandiose to believe such a thing. The dog woke the woman up before the tree crashed through the roof. It was the dog of course.

Granny also thought about her nephew who fixed the motors on boats and would sometimes get mad and take the motors apart. People would be him to fix them. Somehow she had finally convinced him to control his temper after he got drunk and destroyed the motor on a neighbor’s boat. There were some crazies in the family, but they all regarded her with respect. 

 Summer would need to figure things out, and maybe one day they both would be able to fly. 

 The wind blew Granny’s short black and silver hair. Her blue eyes sparkled. The autumn leaves appeared to be on fire.  Yes, Granny always found out what she needed to know, and her daughter had even more ability. She would learn, but it would take time.