Grandpa

It is Christmas morning. The whole family is up and together in the living room getting ready to unwrap the presents together.

“Can you help your grandma get the grandpa please?”

“Grandma, what do you mean– “

I pulled little Cathy away casually and tilted my chin towards my brother for some help.

Frank: “He must be in the garage with the car, it was sounding bad after my drive down from up North yesterday, but he can’t seem to leave it alone. He will probably be down after a while.”

“Alright, remember to get the old man down before the Christmas lunch, it wouldn’t be nice for him to miss that.” Grandma lamented.

The four-year old quickly turned her attention to the iPad while fidgeting with her nails, suddenly exclaiming: “Where is Mr Pickles?”

Tom and Jerry must have reminded her.

 I handed her one of her presents to distract her, a do-it-yourself bracelet set that my brother have got for her and gift wrapped in her favourite colour, pink. The attention span of a four-year old…

“I can’t believe you didn’t make an appointment for grandpa last week; he is looking quite uncomfortable and I think we should accompany him for it as soon as possible.”

“I had a lot of work on my hands as of late. Why don’t you do it yourself? The earliest I am available is next week. Take it or leave it. “Frank is visibly annoyed at my suggestion.

Grandpa uncomfortably shifted himself into another position. With his eyes shut, he briefly shook his head.

Eddie, Frank’s only child came over out of curiosity. “I can do it if both of you are not free, I am quite close to grandpa myself.”

“No, you are too young to do so. They will not let you in. Why do you go play with Cathy and help her with opening the presents?” Frank lightly teased his son.

Eddie skipped over to his young cousin.

“Hey Cathy, why don’t we unwrap all your Christmas presents? I am sure we can be done before lunch, you do it so fast!” cajoling the little girl.

Smiling, Cathy started unwrapping as messily as possible.

Finally letting me get a breather as that will keep her attention for some time.

The Christmas carolling began at 11 am sharp, with a pop style spin on them. It seemed to be on every channel on the television.

“Can you believe what is on broadcast on the television nowadays? I think that grandpa will really appreciate it if you go right down to the garage and get him now. I would very much like to give him a hug before the meal.” Grandma demands.

Eddie coolly replied: “Give him a break, he ought to be here in a couple of minutes. Don’t want to anger him on such a special day, yeah?”

My mother gave a slight nod to her grandson unwillingly.

Sometimes I cannot help but love this boy and his way of putting words.

I headed back in the kitchen to help with preparing the last dish of today’s lunch with my sister-in-law, Jan – stuffing the turkey before putting it in the oven.

Jan whispered,” Has she started asking already? It is always around times like these it is good to have family around. Maybe we will consider moving back nearby in a couple of months before Eddie’s enrolment for high school to spend more time together, I have been discussing some plans with Frank recently”

I softly replied, “Do what’s best for Eddie, mom can still take care of herself independently and if anything, I can come right down in 30 minutes.”

With the turkey in the oven, we have about 30 minutes till it is mealtime.

Continuing with some catch-up and small talk in the kitchen away from kids until Frank scrambled in.

Frank: “Ladies, sorry to disturb but have you seen Cathy? She is not in the living room after I came out of the washroom, and Eddie was on his phone with his friends for a while so– “

Upstairs in the kids bedroom, Cathy climbed up the chair and on the table.

While gingerly opening the hamster cage, exclaiming: “Come here Mr Pickles!”

Great, now I know where she is.

Stroking it for a couple of times, she carefully placed it back into the cage and hopped down the table.

“There you are!” I hugged my little one.

“Why was grandma asking for grandpa again? Isn’t he right there?” Cathy asked innocently.

“What do you mean, sweetie? He is in the garage with the car, remember?”

“He was right there with us in the living room just now. Sitting on the couch reading newspapers.” Cathy explained calmly.

My head tilted unwillingly.

“Sweetie…there are no papers today. It is Christmas day, there is no one printing papers and sending them to us today. Maybe you have seen wrongly?”

“I mean, my grandpa. He even looked up and smiled at me when grandma first asked me the question. I don’t get why she was asking about him again.” She is annoyed now.

I cannot hide my expression – it was a mixture of shock and confusion.

Christmas gatherings used to happen every few years as the children grew up, established their respective careers, and started their own family. It was not until a death in the family that changed the us and brought everyone back together more frequently. Grandpa the cat filled the gap that her husband did. Selective memories exist in the old lady’s brain nowadays and it seems that as she grew older it is a good thing as the memories that she kept are the happy ones and helps her push on in her old age.

Back in the garage, the lazy cat purred. Freshly awaken from a nap on top of the barely warm engine, it meowed as an indication of hunger. Grandpa then carefully stretched himself and slowly headed towards the living room for his lunch.