“Get up, sleepy eyes, we’re going to see Grandpa today!”
Yay! We liked seeing Grandpa, even if he hadn’t been feeling well lately. He lived in the big brown building with all of the other old people. His room smelled like stale pee, but he always had candy in the drawer for us. It was that weird licoricey candy in the red wrapper that wasn’t really a flavor. All the old people I’ve ever known have had that candy. I guess they probably ate it when they were kids, and just decided to stick with what they knew. I figured if I didn’t get my fill now I’d never get anymore. Those red-wrappered candies were dying out as fast as the old people.
Grandpa was cool because he liked to play games with us. We played the normal kids games, like Barrel of Monkeys and Cooties, and we played stuff that he’d make up when Mom dropped us off to stay with him for a few hours. We’d play braille, where we’d have to close our eyes and grandpa would make us touch stuff and tell him what it was. He’d also play hide and seek with his little red candies. Because he was bed-ridden, as Mom called it, we’d have to search through his sheets, and sometimes in his clothes to find the candy. He told us not to tell Mom about the games, probably because she’d think we were eating too much candy.
“C’mon kids,” Mom called, “ we can’t be late. Your Aunt Betty and Uncle Joe are waiting for us. We’re all going to see Grandpa together.”
Wow, what was the occasion?! Today must be a special day because my aunt and uncle never want to go visit Grandpa. I didn’t know why Mom wanted us to wear our good clothes, but now I guess it has something to do with showin’ us off.
Judy and I got dressed and went out to the car. Mom got in the front seat with Aunt Betty, and we had to go in the back with Uncle Joe. He was okay, but he usually smelled like bad breath and cigarettes. Today, unfortunately, he smelled like bad breath, cigarettes and dime store cologne. (I’m surprised he didn’t blow up when he smoked with all that cheap alcohol-smelling cologne he was wearing.)
Aunt Betty jerked the clutch and away we went. But, wait a second, this isn’t the way to Grandpa’s house. Hey! Where are we going? Where’s Grandpa? Whadidya guys do with Grandpa?
We drove for about twenty minutes until we reached downtown. We made a quick right onto Sunset Street, and came to a quiet white house with a bronze sign on the lawn. Bradley’s Funeral Home? What the hell kind of joke was this? Judy and I exchanged glances. Could this really be what we thought it was? We were going to see a dead person.
Aunt Betty parked the car and we all got out. Judy and I were the last to get out because we had never been to a funeral home before and didn’t know what to do. We watched the grown-ups for the cues.
We were all out of the car now. Uncle Joe had lit up a Camel. Mom was blotting her lipstick. Aunt Betty was wetting a tissue paper with her spit; Judy probably had a smudge on her face that needed to be washed off.
We all just stood outside Bradley’s Funeral Home for a while. Judy and I didn’t say anything; still trying to pick up on those cues, ya know. Mom and Aunt Betty were talking about dumb stuff in light of that there was a dead person in there that we, no doubt, knew. They were talkin’ about the weather and how Suzanne Somers hasn’t aged a bit in twenty years. C’mon you guys, there’ll be plenty of time for this later. Let’s go in and see who the dead person is.
Mom and Aunt Betty had stopped talkin’ about has-been TV stars and ran out of stuff to say, I guess. They each let out a big sigh. We stood there in the heat of the day, our white shoes picking up particles of green from the freshly mown, damp lawn of Bradley’s Funeral Home.
Mom finally turned to us and crouched down to talk to us a
