Point of Retreat(29)

“Caulder, Grandma and Grandpa are here, go open the door!”



He doesn’t need to, they open the door anyway. Without knocking, of course. My grandmother walks through the door first so I walk over to her and kiss her on the cheek.

“Hi, Sweetie,” she says. “What smells so good?”



“Basagna.” I walk to my grandfather and give him a hug.

“Basagna?” she says.

I shake my head and laugh. “Lasagna, I mean.”



My grandmother smiles at me and it reminds of my mom. They were almost identical. She and my grandfather are both tall and thin, just like my mom. A lot of people find my grandmother intimidating, but I find it hard to be intimidated by her. I’ve spent so much time with her; it feels like she’s my own mother sometimes.

My grandfather sets their bags down by the front door and they follow me into the kitchen. “Will, have you heard of this twitter?” He brings his glasses to the edge of his nose and looks down at his phone.

My grandmother looks at me and shakes her head. “He got one of those intelligent phones. Now he’s trying to twit the President.”



“Smart phones,” I correct her. “And it’s tweet, not twit.”



“He follows me,” my grandfather says, defensively. “I’m not kidding, he really does! I got a message yesterday that said ‘The President is now following you.’”



“That’s cool, Grandpa. But no, I don’t tweet.”



“Well, you should. A young man your age needs to stay ahead of the game when it comes to the social media.”



“I’ll be fine,” I assure him. I put the breadsticks in the oven and start to grab plates out of the cabinet.

“Let me do that, Will,” my grandmother says, pulling the plates out of my hands.

“Hey Grandma, hey Grandpa,” Caulder says, running into the kitchen to hug them. “Grandpa, do you remember the game we played last time you were here?”



My grandfather nods. “You mean the one where I killed twenty-six enemy soldiers?”



“Yeah, that one. Kel got the newest one for his birthday. You want to play it with us?”



“You bet I do!” he says, following Caulder to his bedroom.

The funny thing is, my grandfather isn’t being overdramatic for Caulder’s benefit. He genuinely wants to play.

My grandmother pulls a stack of glasses out of the cabinet and turns to me. “He’s getting worse, you know,” she says.

“How so?”



“He bought himself one of those game thingies. He’s getting all into this technology stuff. Now he’s on the twitter!” She shakes her head. “He’s always telling me things he twitted to people. I don’t get it, Will. It’s like some sort of mid-life crisis, twenty years too late.”



“It’s tweeted. And I think it’s cool. It gives him and Caulder a way to relate.”



She finishes filling the cups with ice and walks back to the bar. “Should I set a place for Layken, too?” she says flatly. I can tell by her tone that she’s hoping I say no.

“Yes, you should,” I say sternly.

She darts a look in my direction. “Will, I’m just going to say it.”



Oh boy, here we go.

“It’s not appropriate with the two of you just running off for the weekend like this. You aren’t even engaged yet, much less married. I just think you two rushed into things so quickly, it makes me nervous.”



I put my hands on my grandmother’s shoulders and smile reassuringly at her. “Grandma, we aren’t rushing into things, believe me. And you need to give her a chance, she’s amazing. Now promise me you will at least pretend to like her when she gets here. And be nice!”



She sighs. “It’s not that I don’t like her, Will. It just makes me uncomfortable, the way you two act together. It just seems like you’re…I don’t know… too in love.”



I take the pan of basagna to the table as I respond to her. “If your only complaint about her is that we’re too in love, I guess I’ll take it.”



She brings the extra place setting to the table and sets an extra glass down for Lake.