Prompt 14

 May 14th

Prompt- Write a story based off of a picture.  

This story is definitely my favorite from this project so far. It's among my top favorite stories that I have ever written and is a special one for me. I started this story today not really sure where it was going to go or what it was going to turn into. Never did I expect it to turn into something so personal or special for me. This is not a true story or anything like that, but the emotions in this story are very real. 

I hope you enjoy this one. 

    I always believed that there was a special magic in the mountain range beyond my grandma's house. Over the years, I spent most of my summers at her house and watched plenty of sunsets with her neighbor Jimmy Alton Santon. Jimmy was an elderly man who was about sixty years old, and I became pretty good friends with the man over the years. I used to help him with his flowers in front of the house. He always let me pick out some that I wanted from the local nursery. We would take them home with us and I'd help him figure out where to place them around his yard. I spent a lot of my days over there. 

    Grandma was a woman in her late seventies that did not want to have to raise her granddaughter. But she took me in during the summers when I was done in my boarding school that she sent me to during the school years. I never got to know my parents and did not actually know what caused them to leave me behind. Grandma never told me, and I learned early on not to ask the questions I had in my head. By the time I turned thirteen, I could care less about the parents that didn't want me. We had our way of life, and I was happy with it. 

    During the school year, right after I had turned fourteen, I got the news that my grandma had passed away. It was in the middle of math class. The principal had come to the door asking to see me in her office. I sat in one of the cushy seats and stared at the wall behind her as she told me the news. It took me flying over there, staying in Jimmy's house, going to the funeral, and seeing Grandma there in the coffin, for me to start to cry. And then, I couldn't stop. She and I were not as close as I wish we were. But we had this bond that I could never explain. She had bought two of most of her books over the years that I grew up, so I was able to read alongside her. We could sit for hours in the same room and just read the same book.  Then, we would stay up late and discuss the books. I cannot tell you how much I learned from her literary mind. She had the largest library that I have ever seen in my life. Books from the floor to the ceiling. Those were the moments I missed with Grandma. The moments that she showed me what she really loved. 

    I didn't know what was going to happen to me after it all, but I didn't want anything to change. All I wanted, was for my grandma to come back to me and to spend the days with Jimmy. After boarding school finished that year, I flew back home. Jimmy decided to take me in. Little did I know, Grandma and Jimmy had made a pact over the years. Grandma had been sickly for years and never let me know. Jimmy promised her that if she were to succumb to her illness, he would take me in. We moved all of my stuff into his house that I really needed. Grandma's house would be mine when I turned eighteen. 

    Jimmy and I got into a routine similar to the one we had the years previously. We spent our days in the garden planting flowers and taking care of them. Every night, we would sit out on his back deck and watch the sunset. Many nights, I could not help but look over at my grandma's house and wish that I could see her sitting in the living room with a book in hand. I wished with everything in me that I could walk over there now and grab a book from her library to discuss it with her. Or sit there and eat dinner with her after a long day out in the sun. Just in contented silence. I could hear her now, "Why didn't you put sunblock on again, Abigail. Your beautiful skin..." she'd stop the scolding for a second and touch my beet-red arm and shake her head. "You're going to have skin cancer by the time you're thirty." 

    I looked down at my red arm and smiled, wishing she was there to scold me yet again. Jimmy sure wasn't going to do it. He had treated me so delicately ever since I had gotten back from school that summer. Like he was afraid that I would shatter into a million pieces if he said anything to me that was not sweet, kind, or whatever. All I wanted, was for my grandma to walk through the door, with her food splattered apron. For her to screech out her front door at me for running through mud puddles. For her to smile her small smile as she carried a piece of pie, into my room after one of our fights. I wanted to sit in a chair beside her in our living room as we cried reading Little Women. Her for her millionth time (as she had told me) and me for my first time. 

    And as I stared into the sun setting over the magical mountains in the distance, I made a wish. It was not the first time I had made a wish on those mountains. Not by a long shot. But it was the first time, I made a wish like the one that night. Please God, let me have another day with Grandma. Let me tell her goodbye. 

    As you would think, when I looked over at my grandma's house, there was no trace of her there. Jimmy and I went into his house and went our separate ways for the night. Me to my room and him to his office on the third floor. I got ready early that night and plopped into my bed with my grandma's copy of The Secret Garden. It was the last book my grandmother and I had read together before the end of the summer the year before. I liked to read through Grandma's copies of books because she liked to underline quotes and write little notes about certain passages in books. The Secret Garden was one of her favorites, Little Women being her favorite. The book was battered with age but held so much more value than any of the new books on the shelves. Grandma had gotten the book from her mother when she was about my age and had read it so much over the years. Her books were definitely my most treasured possessions and I never planned on parting with them. 

    I fell asleep that night after visiting with Mary, Colin, and Dickon again. The next morning, I woke hearing something I never thought I'd hear again. Grandma singing in the kitchen as she made French toast. I could smell the delectable aroma wafting up the stairs, as I sat up in bed. Shocked would not describe what I felt at that moment. Tears came to my eyes as I got out of bed and pulled on some clothes. I was in my bedroom over at Grandma's, which I hadn't been in since I had gotten my stuff from it at the beginning of the summer. After I got my clothes on, I ran down the stairs as fast as I could and into the kitchen. There Grandma was in her pink apron, standing at the stove flipping over the French toast in the pan. I ran up to her with tears flooding down my cheeks and hugged her tight against me. 

    "What's wrong with you Abigail, my dear? You look like you're seeing a ghost." I couldn't stop my sobs when I heard her say the words and did not want to let go of her from my embrace. "Abigail?" I could hear the surprise and shock in Grandma's voice when she saw how I was acting. 

    I wiped the tears from my eyes and stared up into my grandma's eyes for the first time in almost a year and I just could not let her go. "I'm okay Grandma. I'm just so happy to see you this morning," I let her go reluctantly as she guided me over to the table to serve us both some French Toast. At that moment, I was not quite sure if she was a figment of my imagination, if it was all some dream, or if what I was seeing was real. All I knew, was that I wanted to never let my eyes leave her. I didn't know how long it would last, but if I could, I'd make sure that she never left me again. 

    "So, what are your plans for today Abigail? Did you plan on going over with Jimmy?" Grandma asked after she ate most of her first piece of French toast. Grandma had never minded me spending so many days over at Jimmy's house. But I knew that I would not leave her side that day. 

    "No, I was wondering if you would like to sit with me on the back deck and read Howl's Moving Castle." That was the book that we were going to read first when I had come home for the summer. We had it all planned out. She had been so excited to share it with me. I remember how much she had adored the book and Diana Wynne Jones. Now that, Abigail, is what you call a fantasy writer. You know you can take some pointers from that woman in your writing. Grandma knew that it was a dream of mine to become a writer one day myself and was always very supportive of that. I remember to this day the first time I had brought her one of the stories that I was writing. She read through the story very quickly, for it was only about six pages, written by a very sloppy hand. After she finished the story, she put it down on the table and told me to keep it up. That I had an eye for description but could work on my dialogue. I was about eight. Over the years, I always brought my stories to her to read and get her opinion. She was my biggest fan but also my biggest critic. 

    "You go grab the books, Abigail and I'll get us each a bottle of water," Grandma said as she walked over to the fridge. And that is how we spent our day, reading out on the deck and stopping every so often to discuss something we were enjoying. Grandma was a bit faster than me at reading and finished the book about thirty minutes before me. She sat there in her lounge chair, writing various notes in the margins of the book. After I had finished the book, we sat there and discussed what we thought of it. 

    I didn't know how much time I had with her, because I knew that none of this could have been real. But I didn't want it to ever end. "Grandma," I started and looked over at her sitting there. She looked just like she did the summer before as if nothing had even changed.

    "Yes?" she asked as she sat up a little so she could see me better. 

    "I love you so much. I hope you know that," I whispered tears coming to my eyes. 

    Grandma stared at me for quite some time, without answering back. I could see a knowing look come to her face as if she knew, something was wrong with me. She stood up from her chair and walked over to mine. She wrapped her arms around me and held me tight against her as I sobbed again for the second time that day. I could hear her whispering a lullaby into my hair as she held me. It was one that she sang to me all the time when I was a baby. She didn't say anything else at all, as she held me tight letting me cry it out for what felt like hours. "I love you too Abigail. Never forget that, even though I'm not here anymore." 

    At those words, I backed up from her arms and stared at her. Tears still dripping down my face. "Grandma?" 

    "We don't have much time left Abigail, my dear. Just let me hold you one more time," she pulled me into her arms and I could feel the tears fall into my hair. I don't know, how long we stood there. It could have been hours or just minutes. Time's an amazing thing. Sometimes it could feel like an eternity has gone by but then like it was no time at all. I would have given anything for an eternity of days like that day. Just being able to spend a day reading with my favorite person. Laughing at the ridiculousness of a character that we both loved, beyond words. Spending time adoring the beauty of the written word, with a kindred soul. I would have given up everything, just to keep spending time with my grandma.

    When I opened my eyes, I was standing in my bedroom in Jimmy's house, holding  Grandma's copy of Howl's Moving Castle. I opened it up to the first page and saw a note scrawled on the page in Grandma's handwriting. 

Dearest Abigail,

    I'm sorry to say that you and I will not be able to enjoy this wonderful piece of literature together. A part of me wishes that I would have let you know what was going on last summer. But I did not want to ruin our last summer together before you went off to school. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed our time together. Raising you was and always will be the best thing that I ever did in my life. 

    Abigail, please keep writing and reading as fervently as you do now. Don't ever give up on your dream of becoming an author. I may not be there to watch you grow, but I will always be watching over you one way or another. Just look for me in the sunsets over our mountains, in the words that you read in our favorite books, and in the little moments that take your breath away. I'll be there. 

    Please, enjoy this novel and the rest of my collection that we never got to read together. I have left notes in many of them for you to enjoy while reading. I hope that it will feel like we are reading the books together, at least a little. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed spending those days and nights reading with you. 

    I adore you, Abigail dear and I will forever miss and love you. No matter where I might be. Goodbye, my sweetheart. 

    Love Always,

         Grandma

    "Goodbye Grandma, I love you too," I flipped through the book and read many of her annotations in the book. Laughing and crying.