She was startled awake by incessant ringing from another room. Slowly, she scuffed across the cold, wooden floor, beckoned to the sound growing louder. As she opened one eye, she found herself facing the sofa, she knelt down to where the noise was emanating from, reached between the cushions, and pulled out a cell phone. Searching the small screen for identification, she saw only a series of stars displayed. She opened the receiver and answered, “Hello?” Leaning into the sofa with the phone to her ear, static was all she heard. “Hello?” she repeated. She was drifting back to sleep, sitting on the floor, when the voice from within the phone answered. “Katie, it’s me.”
“Who is ME?” was Katie’s response, thinking it strange, this person from within a cell phone she didn’t own would know her name.
“It’s your gram, Katie!” the voice startled Katie awake. Katie’s gram had been dead for several years.
“Who is this, really?” Katie asked the voice. “I’m not in the mood for harassment so late at night.”
“It is REALLY your gram, Katie!” the voice insisted. “I can prove it; ask me a question only you and gram would know.”
Katie’s interest was piqued. Clearly now, she remembered the close relationship with her grandmother, the smell of sugar cookies baking in her kitchen, her rose cologne. She was, indeed, a special person in Katie’s life. Thinking of her, she felt a longing to talk to her again, wishing she could be enveloped in her big hugs. Katie quizzed the voice, “What was gram’s middle name?”
“That’s an easy one. Rose.”
She thought of the one thing only the two of them knew. “What was the gift gram gave me that no one else was aware of?” Katie thought to herself, now she had this silly caller stumped, would hang up and get back to dreaming.
“It was a heart pendant. I gave it to you for your graduation.” the voice answered bluntly, saying no more.
Katie was in shock, still in disbelief that this voice could be her grandmother calling from another realm.
“Katie, I want to talk to you, to tell you I never meant to hurt you!”
The memory of when her gram did hurt her rushed back, leaving a sinking feeling in her stomach. Katie recalled when she was in the hospital; when the doctors thought she might not make it. She waited for her gram to visit, to hold her hand and comfort her, and was disappointed that she never did. Katie’s hurt feelings told her the grandmother she cherished so deeply must not care for her after all. Later, she realized her gram could not bear to see her so ill. “I know you love me, gram; I know you felt helpless when I was so sick.” Katie began speaking to the voice she now conceded must be the grandmother she missed so deeply. “I wear the pendant every day; many times it has given me strength because it was from you, gram.”
Katie heard a deep sigh, as if she had relieved the pain her grandmother carried through death.
“I love you, Katie.” the voice exclaimed, as the phone went silent, and the light went to dark.
“Gram?” Katie realized her grandmother was gone again. As she closed the receiver, she noticed it was daybreak, the sun was creeping over the hills outside her window, and she suddenly felt a deep sense of calm. She clasped the cell phone lovingly in her hands, brought it to her bedroom, and placed it within the box where she also kept the heart pendant. Silently, she hoped there would be another call.
No comments:
Post a Comment