The World is a Beautiful Place

I suddenly realized that the air was silent. I turned left and saw her looking down at her hands in thought. Then she
laughed, as if she were alone and something embarrassing had happened.
“…I know I’m ranting, you can stop me whenever you like. You can rant too if you like!” Her crinkled face turned hopeful
and bright, while my own filled with a nervous smile and a light shade of red. Had I been too obvious in my daydreaming?
“Yeah, I know, Yiayia, but it’s okay. I like to listen. I’d rather do that.”
“Okay, but you just tell me if it’s too much. So…”
So she didn’t realize after all. I sighed my relief and paid attention, just to be sure she wouldn’t catch on.
“Jimmy called me the other day, you know, to make up. It was nice.”
“That’s good. He is your brother after all.” I myself was very skeptical of the lawyer-turned-human.
“Yes, yes, and at my age you gotta hold on to everything you can grab!” We laughed together, mine dragging out into a
sigh, hers turning into the ever-consistent hack. It went on for longer than usual.
“Yiayia?”
The hacking continued. I was brought back to my own days of torment, when every sneeze wreaked havoc on my
headaches and every cough felt like my lungs would come out of my mouth. I was looking around for a phone when, thankfully,
it stopped.
“You okay?”
“Yes, darling, yes. Sorry about that.”
“No, don’t worry about it.”
“You know if I’m ever really sick you gotta get me to a doctor, not like your Papou…” Images of coin collecting, working
out in the garden, and hearing war stories popped into my head. That was my grandpa.
“He was always so stubborn, you know, and I’d ask him about things and he would just ignore me,” she said, “I know it’s
silly, but I thought that he didn’t like me anymore, that I was too old!”
“That’s crazy, of course he liked you. It was kinda late in the game for anything else.”
“Yeah, you’re right, of course you’re right darling, you’re so smart,” she beamed at me. How did I get pinned with the
Favorite Grandchild Button? “Yeah but still, he was so stubborn, and never told me anything, nothing about work or anything
like that. I guess he just didn’t want me to know, but you can’t do that when you’re married, you have to share. Good and bad.”
“That makes sense, but that was just how he was.”
“You know, at the end, I knew he was having problems. But you know he hated the doctor, hating having things wrong. I
mean, he wouldn’t tell me anything! He was always trying to protect me. But you can’t hide stuff like that, right?”
“You shouldn’t, but he did.”
“Right, right. You know I always thought, this is silly, that it was almost my fault.” She laughed nervously again and didn’t
look up anymore. She just stared at that rug, like I had, in her own world. “It was like that was my chance to protect him, you
know? And I missed it.”
The silence afterwards became awkward. The secretary kept stealing glances over her countertop – she must have been
eavesdropping. For a second I thought we were on a hidden camera and I waited for someone to jump out and say, “Nice delivery
Yiayia! You stunned the crowd!” but nothing so abnormal happened.
I finally found some words. “Yiayia, you can’t say that. There’s no way it was your fault. You didn’t know anything for sure.”
“I should have done something though.” She paused to exhale. “But you’re right, you’re right. It doesn’t matter now though.
It’s alright.”
I decided to go into the exam room with her, something she really appreciated. The dentist, as it turned out, had seen my
family members for over 30 years.
“Not to be cheesy or anything,” he dragged out, “but there’s something to be said about a family when grandchildren go
into the office with a grandparent.”
The wind gusted outside as he began the procedure. I nodded my agreement to myself, but couldn’t help my stomach
from sinking. There’s something to be said about that.
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