FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Recollections

Shady Acres was the name for the retirement community Nancy Barion lived in. Nestled amongst the snow was a small community of condominiums, all stone faced with brown roofs, neatly landscaped with crisscrossing roads. It was the morning of Christmas Eve, and an overnight snow dumped a few more inches of fresh powder, coating the landscape white for Christmas. Morning was largely overcast, a slate colored sky with the eastern edge colored a brilliant red-orange amongst the quiet hills to the east.

Setting her red coat on the couch, Nancy Barion slowly shuffled through her living room. At eighty-nine years old, Nancy was a frail looking, slender gray wolf, with hair that was silvery-white and straight, trimmed somewhat short. Elderly Nancy lived alone, a widow after her husband had passed away a few years before. The eggshell colored walls were adorned with pictures all over, pictures of her family, spanning several decades. Making her way to the mirror on the wall, Nancy always gazed at the pictures, of all the loved ones that were gone. Checking to make sure her hair looked okay, Nancy gently brushed at it to push some of her bangs to one side. She was waiting for her grandson to take her down to Chillicothe, where her two surviving sisters lived at. Nancy had presents for Wilma and Velma Davis.

Checking the time on the clock, Nancy walked over and sat down on her couch. She gazed up at all the pictures on the wall, a sad reminder of all the people who were gone now. The Davis family was almost all gone; her parents had passed away many years before, and her two younger brothers, David, and Carl, had passed away, both well before their time. It was just Nancy, and her younger sisters, Wilma and Velma. A happy portrait of her late husband Gordo Barion, taken many years before graced the wall with his happy smile. A war veteran who had flown divebombers in the Pacific, he was a school teacher at Newark High School for half a century. A wonderful man she was with for sixty-seven years of her life, and gave her four children, Ray, Sandy, William, and Steve Barion. Gordo had passed away from brain cancer, at age ninety-one, four years prior. It was as hard of a death as burying her oldest son, Ray Barion, who died at the age of fifty-seven in 2009. Now all her children were in their sixties, and her grand children approaching forty. The fact that it would be her fifth Christmas alone, brought a sad quiet sigh.

Being alone was bad enough as-is, but to be alone, surrounded by all the death and illness in the pandemic, brought a weary sense of sadness to the frail wolfess. There were a couple unfortunate deaths in the retirement community, and Nancy heard about old friends from high school passing away from Covid-19. Friends who had stayed in touch for nearly seventy years, gone. It was a stark reminder of her own mortality. For over a year, Nancy was almost completely isolated, alone in her little pad, with nothing more to do than watch some television, or do crossword puzzles and write letters to old friends. A phone call or two to take the sting of loneliness away. She was excited to get vaccinated, and hoped it would be a sign of the pandemic dying away. But stubbornness and ignorance ruled the day, and instead, Nancy witnessed as once again, a tidal wave of illness befall Newark and the rest of the country.

The soft tick-tock of the wall clock about put Nancy to sleep. A knock at the door stirred her away, and the old frail wolfess slowly got up to answer it.

"Coming!" she shouted. Shuffling her way to the door, Nancy took a peep through the peephole and found her grandson Rob standing outside. She quickly unlocked the door and opened it, welcoming her second oldest grandson in.

"Rob! Please come in from the cold! Please come in!" Nancy greeted happily. A big smile lit up her face as she gave him a big hug and a kiss.

Rob Barion was a brown and tan wolf-malamute, a stern looking thirty-nine year old. His unsmiling face looked old for his age, with a jagged, dark scar running down the left side of it, giving him a menacing scowl from facial paralysis. Rob was dressed in tan winter pants, brown snow boots, and a matching brown jacket that was partially zipped up. A winter patterned sweater poked out from beneath. A knitted beanie with a blue and white Norwegian pattern on it kept the top of his head warm.

"Grandma are you all ready?" Rob asked.

"Let me just grab my bags and coat!" Nancy said in a happy tone as she shuffled around and grabbed her two big gift bags, which Rob took from her to carry. She donned a white knitted winter cap atop her head, and put on her red coat, which had gold buttons. Grabbing her purse and knitted gloves, Nancy stepped out into the cold with her grandson, who helped her to his awaiting SUV, a red Tahoe. Rob sat the gifts in the backseat, and he helped Nancy get into the front passenger seat. Walking around, Rob climbed aboard, and slowly took off, his tires crunching against the snow. They had a long drive ahead.

---

Merging onto I-270, Rob slowly crawled with traffic on the Columbus outerbelt. There were multiple accidents according to GPS, and traffic was backed up, with a sea of red taillights glowing on all three lanes of the outerbelt. Rob and Nancy sat back in the slow rolling SUV, their eyes covered by sunglasses from the glare of the snow.

"It's been so long since I've been out this way~" Nancy remarked as she looked at the scenery around the outerbelt. "I haven't driven in about four years... it's something when you give up driving and realize how much you've given up on mobility!"

"You're not missing much~" Rob said in a cynical, sarcastic tone.

"Columbus is so violent anymore! All you hear about is shooting and shootings galore!"

"Heh, that's what Newark's becoming. All 'cause of drugs and poverty." Rob shook his head. "Everyplace you go there's violence. It's our nature. We're violent beings, and people think they can solve their problems with a gun, Grandma."

"When I was growing up... you just never heard of this stuff... especially in Newark." Nancy recalled. "Newark was such a great town all those years ago, now it's slowly falling apart."

"Newark peaked about forty years ago, and then it just went downhill with deindustrialization." Rob quipped. "Deindustrialization, and inept politicians like former Mayor Holland and the freak show that is city council."

"I think you would make a great mayor~" Nancy chuckled.

"No. I don't think I would be liked as a mayor. Could I get stuff done? Yes. But would people like it? No. I'm too authoritarian. I would probably make the Nazis blush."

"Well, you can't just force your will on other people..."

"Sometimes you have to. It's like this damn pandemic. For two years now, people have been dealing with this, and people are still shocked that if you don't wear a mask and or get vaccinated, you're going to get sick, and some may die. Wow! Stop the presses!"

"I don't get, Rob." Nancy shook her head. "I don't get it. I was one of the first to get vaccinated back in early January, and I didn't hesitate one bit! It's a shot, wow, so shocking."

"Well tell that to all the nuts. People have turned this pandemic into a political battering ram, and all these people are refusing to wear a mask and get vaccinated in some weird attempt at demonstrating freedom and owning Democrats."

"I have two classmates who won't get vaccinated, and we go out and eat lunch at Tee Jays!" Nancy explained. "Mary Robeson and Bonnie Clyde. Wonderful people, but they don't trust the vaccine. So silly if you ask me."

"Well, if they get sick, they're probably gonna die..." Rob rolled his eyes.

"But that will be their fate." Nancy shrugged. "You know Rob, I can still remember all the polio outbreaks and other disease epidemics when I was a child. I remember all of us in class being quarantined for diphtheria when a classmate got sick. I can remember all of us being sick with whooping cough, and measles. Oh god, measles was terrible. And I remember mother panicking if one of us complained that our legs hurt. That was always how polio started."

"That's the problem with everyone in my generation and whatnot- nobody has had to grow up with endemic diseases like before. You never hear anything really about measles anymore, outside of little clusters caused by religious groups. Polio? All thanks to vaccinations..."

"Polio was so terrible. I remember people would panic in the summers when polio outbreaks happened. It was always in summer." Nancy explained to Rob. "My cousin Betty had polio when she was a child, and had to have a leg brace because of it. I can still remember the iron lungs in hospitals. People would be in a gym sized room full of iron lungs because of polio. When the polio vaccine came to Newark, everyone lined up at Newark Catholic high to get it. It was a liquid you drunk. Nobody questioned it. We were all relieved..."

Rob grumbled. "Republicans have weaponized this pandemic for their own agenda. That's what you get when people elect legislative terrorists. I'm interested to see what the long term success will be for getting your electorate killed in the name of freedom."

"Oh Rob..." Nancy said, laughing a bit. "I don't get it."

"I get it. It's called this nation is so hyper partisan, so divided, that we can't even unite in a national crisis like this." Rob grumbled. "We're entrenched in the liberal and conservative camps. There's no compromise, nothing. Burn this country to the ground just to say you're right. It's stupid. That's why I'm an independent."

"I don't think you like either side, Rob."

"I don't, Grandma. You got on one side a bunch of wannabe fascists who are upset that minorities are getting more equal footing for once, and that they have no popular policies, other than redistribute wealth to the rich. And then all the pinkos are too busy trying not to offend people with the wrong pronoun, or offering free everything to get votes... stupid bullshit. Instead of working for what's best for the economy, job creation, and helping people who are living paycheck to paycheck, both sides just focus on their little pet projects, and shaft everyone else. Sorry Grandma... political rant..."

"No, it's fine, Rob!" Nancy laughed. "At least you keep up on it!"

"Well you have to~"

"Tell that to your Uncle Steve's wife... my god... Jessica doesn't know what's going on at all! She doesn't even watch the news, nothing!"

"Birds of a feather stick together." Rob chuckled. "Steve's mentally retarded, and he picked another lackluster trophy wife to brag about."

"All your uncle cares about is having a good time and showing off!" Nancy exclaimed. "And I get so upset! Steve whines and cries about money, and then goes and buys a new Mercedes or something! New furniture! Always out spending on credit! How is he going to retire if he doesn't get his debt paid off!?"

"That sounds like a Steve Barion problem to me!" laughed Rob.

After twenty minutes of just crawling along, Rob managed to get some speed once he passed by a bad car wreck that choked 270. A semi truck laid out across two lanes, and a couple cars were lying in the ditch on the right lane as Rob drove past. Once cleared, he could get up to speed again, and looped around the southern portion of the outerbelt for Route 23, a straight shot to Chillicothe. Looping around, Rob merged onto 23 and headed south.

"So how is your health, Rob? I forgot to ask earlier."

"Well, it's there." Rob said in a deadpan tone. "Still sort of recovering from the Chicago assault and bombing."

"I can't believe that happened to you~"

"I can!" Rob laughed in a jaded way. "I seem to bring the worst out in people."

"All because you fired them, and they killed all those people and tried to kill you!" Nancy exclaimed. "Some people need to just let go and move on!"

"Well they were pissed that they couldn't kill money on the company anymore. I tell everyone when I take charge... the buck stops here." Rob quipped. "But the Vlockners were a bunch of fuckin' retards anyways. Sam, Ryan, and especially Brent. If I was their parents? I would have just kept the afterbirth~"

"Rob!" Nancy exclaimed with a laugh. "That's gross!"

"I said that too when I met them~" Rob laughed. "But anyways... I'm alive... and up to my eyeballs in litigation, Grandma~"

"How is that going?"

"Suing Chicago for one point four billion, suing the Vlockner family for half a billion, suing a city councilman and a political cartoonist for slander... regarding comments made about me in public, and a political cartoon in the Chicago Times depicting me like Heinrich Himmler..."

"That's terrible!"

"Well yeah... I'm more of a Joseph Goebbels, sans anti-Semitism~"

"ROB!" Nancy exclaimed with a laugh. "Jesus Christ!"

"I'm picky about which Nazi's I'm compared to~" Rob joked. "Or if you listen to Joey and Maverick... saying I'm the love child of Nixon and Hitler."

Nancy covered her face with a wrinkled paw and just laughed with Rob's cynical chuckles. "You have a very complex, and prickly personality Rob."

"Unfortunately."

"You've been through a lot."

"I sometimes envy how everyone loves my husband and my best friend. They're so calm and relaxed around people, and I'm just not like that. Not since I was a teenager. I don't like dealing with other people unless I have to. People are exhausting, Grandma."

"I understand that feeling. Imagine having people like my sisters and especially my mother in your life!" Nancy exclaimed, laughing. "My mother could drive anyone to mental exhaustion with just the way she was! Me, me, me. That was my mother! She could do no wrong, and was perfect, and expected everyone to wait on her hand and foot!"

"I'm amazed Wilma and Velma are still alive." Rob remarked sarcastically. "They're obese, elderly chain smokers, and both had Covid... Jesus Christ, what's it gonna take? Gimme a clue..."

"Wilma and Velma are like Mom... it's why their kids don't come around. They have between them, fourteen failed marriages, and like fifteen kids... twenty something grandkids, but you don't ever see them. That speaks volumes, Rob."

"Well yeah, they're like death warmed over. Who wants to see that!"

"Rob!" Nancy laughed.

---

Almost in the middle of southern Ohio sat the little city of Chillicothe, nestled amongst the foothills of the Appalachians. Smaller than Newark, Chillicothe was a paper mill town, the largest industrial city in the immediate area. Brick buildings were nestled amongst tree lined streets, which all was blanketed by some fresh snow. Rob and his grandmother passed through the downtown to get to Wilma and Velma's home on Mulberry Street.

Pulling up to the curb, Rob dreaded the sight of the old blue-gray home that was Wilma and Velma's. Its bleak, drab color matched his opinion to his cranky old aunts. Wilma and Velma lived together, in semi-isolation from their estranged families. It was Wilma's home, but Velma had come to live with her in the late 1990's, after her husband had died. Velma had spent most of her life living in Huber Heights, outside of Dayton.

"We're here~" Nancy said. Even her voice didn't sound excited.

"Yeah." Rob agreed, pushing the column shifter into park.

Hopping out, Rob walked over to help his grandmother out. Grabbing her gifts, Rob had an arm around his grandma, as he helped her up the wheelchair ramp.

"Honestly they should just sell this dreary old place and get a retirement home like what me and your grandpa did!" Nancy said as she slowly made her way up the ramp.

"Grandma, that takes money... c'mon now~" Rob joked.

Nancy rang the doorbell, and the door was answered by Velma's youngest son, Greg Gallagher. He was a slender gray wolf in his forties, with tousled brown hair and blue eyes.

"Hey Aunt Nancy~ Come on in~"

Greg opened the door and accepted the gift bags from Nancy and Rob. The smell of stale air and cigarettes immediately hit them. Like the outside, the inside of Wilma and Velma's home was bleak and drab looking. Gray upholstered furniture sat on light gray carpet, with faded wallpaper that was stained yellow by nicotine stains. Old family photos adored the walls, black and white pictures of siblings in their youth. Rob ran his paw along a table by the door and found cigarette ash on his fingers. A thin coating of ash coated everything.

"Mom! Aunt Wilma! Rob and Nancy are here!" Greg called.

Emerging from the dining room was Wilma and Velma Davis. At eighty-seven and eighty-six, the two sisters walked slowly, Wilma assisted with a cane. Wilma was a heavy set, elderly woman in slacks and a sweater. Velma was skinny and taller than her and Nancy, with short, white hair that was permed. Wilma had silvery white hair that was neatly permed in curls. A smoldering cigarette protruded from Wilma's muzzle. They slowly shuffled their way to the living room.

"You were supposed to be here at ten o'clock!" Velma exclaimed. Her voice was raspy.

"We had some traffic to attend to~" Nancy said. "How are you doing, sisters?"

"Fine." Wilma grumbled. Like Velma, she spoke with a raspy, smokers voice. "Nance, I hope you brought something nice!"

"Well of course!" Nancy exclaimed. She momentarily glanced at Rob with a look of disbelief. Rob simply closed his eyes and grimaced.

"Greg!" Velma yelled. "Why don't you run to the donut shop and get some coffee and donuts!"

"Alright, Mom~"

Wilma looked at Rob and exhaled a cloud of smoke through her nose. "Rob! I haven't seen you in ages! You look like you've aged a lot!"

"I can say the same thing about you Aunt Wilma~" Rob said, smiling insincerely. "How are you still alive?"

"By the grace of God!" Wilma exclaimed.

"Well I don't know about that... more like Saint Peter pullin' the ladder up and keeping you from ascending up to the pearly gates!" Rob exclaimed. Wilma just grumbled and looked at Velma.

Heading into the dining room, Wilma and Velma sat down at the dinner table, with Rob and Nancy opposite. Nancy took a napkin and wiped away some of the cigarette ash that created a thin layer on the tabletop.

"Rob!" Velma called in her raspy voice. "Why don't you go into the kitchen and put a coffee on for us!"

Rob grumbled and got up. "You want any sugar? Creamer? Milk? Arsenic?"

"What was that last one, Rob?"

"Sugar?"

"Fine."

Rob ventured off into the kitchen to go grab the percolator, while Nancy got caught up with her sisters.

"How've you been, Nance?" Velma asked.

"Doing as best I can, Velma. Just trying to keep myself busy~" Nancy explained. "There's not much to do these days when you're eighty-nine! And with the pandemic going on..."

Wilma scoffed. "Oh what are you worried about, Nancy? You got your shots and booster shot!"

"Well still, I'm eighty-nine... and your systems don't work like when you're young!"

"I don't even care anymore. I had Covid and survived, and I don't plan on getting the shot!"

"Why?" Nancy said, sounding shocked. "You almost died, Wilma~"

"And? I'm still here!" the old wolfess laughed with a raspy heave. "Yeah it was a little rough being in the hospital for two months... but I made it!"

"You just don't really know what's in that vaccine~" Velma added. "You know Joyce got vaccinated, and she had a blood clot! Scary stuff."

"So is getting sick at our age." Nancy pointed out in a serious tone.

"Ahh, it's just like a really bad flu. That will kill ya too~" Wilma said with a shake of her head. "They rushed that vaccine... how can a vaccine be made in less than a year's time? It's just the government overhyping as usual... people just gotta get on with their lives..."

"Fine..." Nancy said, leaving the conversation at that. She grabbed one of the gift bags and gave it to Wilma and the other to Velma. "Merry Christmas, girls!"

Wilma and Velma opened their bags to find new socks, gloves, and some perfume that Nancy had gotten them. They both looked it over and thanked her.

"Nancy, we would have gotten you something... but we couldn't get to the store because Greg was sick recently..." Wilma said. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine."

"We appreciate what you got, since I always could use some warm socks on these cold damn floors!" Velma exclaimed. She lit up another cigarette with Wilma.

"It's the spirit of Christmas~" Nancy replied, putting on a smile for them.

"Christmas isn't enjoyable like before... do you remember the Christmases when we were kids?" Velma asked.

"Oh yes. All of us- Mom and Dad, us, and our brothers, Carl and Paul." Nancy recalled. "Dad would go and get a Christmas tree, and we'd all decorate it."

"I would string up popcorn and put it on the tree~" laughed Wilma. "I miss those days."

"I miss Carl and Paul." Nancy nodded.

"Died too young." Velma agreed with a somber nod. "Carl in the car accident, and Paul from Lou Gehrig's."

"That car accident contributed to Dad's passing." Nancy shook her head. "Carl was only thirty-one... and he and Kimmy died and left behind the three girls."

"I'm sure Mom didn't help either... Mother could drive anyone to an early death!" Velma laughed.

"Mother used Dad's financial information to go get herself a new car, and he was so furious- he was only going to pay for repairs to her old car!" Nancy said. "And I remember Dad being so furious about it. I never saw him that angry before."

"Then he had the stroke in the bathroom and laid there for two days~" Wilma frowned.

"I found Dad just lying on the floor, comatose. He died the next day in the hospital. Makes me so upset. Carl dying, and mother, just drove him to an early grave... August 1974."

"And Mother made it to ninety..."

"The last eight years of her life were hard..."

"Hard for everyone!" Velma added. "After Paul died, her health went downhill."

"Poor Paul. When I last saw him in the hospital in Chicago, I wanted to cry." Nancy recalled. "All hooked up to the machines. In a blessing, the heart attack spared him from the worst of Lou Gehrig's."

"Now it's just us three..." Wilma said in a reflective tone. "We're all pushing it in our eighties."

"Hey, listen girls... I'll be ninety next year!" Nancy exclaimed. "Where did the time go!"

"I remember celebrating graduating from high school... way back in fifty-three!" Velma recalled. "Now look at us!"

"I can still remember the day I met Gordo... up in Cleveland in June of 1950... It was me, Nancy Higgins, and her older sister Claire, and we were going to a beach party, and we happened to run into some other folks from Newark, and one of them was Gordo, and his cousin Mitch. I can still remember us panicking when Claire found that we had a flat tire! And Gordo and Mitch with their friends, came over and put the spare on, so we could get home. That's how I met my husband! And we were together for sixty-seven years till he died... I miss Gordo."

"Nancy girl, I don't know how you made it on one husband... Seven for me!"

"Seven here." Velma chimed in.

"Simply couldn't find one that lasted~" Wilma shrugged. "And I never see any of my kids or grandkids. Speaks volumes~"

"Yeah~" Nancy said in a sarcastic way.

"The last one was a keeper until he died." Velma shook her head. "Nothing lasts forever I guess."

"Sadly."

"Nance, you stay in touch with your family?"

"Always!" Nancy exclaimed. "I talk to everyone like every day on the phone, people checking in. I got the whole family to help me out when needed!"

"Your side of the family is all mixed up with all those adoptions, those foreigners coming in."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Your one son adopting that Korean mixed kid from over there, and that Rob and his brother taking in those stray kids... what are their names? Felix? Marcus? I don't recall, I've only seen them once. They don't seem to like talking to me?" Wilma said all confused.

"Perhaps there's reasons..." Nancy rolled her eyes.

Wilma shrugged. "People are strange anymore."

Nancy grimaced a bit. "I guess."

Rob returned with the percolator full of freshly made coffee. "Alright, here's the coffee~"

---

"Well it's so nice to see you guys again~" Wilma said as Rob and Nancy prepared to leave.

"You should totally come back down to visit soon!" Velma added.

"We'll get right onto that!" Rob said sarcastically. "Hopefully it's a funeral next time."

"Sisters, you both take care and Merry Christmas!" Nancy waved as she went through the door.

"Take care Nance~ Merry Christmas!" Wilma and Velma muttered.

Rob helped his grandmother back to his Tahoe, through the unplowed snow.

"Lord, those two give me shellshock..." Rob muttered. He jumped back into his SUV and took off to head back to Newark, a hour and a half away. Going back through town, they hopped back onto Route 23, and began driving northbound for Columbus.

"Aunt Wilma and Velma can be mentally exhausting." Rob admitted. "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah ."

"I can't believe that they didn't even try and get me anything?" Nancy said in a surprised tone. "Not that I care or anything. But not even a card? My sisters for you."

"Greedy and self-serving."

"Just like my mother, Rob. Just like Virginia." Nancy shook her head.

"I don't think I ever remember seeing Grandma Virginia once." Rob shook his head. "Maybe it's for the better."

"Oh, I kept all of you kids away from Mother." Nancy admitted. "She was a nasty person at the end of her life, and I wanted to spare you from that nastiness."

"Really~"

"Yeah!" Nancy exclaimed. "Virginia made a bunch of nasty comments at your late brother Troy, because your Mom wouldn't give her a loan at the credit union. And Virginia made a big scene there and called your Mom a bunch of mean names, and she told her to leave. I was so embarrassed! But that was my Mom. She could do no wrong."

Rob just shook his head in disdain.

"My Mom was a very beautiful woman, but she was the way she was because of her upbringing. I didn't know this until many years later, but Mom had a baby at the age of thirteen in West Virginia, way back in 1920. I think it was my Uncle Ike who impregnated her. I didn't know until many years later that my cousin Edith was actually my half-sister! Mom got taken away from her family and put in foster care. She was put in the care of the Davis family, down in Athens Ohio, and that's how my Mom met my Dad. And my father loved her to death, flaws and everything. He was a one woman man, and he loved my Mom so much. But they fought and bickered, and some of those fights were so terrible, Rob. Mom would threaten to leave, and us kids would sob and cry! She said some really terrible things and I wasn't even ten years old!"

"Wow."

"Mom and Dad got married in 1931, and moved to Newark, where Dad got transferred to the Newark post office. And then I was born in April 1932. Then Wilma, and Velma, Paul, and Carl. After Carl, the doctor told Mom she couldn't have any more children. Lordy, Rob, that was so long ago."

"Indeed, Grandma~"

"Mom would probably be arrested today for some of the stuff she did to us... like she'd make me take all of us to the movie theater to go watch a movie while she ran around with her boyfriends... and I was barely ten! She would drop us off, and demand that we were at the curb at five-thirty, or we knew what was coming for us! And we'd stand there for hours- I remember it was winter... early 1944? It was a very cold and snowy evening, and the usher came out, asking what us kids were doing in the cold? So he had us go into this little room where mothers could go and watch a movie while tending to a cranky baby... and oh boy... did he rip into my mother when she showed up at eight o'clock. My mother was FURIOUS that another man could yell at her."

"Ha~" Rob chuckled.

"Someone could have come along and just abducted us kids!" Nancy exclaimed. "Different times I guess. Nobody else in the family gave a damn that Mom ran around with other men, hurting Dad. I was very upset by it. I remember I was fourteen, and Dad had gone back to Athens to help with something with the post office down there... and my Mom was having an affair with the milkman."

"Now that's a stereotype~" Rob laughed.

"Charlie Higgins was his name. And to make things worse? I was best friends with his daughter! Nancy Higgins."

"Awkward."

"I tried to push Charlie off the front porch because I was so upset. Nobody else cared. Not Wilma, Velma, Paul, or Carl. They just thought 'that's just Mom'. Not me. I didn't like how she hurt my Dad." Nancy shook her head. "Mom once said she was going to go and get milk... and we didn't see her for a couple days. When she came back, I asked her, "Mom, where's the milk?' We all knew~"

"Yeah, she definitely went to get 'milk' alright~" Rob shook his head. "Maybe it's for the better I didn't meet her."

"Dad waited until the last kid graduated high school, and he divorced her. And Mom was so angry." Nancy laughed. "She didn't think he had the guts to do it. But he did!"

"Serves her right."

"My mother~" Nancy laughed. "In a way.... I miss those days... I miss all those people I remember growing up with. They're all gone now..."

"The inevitable march of time, Grandma." Rob nodded. "Sometimes it's hard to think how much time has passed in my life. You go from a teenager one minute, to staring down forty."

"Wait till you're eighty-nine!" Nancy pointed. "It's so funny... I mentally don't feel eighty-nine... My body sure does! But I don't feel eighty-nine in my head. I'm still sharp as a tack, which I'm so thankful for. I lost a couple friends to dementia. Nancy Higgins was one of them... I last heard from her about... a decade ago, and she had told me then that she had Alzheimer's... and she died last year at eighty-eight. Her life had faded away before she died. So many of my classmates are gone now. It's just ninety-eight of us left, out of a class of five hundred that graduated in 1950."

"I rather forget my graduating class..." Rob grumbled as he put his turn signal on. Applying power, Rob looked over his shoulder to make sure the left lane was clear and merged over to pass a slow moving semi truck, which had a flatbed with an orange excavator chained down to it. Rob grumbled at the realization that a work van was blocking his path, a white Econoline holding the same speed as the semi truck. Rob backed away a bit to give himself more room in the lane, when he noticed an overpass, its height marked on a yellow sign. Without warning, the excavator's arm made contact with the bridge and its sign; there was a terrible explosion of dust and metal, and Rob immediately braked hard when he saw the debris fall.

Spinning the wheel, Rob put the Tahoe into a slide. Nancy yelled in terror as a couple of chunks of concrete struck the hood and windshield. The windshield immediately explodes into a spider web of cracks, the hood buckled with a crunch of metal. Hitting broken rebar, the tires ruptured and hissed air. Rob screeched to a stop in the middle of the highway, his Tahoe coming to grief.

"Oh god!" Nancy yelled.

"Grandma are you alright!?" Rob shouted.

"Yes, I'm fine! What about you?"

"I'm okay." Rob muttered. He shoved the shifter into park and immediately hopped out. Looking dazed, his adrenaline surging, Rob saw the semi stopping, the excavator lying on its side after being ejected off the trailer. Debris strewn the road, and the overpass took a heft hit with noticeable cracks in the concrete. Other cars were coming to a stop. "Fuck..." Rob hissed. He looked at his red Tahoe, which had three flat tires, its hood all crushed in and the windshield destroyed.

---

"What a mess we've gotten ourselves in~" Rob said to his Grandma, over lunch. Despite a cold wind and snow, Rob and Nancy sat at a picnic bench at a truck stop, to get away from all the unmasked, grizzled truckers inside. Not far away, Rob's busted up Tahoe sat, having been limped a mile down the road to the truck stop, after being cleared by police. Now they waited for Joey to come and pick them up with his truck and a trailer.

Despite the cold, Nancy sat and ate a hamburger, while Rob held down a yellow legal pad, scribbling a statement out in his leather bound planner. He looked unhappy as he ignored his rapidly cooling lunch and made notes. Nancy adjusted the thick brown Carhartt beanie that Rob had bought her; the little white knitted cap just wasn't keeping her head warm enough.

"Rob, your burger is gonna get cold!" Nancy exclaimed.

"Grandma, that is the least of my worries~" Rob said, not even looking up. "Oh I'm gonna get this bastard good~"

"It was an accident! Let it be~" Nancy assured him.

"He is responsible for his load, and he did not properly assure his height." Rob explained, his tone completely flat. "He damaged a bridge, and damaged my vehicle, and that company is going to pay for it one way or another!"

"You already have enough lawsuits to contend to..."

"One more won't hurt." Rob grumbled.

"You gotta stop being so ruthless."

Rob stowed his pen and slammed his planner shut. He grumbled something and looked burned out as he ate what was left of his cold hamburger.

"You've had a rough year, Rob."

"I've had a rough two decades, Grandma. I'm tired."

"I know you are~"

Rob looked up at his Grandma, and his face bore a look of mental exhaustion from everything. "I'm worn out from everything going on, and I don't know if I can endure another year of this."

"I believe a lot of people are worn out, Rob. I'm worn out~" his grandma said, nodding sympathetically. "It's been... really rough being alone at this age... last year was a really bad year. My annus horribilis."

"I think the past two years have been everyone's annus horribilis."

"Except for the troglodytes!" laughed Nancy as she slowly got up to sit next to Rob.

"Well, some people live their lives in blissful ignorance, and that's me being kind~" Rob chuckled.

"Well...a lot won't be soon... sadly..." Nancy pursed her lips.

"Yeah."

"But you can't worry about what others do, because you can only take care of yourself. The same with what other people think of you. Who cares!"

"Well... I am trying to change things up... baby steps I guess~" Rob shrugged.

"Baby steps are better than no steps~" Nancy smiled.

"Heh, true~"

"I mean... I had to change my ways after you and me butted heads for a long time... and then Marcus punching me back to reality~" Nancy said, looking a bit hesitant herself. "Sometimes we go off the beaten path... and have to be brought back to reality."

"Well I'm glad we're not at each other's throats before..." Rob said. "I... shouldn't have been an asshole to my family."

"Well...I shouldn't have been a jerk!" Nancy said with a light laugh at the end. "I used to tell myself that I would never want to be like my mother! And sometimes we end up morphing into what we hate."

"Heh, Virginia has given you a lot of stories."

"Oh my god..." Nancy said, shaking her head and laughing. "So many headaches... she could be covered in a whole novel! And people wouldn't believe it! She did so many crazy things and hurt our family... but that was Mom... and she could do it."

"That's narcissism for you~"

"Oh yes. Mom was perfect, infallible. I remember Mom trying to say I wasn't religious because I didn't go to church like she did! I didn't run around with the milkman! Or the shoe salesman!"

Rob closed his eyes and just smiled.

"I'm glad I can tell you these stories! I'm so thankful that I still have my memory at eighty-nine! It's sometimes a bit fuzzy here and there... but after watching some of your classmates die from dementia... it's so hard to watch them fade away and forget everything. All the memories, all the laughs."

"And yet your sisters will outlive all of us."

"Oh those two are reincarnations of my mother. Self-absorbed, married and divorced... None of their kids show up except for Greg... bless his heart~"

"Well can you blame them?"

"Wilma and Velma broke up multiple marriages, and their kids resented that. Even I haven't talked to a lot of them in a long time." Nancy explained. "The Davis family is all fractured up now because of Mom."

"I'm simply amazed they're still alive..." Rob remarked. "Heavy smokers, drinkers... don't care of themselves... but go figure it would be Grandpa and my Dad going before those two old birds..."

"Your father, Rob..." Nancy recalled. "I miss Ray. He was such a cute baby, and was so gifted. He was very smart."

"I wish I knew him."

"Your father would help anyone who needed help, that's how he got hurt in the explosion at work. It broke him. He became so cold and hateful. I didn't hear from him for the last couple years...but when you told me he passed away... oh I cried so hard. All those years taken away from him..."

"He gave his life up for my friend. But at the end, he was really suffering... and I should have been there for him... but I chose to be a jerk and twist the knife..."

"Hindsight, Rob." Nancy pointed.

"He was dying of cancer, and I should have been there." Rob shook his head. "I'll always regret that."

"But your father was to blame for that sentiment~ He pushed everyone away being so angry... but he was in pain... and people were cruel to him. Your father was a very complex man from that accident. His poor face... all mutilated and burned... and your mother loved him until she just couldn't take it anymore after you came out and got kicked out."

"The beginning of all my troubles." Rob shook his head.

"But I think your father came to regret that decision."

"I think he came to regret a lot of things at the end of his life." Rob nodded. "That's why I'm trying to pull myself away from everything..."

"Let it be Rob~ Everything will be okay." Nancy assured him.

"Heh, I'll try~" Rob smiled for her. He noticed Joey pulling into the truck stop in his iridium gray GMC, towing a fifth wheel behind him. Joey was accompanied by their nephew, Alvin Paulo. "And there's our ride~"

---

Poking his head out the open window, Rob lined his Tahoe up for the trailer's ramps. Guided by his husband Joey, a black and tan Brazilian Doberman, Rob gave his crippled SUV some gas, and flopped the tires on the pavement. He got it up the ramps and onto the trailer, where Joey got his chains ready to secure. Rob shut his Tahoe off and climbed down to the slushy pavement below.

"What a day, Joey~" Rob shook his head.

"If it's not one thing, it's something else." Joey smiled with a chuckle. "We'll drop this off at Russ' dealership, and have the collision center look at it on Monday."

"Whee."

Rob walked back over to see his grandma talking to Alvin, an energetic seventeen year old Doberman, bundled in his jacket and beanie against the cold and snow. Alvin stood carrying a Sony Betacam on his shoulder, an old BVP-3A tube camera.

"Alright, we're all set to finally get on back to Newark~"

"What a day!" Nancy laughed with Alvin. "C'mon Alvin, let's get aboard Joey's truck~"

Rob helped his grandma into the front seat of the GMC, and Rob and Alvin rode in the backseat of the crew cab truck. Joey took off with the trailer rumbling behind him, hauling Rob's busted up Tahoe. They hopped back onto Route 23 to continue on north.

"Sorry to interrupt your day, Joey!" Nancy said, patting Joey on the shoulder.

"Just a quiet day at the gun store~" Joey explained with a smile on his face.

Rob smirked, "heh, quiet? More like dealing with Man-Karens because you make them wear a mask inside!"

"Whoa, they're Todds~" Joey corrected with a laugh.

"Or Richards!" Alvin exclaimed.

"People are still making a big deal about masks?" Nancy asked Joey.

"Oh yes! I've only had five people pull a gun on me... in a gun store. Crazy!" Joey said with a whimsical laugh.

"Oh my lord! They pulled a gun on you!?" the old wolfess exclaimed in shock.

"Just another day in good ole N'erk!" Joey laughed. "Makes me want to just get out of this firearms business~ People warping owning a rifle into some kind of life or death struggle against Democrats, or whatever tinfoil bullshit they can pull outta their ass!"

"Wingnuts, Joey."

"Again, just another day." The Doberman grinned at his husband.

"The whole world is going crazy, Joey." Nancy shook her head. "And me and Rob had to visit two crazies in Chillicothe!"

Joey jokingly shuddered. "Wilma and Velma... bless their hearts."

"They can give you that effect~" Nancy admitted with a laugh. "They're nothing like my brothers... Paul and Carl. Those two died well before their time."

"That's sad to hear." Joey nodded.

"Carl died in a horrific car accident on Hebron Road. A drunk twenty year old on leave from the Army went left of center and him Carl and his wife Maxine head on. All three died instantly. Left behind three daughters. And Paul died of a heart attack after suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease for a few years."

"Wow~" Joey nodded. "That reminds me of my grandmother- I never knew her, she died in a plane crash about fifty years ago."

"Oh no, Joey."

"All I ever had in my life for a grandparent is my Grandpa, and he's ninety-five now." Joey explained. "I have a uncle and some cousins, but we're not close. And my Mom's side? Never knew them."

"Why?"

"They're a bunch of snobs who moved back to Portugal. They never accepted my Mom marrying Dad, so they don't really speak to us. Only really when to gloat, but who needs that?" Joey smiled. "No loss to me!"

"Terrible..." Nancy shook her head. "That's almost like how my mother treated me and Gordo. She never liked Gordo because he comes from a Polish descended family, and she didn't like eastern Europeans. Gordo was always nice to Virginia, but she was so mean to him!"

"Wow. Gordo was such a nice person." Joey shook his head. "Forgive me, but your mother sounded like a bitch!"

"Yes!" Nancy laughed. "Virginia was a selfish, mean, person."

"Wait, why was Grandpa so nice to her?" Rob asked.

"He did it for me, that's why." Nancy explained. "Like, mother had a car accident in the seventies. She blew a tire, spun out, and hit a ditch. Gordo went to get her. And my mother just berated him for being late... it was bad weather! Traffic! Gordo told me afterwards that if she wasn't my mother, he would have left her for dead!"

"I would have!" Rob exclaimed.

"Whoa, Nixon, easy~" Joey grinned in a brief glance back at Rob.

"Concentrate on driving!" Rob pointed with a laugh. Everyone had a laugh in the cab.

With the sun low on the horizon, Joey dropped Rob's Tahoe off at their friend's GM dealership on the north end of town. Turning around, Joey drove to Shady Acres, to drop Nancy off. Pulling up to the curb, Rob hopped out to help his grandmother get out of the tall truck. Hooking an arm around her, Rob walked his grandma back to her house.

"They still haven't plowed the damn sidewalks!" Nancy exclaimed. "They charge all this stuff about getting sidewalks salted and shoveled, and never do it half the time! Rip off! All these old people are gonna break a hip!"

Rob walked up the door and made sure Nancy could get inside. "Well Grandma, it was a lot of fun."

Nancy smiled and gave Rob a tight hug. "Oh Rob, what would I do without you?"

"Who knows!" Rob joked.

"We've butted heads before in the past... but I want you to know I love you Rob."

"I love you too, Grandma. And I had a lot of fun, even putting up with Wilma and Velma's crap."

"It's a lot of crap!" Nancy laughed. "Rob! I hope you, Joey, and Alvin have a Merry Christmas! And tell your brother I said Merry Christmas too! I hope he feels well!"

"We will be seeing you tomorrow~ We got a surprise for you~"

"Oh really?"

"Yeah! So just stay put!"

"I won't be going anywhere!"

"Have a good night Grandma. Love ya, see ya~"

"Love you Rob, good night~"

Rob watched his grandmother gently close the door, and Rob turned around to walk back to Joey's truck, only to slip and fall into the snow. "Damnit!" Rob shouted as Joey and Alvin jumped out to help him up.

"Pay all this fucking money for lawn service and you never get it!" Rob grumbled as he hopped into the truck to leave.

---

Christmas morning was snowy and gray. Snow fell from the window to Nancy's bedroom. Getting up out of bed slowly, Nancy was dressed in her pink pajamas. She walked over to the window to grab her robe and watched the snow fall down. It looked cold outside.

Shuffling out of her bedroom, Nancy stepped into her tiny kitchen and grabbed some coffee to put in her electric percolator. She hit the switch and waited for it to boil. Setting her cup down next to it, she slowly walked to the living room window to watch the snow fall outside. The sight of a white Christmas brought back all the memories of Christmas with her family over the years. She glanced around at her living room with a look of sadness on her face. Everything looked drab and empty. Some gift bags and wrapped presents sat in a little spot beside her TV. Gone were the days of Christmas trees and excited children. Nancy couldn't help but sigh a little bit.

Going to the kitchen, she poured herself a cup of coffee, and went to grab milk from the fridge, when there was a knock at the door. Glancing up at the clock, Nancy was puzzled at a knock at seven-thirty in the morning. Going over to answer it, she unlocked the door and opened it up to reveal her whole family standing with gifts in hand.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" everyone greeted in happy tones. A big smile lit up Nancy's face.

"Oh my god! You didn't have to!" Nancy exclaimed.

"Merry Christmas, Mom!" came William Barion.

"Merry Christmas Grandma!" Rob exclaimed with his brother Jake. Along with her immediate family were Jake's wife Karen, Rob's husband Joey, and the Barion adoptees, Felix and Marcus Barion, with their partners. Marcus' older brother, Borr Eklund also stood with a gift being held in his big paws.

"Please come in! Come in!" Nancy exclaimed. "You're just in time, I made some coffee, and let me move a few things! Come in! Come in!"

Everyone poured on inside through the front door, out of the cold. Nancy made sure everyone was situated as she got the table set up for food and drinks that were brought. With all the laughter and excitement, Nancy felt the joy of Christmas. A big, happy smile lit up her aged face. It was the best Christmas her family could give her.

---

I was inspired to write this short story after taking my Grandma

on a small road trip to see her sister. We passed the time talking

about loved ones that are gone now, and the world around us.

A great time of learning family history, and all the laughs and

tragedies.

Merry Christmas~

-Coyotesiege92