The excitement was all over and they were gone.
Grandma Ellie Jones sadly surveyed the mess in her dining room, kitchen, and playroom. Just half an hour before, the small pink house on Peach Tree Way had been filled with the happy chatter and laughter of adults, children, and grandchildren. They had all visited Grandma Ellie for her seventy second birthday in June.
Ellie shuffled slowly to the kitchen to make herself some cranberry apple tea. The bright yellow walls and cheerful blue tiles only reminded her of that wonderful summer some thirty years ago, when she and her four children, Ben, Joan, Alexandra, and Max had painted the kitchen together. They had also put in the tiles with Grandpa Eddie after a stressful but exhilarating trip to Sam’s All Purpose Goods.
With the house quiet, the silent echoes of happiness and noise assaulted her. Ellie took her tea and sat down at the table to drink it slowly. She couldn’t add sugar anymore, her doctor had said. The tea was bland, but its warmth spread through her body like little Ruby’s goodbye hug twenty minutes ago.
Ellie looked into her tea cup and watched the liquid swirl as her hand shook. Not even Eddie was here anymore, he hadn’t been for the last two years. Thankfully, she saw her family often; either for birthdays or births or holiday dinners. But Ellie still missed them achingly when they were gone. They would be getting together again soon, as Alexandra was in her eighth month. Ellie had that to look forward to.
She’d be seeing her ten year old granddaughter Hannah in August, when she’d stay with Ellie for two weeks. The summer was Ellie’s favorite time of year, because every summer one of her grandchildren stayed over for half a month. Also, gardening in the warm weather took her mind off things that she couldn’t usually stop thinking about. She had considered moving to Florida, but she wanted to be near the family.
Over the next two hours, Ellie cleaned the floors, swept them, wiped patches of stickiness off the walls, and packaged up the food to go in the freezer. When she finished, she sat down on the big leather lounge chair that Eddie had bought for her, and picked up some magazines to read. She started reading the houses for sale section, something that she and her youngest son had done on long afternoons after everyone else had married or moved out. They would pretend they were looking for a house and would pick out favorites and make up names for them.
A house on the page caught her eye. It was a small yellow house on Rogan Road. Ellie blinked. Joan lived on Rogan Road with her six children. The price was good. Ellie smiled. She called the owner and made arrangements to see the house.
It wasn’t Florida, but it was just as good.