There is just one picture left to Thomas after the death of his cherished grandmother. Everything else is taken by his sister and mother. However, after everything is said and done, Thomas discovers the truth: his grandma did not exclude him. She left him something much more valuable than cash. She gave him a task.
Some individuals reminisce about their early years as if they were golden hours, complete with warm milk before bed, stories, dinners around the table, and bikes in the driveway.
That wasn’t the case with mine. That is, until Grandma Grace intervened.
Delia, my mother, chased bad guys and made worse choices for the most of her life. Cynthia, my older sister, followed her example, but she was colder-hearted and had sharper heels.
I simply was there. A silent shadow during family get-togethers. A living reminder that I hadn’t satisfied any of the requirements for the love in our home.
Grandma Grace took me in when I was six years old. She didn’t request authorization. She simply grinned and packed my luggage.
“Tom, you’re accompanying me home.”
And she remained that way after that. At home.
She wrote school lunchbox notes. Even on third-grade recorder nights, she was always in the first row at every game and event.
She helped pay for my college books by selling one of her vintage bracelets. Everybody in the room became silent when she spoke, even though she never raised her voice.
I was 26 when Mom passed away. And I felt six again, even though I was walking about in an adult body.
Small and lost.
I shed more tears at her burial than I have in a long time. Cynthia had on artificial tears and black lace. Delia cried more loudly than everybody else. but primarily while others were looking.
The will then appeared.
The scent of dust and cold coffee filled the cramped office where we convened. The notary, a man as warm as a folding chair, shuffled the documents and adjusted his glasses as if it were any other Tuesday.
With her arms folded and her gaze sweeping the room as if she were already redecorating, Delia sat primly. Cynthia glanced at her lipstick in the mirror as she browsed through her phone.
Me? I couldn’t take my eyes off the door, half expecting to see Grandma Grace enter.
I was hoping she would say, “Just kidding, baby.” “I’m right here. I will not be leaving.
However, she didn’t.
His neck was cleaned by the notary.
He said, “The house.” “Goes to Delia.”
My mom’s smile became more piercing.
“Obviously, it does,” she remarked.
“Cynthia gets the car,” he added.
My sister, who was still browsing through her phone, remarked, “Ugh, finally.” “I can flip Grand’s car, even though it’s old.”
He paused and looked up at me before saying, “And to Thomas….”
“A single envelope.”
As if it were a parking ticket, he gave it over.
My mother leaned down and remarked, “Perhaps it contains instructions for watering her ugly petunias.”
Or a duplicate of that disgusting zoo picture she had hanging in the corridor. You do recall that? It was awful! Cynthia chuckled.
My hands trembled as I opened the letter. A note in Grandma Grace’s well-known loopy script was inside:
For you, Tom. Our framed picture. It’s the one from when you were eight years old in the zoo. Sweet boy, I will always love you. Grandma G., love.
That was it. No deed was done. No check. It was only an image I had already committed to memory: her eyes crinkling with delight, me grinning lopsidedly. I gazed at it, attempting to interpret it.
Had I truly been abandoned by my grandmother? Nothing?
I got up. numb. I remained silent. Before they could witness my face cracking, I simply nodded and left.
I went to the house the following morning.
Delia was already snapping her fingers like a king or queen, commanding a moving crew.
Put that in a box. Throw this away. What is this, ugh, disgusting? Can I sell these bird statues online, in your opinion?
I didn’t communicate with her. Like muscle memory, I just moved to the picture on the wall by walking down the corridor. Behind us are giraffes, Grandma Grace and I. Sunshine was present. and mid-frame laughter was captured.
Silently, I removed it.
Delia gave a booming snort from the kitchen.
“Thomas, you’re sentimental garbage. You were too gentle all the time. I assumed that by now you would have become toughened by the world.
She didn’t even know… Soon, though? She would.
I was back in my apartment, a little, dark green, and beige room that served as my safe haven. In order to comprehend everything, I needed some alone time to think.
I gazed at the picture in my hands while dropping my keys in the bowl near the door. The frame was older than I thought, with a thin crack running like a scar down the edge and wear on one corner.
I brushed it with my thumb. It was worthy of better. So much better.
Marla, a coworker from the cubicle across from mine, had given me a gorgeous wood frame for my birthday a few months prior.
She had stated, “For something that matters.”
Unaware of what it would mean, I gave a courteous grin.
I do now.
After placing the picture on my desk, I gently disassembled the previous frame. I sensed something rigid beneath the background at that moment. I turned the cardboard over and scowled.
I gasped.
Another envelope was there, taped to the inside.
Once, my heart missed a beat. But then again. My fingers paused. Slowly, I re-peeled the tape. There were clean, authentic stock certificates within.
One handwritten message, a safety deposit box key, and financial documents were found.
“True treasure doesn’t make noise. Grandma G., love.
I just sat there and stared. My hands were shaking. I refrained from crying. Not quite yet.
“No way… No way. I just kept whispering, as if it might come true if I said it enough.
However, it was genuine.
Grandma Grace left me more than she left me. I had all she had left me.
I entered my office building for the final time the following morning. I unplugged my nameplate, dropped it in the drawer, and rode the elevator to the sixth floor.
No farewells. No goodbye cupcakes.
I got past Steve, my boss, who used to call everyone “champ” and had called me “Travis” for a whole year.
He said, “Hey, buddy.”
“Not your friend, Steve,” I grinned.
I then departed.
I went directly to the bank by car. It was a real safety deposit box. Like it had been waiting for me the entire time, the key glided in.
I discovered the deeds to five rental houses that I had discreetly acquired throughout the years. All in my name. It all paid off. making money.
a shipping company’s stock. Sufficient for a majority stake. She also “left” Delia one more deed, to the land underneath the house.
I gave it a blink. The house went to Delia. But the ground it stood on belonged to me.
It dawned on me then. Grandmother Grace didn’t defend herself. She engaged in chess games.
And at last, it was my turn.
The news didn’t sit well with my mother.
Over the phone, she yelled, “You can’t do this.” “I own that house!”
Before answering, I let her voice reverberate off my kitchen walls for a moment while I held the phone away from my ear.
“Yes,” I replied coolly. However, I own the land. So, Mom, I’m your landlord. The house cannot be sold. Or take out a mortgage. Or actually touch it.
Like a pot left on the burner for too long, she lost her temper. insults, charges, irrational claims of legal action, and treachery. I simply listened. I briefly pictured Grandma Grace drinking tea in the afterlife and watching this with that tiny, contented grin she saved for when someone undervalued her.
She was always partial to you. Everyone was aware of it,” Delia said.
I said, “Mom, she raised me.” “You abandoned me. What did you anticipate happening?
Click.
No farewell. Nothing but quiet.
Cynthia’s condition remained unchanged. Her ambitious scheme to sell Gran’s old Lincoln and use the proceeds to close her lover Rhett’s gambling parlor had run into trouble. It turns out that Grandma Grace had purposefully allowed the car’s back taxes and registration payments to accumulate.
Without a clean title, it couldn’t be sold, and Cynthia lacked the funds and patience to get one.
Worse?
Rhett owed no one a few thousand dollars. No, Rhett never settled for less. He had a $22,000 debt. To men who reportedly failed to politely remind them of unpaid invoices.
Even yet, I could have abandoned them both to perish in the chaos they had created.
Desperation, though? People become more reasonable as a result.
So I gave my mom a call.
I said, “You can’t sell the house.” However, I’ll purchase it from you. Reasonable cost. Not a single lawyer or such. There are no delays. Just quick and easy.
She remained silent for a while.
She questioned, “You’d really do that?”
I said, “For her.” For her recollection. Not for you.
I sent the money three days later. Just enough to temporarily ease Rhett’s storm, but not nearly as much as she had hoped for.
Suddenly, I was the owner of the home where I was raised. I didn’t move in, though. That was not its intended use.
Warmth, purpose, and gentle affection were all there in that house thanks to my grandmother. It had to be more than just a place to stay. I wanted to share it with the world and give it to her once more.
I thus made use of the rental money she had left me. I came upon Omar, a kind contractor who hummed while working and referred to Gran as “a legend” before ever seeing her picture.
We worked together to revamp each space, bringing back her accents where we could. The tiles with flowers. The pantry’s green-tinted glass. She was charming in part because of the crooked step she used to say.
And it was no longer a house when the doors reopened.
It was the Corner of Grace.
A place to read. A kitchen for soup. A haven for people who simply needed to feel hugged by something soft, for mothers who needed five minutes of peace and quiet, and for children who needed stories.
Anyone in need of a feeling of home could find it there.
We offered her tea, her tuna melt sandwiches with the strange celery crunch that somehow worked, and her pie recipes.
We used roller skates, old friends’ love notes, and pressed flowers I discovered in old books to frame her life on the walls.
I also hung that picture. The zoo one instead. close to the entrance. Not ostentatious or noisy.
Simply said, unforgettable. similar to her.
On certain mornings, I open the door before the sun comes up.
Those are tranquil hours. The creak of old floors, the quiet hum of the heater starting up, and me. According to Grandma Grace, there was a rhythm in the house. She was correct.
We made it a home once more. For others, not for myself.
Warm food is now served six days a week in the kitchen. If they manage to get to Grace’s Corner, nobody goes hungry. The kind where folks bring casseroles in Tupperware and nobody questions why you need a plate of second helpings, rather than the formal kind with menus and lattes.
The antique fireplace has a shelf for toys. The window-facing reading chair? It’s still there. As worn as ever. We refer to it as Grace’s chair. When someone needs to cry or simply be left alone, they alternately sit in it.
We provide free haircuts in the backyard on Thursdays. Dani, one of my former classmates, stops by carrying scissors and clippers. She doesn’t say much, but notice how patiently and deliberately she combs someone’s hair?
It speaks that language.
After everyone had left one morning, Dani and I sat on the porch. Gran used to tend to the garden, which was illuminated by the sun that had just risen above the rooftops.
She remarked, “You truly made this place something.”
Most of it was done by her. I nodded, “I’m just making sure it continues to breathe.”
Dani grinned and said, “It feels like a soul lives here.” “Really… The energy here is different in some way.
I didn’t respond. I was in the middle of laughing when I looked at the picture of Gran and me at the zoo that was by the door.
That same week, Cynthia arrived.
identical heels. The same mindset. However, her eyes seemed to have lost part of their gleam.
She folded her arms and whispered, “I need help.” “Rhett is no longer there. took my last funds and I have no idea where else to go.
I remained motionless. I simply gazed at her.
“Cynthia, I don’t have any money to give you,” I answered calmly. “Not today. Most likely never.
Would you truly allow me to struggle? after everything? She winced.
I took in the house’s surroundings. In the kitchen, the crockpots are bubbling. By the entryway, at the boots. At last, the woman fell asleep, snuggled up in Gran’s chair.
I said, “I won’t give you money.” However, you are welcome to remain. Assist. tidy. Serve the food. Participate in something. Be a person that Gran would have been pleased with.
Cynthia opened her mouth as if to object.
Instead, she gave a nod.
“I have no idea how to accomplish any of that.”
“That’s alright,” I replied. “I didn’t either. I learned from Grace.”
Thomas, you’d let me stay? Tom, really? She fought back tears with a blink.
I gave one nod, saying, “As long as you work.” “And as long as you can recall who currently owns this house.”
She asked with a slight smile on her lips, “Who?”
“To those in need,” I uttered. “And to the woman who made me feel chosen without ever requiring a will.”
We remained silent. I went back inside after that.
And I heard the door close behind me. Silently. It’s not like someone is giving up. but as if someone were filling in.
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