I didn’t go out to the garbage can.
I want to be honest about that.
I could have. I could have walked right out the side door in my slippers and dug through the trash and pulled it out and carried it back in and set it right back on her stove.
But I knew what would happen.
Ashley would sigh. Greg would look at the ceiling. And everybody would spend the rest of the weekend tiptoeing around the crazy old lady and her frying pan.
And every time I set it on their stove after that, I’d know it wasn’t wanted there.
So I stayed in my room.
I read my Bible. I did the crossword in the Star Tribune. I looked out the window at their backyard. At the fancy cedar fence and the pergola with the string lights.
Around noon, there was a soft knock.
“Grandma?”
It was Owen. My grandson. Fourteen years old. Almost six feet tall now, all elbows and knees, with Arvid’s ears.
“Come in, honey.”
He opened the door just a crack and stuck his head in.
“Are you sick? Mom said you weren’t feeling good.”
“I’m just tired, sweetheart.”
He looked at me for a long moment. He has Arvid’s eyes too. Pale blue. The kind that see more than they let on.
“Okay,” he said. “Do you want a sandwich? I can make you a turkey sandwich.”
“That would be lovely, honey.”
He made it himself. Turkey and Swiss on wheat, cut diagonally, the way I used to cut them for him when he was little. He brought it in on a paper plate with a glass of milk and set it on the dresser.
Then he just stood there in the doorway.
“Grandma,” he said. “Is it because of the pan?”
I didn’t answer.
He nodded slowly. Like I’d answered anyway.
Then he went back downstairs.
I came out for supper that night because Greg asked me to. Ashley had ordered Thai food. Nobody said anything about the skillet. Ashley talked about a work conference in Scottsdale. Greg talked about the Vikings.
Owen didn’t say much of anything at all.
He just kept looking at me across the table.
Sophia Rivers is an experienced News Content Editor with a sharp eye for detail and a passion for delivering accurate and engaging news stories. At TheArchivists, she specializes in curating, editing, and presenting news content that informs and resonates with a global audience.
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