Together at Midnight by Jennifer Castle

Author:Jennifer Castle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-10-20T04:00:00+00:00

Max

THAT’S RIGHT. I ASKED THIS GIRL TO WALK HERE IN A growing snowstorm so I don’t have to spend any more time alone with my grandfather. I’ll make it up to the universe later, I swear.

“Big E?” I ask as I knock on the wall of the living room, where there’s a black-and-white movie on TV. What I see of my grandfather is motionless. Possibly asleep again.

I knock again, louder. Big E turns, sees me, and actually grins. “Hey, champ.”

“I brought a friend to meet you.” I motion for Kendall to step all the way into the room.

I watch Big E size her up. Twenty bucks, he says something about her hair.

“Hi,” says Kendall. “I’m Kendall.”

“A redhead!” says Big E. “Natural or out of a bottle?”

For the love of God. At least he didn’t ask Does the carpet match the drapes?

Kendall’s unfazed, though. “A hundred percent natural,” she says proudly, with a smile.

Big E turns to me. “I always loved redheads. Jane Fonda. She was a juicy one.”

“Uh-huh,” I say. Gross.

He meets my eyes. “I don’t blame girls for dyeing their hair that color.”

“Me neither,” I say softly, then glance at Kendall. She frowns. I didn’t have time to explain the rule of Yes to her.

“What are you watching?” she asks Big E. On the screen, two guys drive an old car with a fake background going by.

“Some movie about brothers. I lost track of the plot.”

A few painful minutes of us all watching the movie in silence. Okay, enough. I motion for Kendall to follow me back to the kitchen.

“Wow,” is all she says.

“I know. He’s pretty intense.”

“No, I mean, wow, you just agree with everything he says.”

“Well, yeah. He’s sort of losing it.”

“So?”

“So, you can’t take him seriously.”

“Why not?”

“Uh, because if I did, it would drive me crazy. Also, the guy’s in a lot of pain, and he’s angry and lonely. He deserves some slack, don’t you think?”

Kendall considers this. Runs her pointer finger back and forth along the smooth granite of the countertops.

“Sure, of course he does. But you know who your grandfather reminds me of? That homeless guy on the street today.”

“Josh,” I say, super-glad that I remember his name.

“Josh,” nods Kendall. “He’s clearly losing it, too. He’s sick. He was spouting nonsense. But you took the time to have a conversation with him.”

“That’s different.”

“Is it? You made his day simply by taking him seriously. You made him feel heard.”

“You don’t think I’m making my grandfather feel heard?”

“Nope.”

I’m a little pissed off now. She doesn’t know anything about Big E. Or Nanny. Or our whole family.

“You haven’t been here,” I say, trying not to sound defensive. “Everything we do is to make him feel heard.”

Kendall thinks for a moment, then shakes her head. “I don’t buy that. When I’m talking to someone and they’re just saying yeah and uh-huh and right, it’s pretty clear they’re not listening at all.”

“Well, same here.”

“So this is that.”

“It’s not.”

Or is it?

I look at her. Her eyes are bright and mischievous. I take a breath to think about what she’s saying.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.