Free write from class on 7/20/17

The basement of my grandfather’s reminds me of my dead grandmother’s hospital room.  It is dark and eerie and I am standing alone with  my two aunts and whatever spirit is left of my grandmother.  Maureen and Una come down with me to smoke, so that they are able to without suffocating my adolescent cousins with smoke.

“He is so full of shit,” Una says as I round down the stairs.

“He thinks he’s the king of the world just because he’s a good golf player,” says Maureen, tapping the ash of her cigarette into an ash tray.  “Who plays golf anymore, anyway?” she asks, rolling her eyes and shrugging her shoulders.

“I don’t know,” Una says, shaking her head.  “I feel like ever since Mommy died he’s lost whatever good was in him. 

“But he was always on Daddy’s good side,” Maureen says.  “He used to visit him in the hospital- remember those few weeks he was at Lutheran General after his triple by-pass?”

I stood by them as they ceased talking, and their eyes turned to a glaze, looking down to the floor.

“Amy!” My Uncle Shawn says, entering the basement from the backyard screen door.  “What’s up, beautiful girl?”

I am about to hug Shawn but my Uncle Mike bursts in through the same door sneezing loudly. 

“She was a little snooty,” he says.

“Who?” Una asks.

“The 7-11 cashier.”  He looks at me and smiles.  “A little snooty.  Amy- sweety!”

He puts up his palm so that I can give him a high five.

Una rolls her eyes.  “Jerks- but you still got the beer for the barbeque tonight?”

“Of course,” My Uncle Mike says, smiling at me, his green eyes sparkling.