Stay Gold

I drove the (what seemed to be forever) 45-minute drive to my grandma’s house. She lived in Tulsa, while myself, my sister, my mom and my dad lived in Haskell. It was a smaller city, but it was decent. I had a great life, so I couldn’t complain.

I finally reached her little house, it didn’t look as run-down as it used to back in the day, like my mom said. She used to tell me stories about all the gang violence here, and how my grandad almost got killed by a gang of greasers back when he was my age.

My grandfather, who’s been dead for about three years now, always joked about it. He never took it too seriously, from the sounds of it. He’d always say ‘Those damn greasers caught me off guard! I could of pounded them and sent them all to the hospital!’

He said he wasn’t even close to dying, he said that my mom was just trying to scare Nova and I into behaving. Which, I must admit, has worked for 16 years.

I walked up the old, rustic stairs to my grandma’s house and let myself in.

“Gram, you home? It’s me, Nala!”, I announced.

She came out from the kitchen, with a smile on her face.

“Hi, Nala. Girl, you get prettier and prettier every time I see you. Your daddy needs to buy a shotgun to keep them boys away from you,” she joked. “Come on in, stay awhile.”

And I did just that. I sat on the couch near her recliner, as she sat beside me.

“How’s your mom? And Nova? Why don’t you guys ever come to visit that often? I get mighty lonely ever since your grandaddy’s been gone,” she said, weary.

“Mom’s fine, everyone’s fine. Nova’s just being lazy. We’ve all been busy, Gram. But at least I’m here now,” I paused, and smiled reassuringly, “Actually... Mom mentioned something about you moving in with us. How awesome would that be! We’d be together all the time-”

The look on Gram’s face instantly changed.

“No, absolutely not!”, she exclaimed. “There are too many memories here, that I’m not giving up. This old town has a lot of memories, and a lot of secrets that I’m not quite ready to share” She got up from the chair and headed back into the kitchen. She seemed upset. I didn’t even realize that I said anything that would have made her mad, or offended her.

“Want any iced tea, sweetheart?”, she called out.

Just to be nice, I said yes. When really, I wanted to clean and get the hell out of dodge.

Gram came out of the kitchen again a few minutes later with two classes of iced tea. She handed one to me, and I took a small sip of it and set it on the coffee table.

“So, what do you want me to do today?”, I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

She smiled, “Would you mind so much to clean the attic? It’s not horrid, I promise. Just throw out the junk up there. Anything you want up there, you can keep.”

“What would I want to do with a bunch of stuff that’s older than my parents?”, I asked myself.

Of course, I held that comment back and just nodded. I drank a little more of the tea before making my way up into the attic.

* * * *

I opened up the attic door. Everything up there was dusty, and there were cob webs everywhere, like nobody had been up there in centuries. There were boxes. Everywhere. My job was to go through the boxes to see what was in there. What I could keep, what Gram wanted to keep, and what she wanted in the garbage or donated to GoodWill.

I opened and closed boxes for a good hour and a half. I was hot, tired, and wanted to leave. As I was ready to leave the attic, I found a lone box over in the far corner. I was pissed at the fact that I missed it, and that I’d have to be up there longer than I had to be.

I hurried over to the box. I examined it. There was no writing on the outside like the others. I took a peak on what was in the inside. Books, unused journals, and different photo albums. I didn’t look in any of them, though. I just wanted to leave. Not without the box, though. I figured I could use some of the journals for my own writing and drawings.

I carefully went down the ladder going back down to the main level of the house, box included.

“Find anything you want?”, Gram chuckled.

I nodded briefly and laughed, “Just some books that I could read in school when I don’t feel like doing anything.”

“Nala,” she sighed, “You know I don’t like you talking like that. I actually want to see you graduate.”

I felt a little bad after she said that, “I know, Gram, but I was only kidding. You know I’m a good student. Nova, on the other hand...”, I paused and laughed. Gram laughed as well.

“You’re right,” she began, “I hope you like the books. They might be kind of boring to you, though, considering they’re older than dirt. I don’t even know what the hell is in there!” She admitted.

With that being said, I gave her a hug and a kiss, and was on my way home. The whole drive, I began to get a little curious of the box, and what else might be in there.