Let Me Be

There were many things that Bree hated doing. Sitting and babysitting her ancient grandfather was one of them. He was in his 90’s and he couldn’t do anything for himself. Well except the bathroom. That he could still do on his own. Which was something that she was thankful for. But during the rest of the day, that he wasn’t sleeping, he was a pain in the ass. Always complaining, always bitching that he couldn’t do the things that he wanted. If he wanted to go outside he had to be supervised. Bree only did it, because the rest of her family refused. Just like they refused to put him in a nursing home.

The entire family believed that when he died, every one of them was going to inherit part of the mans millions. Bree didn’t give a shit what happened to it. Just like she wished she had power of attorney so that she could stick his ass in the nursing home. Or hire a home nurse. But the bastard that held the purse strings wouldn’t budge. The money could only be used for her grandfather and his needs. Her greedy as hell father wouldn’t let her hire a home nurse. Would barely give her grocery money. Today was the weekly inspection that her father insisted on. The house was clean and everything was fine, it was just a pain in her ass.

When the knock at the door sounded as predicted, her grandfather started bitching.

“I’ll get it Grandpa.” Bree said running back from the kitchen to the front of the house.

“Get the damn door girl.” Bree ignored him and answered the door with a smile.

“Good morning.”

“Good morning, Miss Hoyt.”

“Come on in. Grandpa is in the living room. I was just getting ready to serve breakfast.”

“Perfect, I can make sure he is eating proper.”

“Geraldine, you know he is.” Bree said aggravated. This happened every week, yet the woman acted like it didn’t.

“You made my eggs the way I like them right girl?” Franklin Hoyt asked as they walked into the living room to help him to the kitchen.

“Always Grandpa.” Bree managed a smile for him. When she had him seated, she placed his plate in front of him. He looked down at it. He smiled. She had added a small stack of pancakes with a tiny bit of butter and syrup. Along with three pieces of turkey bacon.

“He isn’t supposed to eat bacon.” Bree glanced at the woman.

“It’s turkey bacon. Approved by the doctor.” Bree had to bite her tongue to keep from growling at the woman. Geraldine said nothing and left the room to walk through the house.

“I hate that woman.” Franklin told his granddaughter. She agreed silently.

“Just eat your breakfast grandpa. I’ll take you outside later to get some fresh air.”

“I want to go to the park.”

“That’s fine. We’ll go to the park.” He went back to his meal, while she walked out to see what Geraldine was up to. She found her checking things out in her grandfather’s bedroom. Which was on the first floor. She stood by the door, watching. When the woman was done, she turned and walked from the room to the front door.

“Everything seems to be in order. Things look fine. I’ll be back next week.”

“See you next week.” Bree shut the door behind her and sighed.

“Is she gone?”

“Yes. I’m coming. We can go to the park.”

“I am ready.” He said and stood. She waited while he maneuvered with his walker and they were headed out. She pulled the keys out of the bowl on the side table and locked the door behind them. Her grandfather was slow, but she waited as he made his way to her car. He got to it and opened the car door to get in just as gunfire exploded around them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“GRANDPA!” Bree yelled once the gunfire ended and she realized that she too had been shot. Her grandfather was lying on the ground by her car and was the last thing she saw before she blacked out. The last thing she heard were the sirens coming in their direction.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The lights were bright and blinding when Bree’s eyes opened. Her body was hurting, and she couldn’t move her right arm. She began to panic as she looked around. The machine beside her began to beep and signal loudly. This caused a nurse to run in and attempt to calm her down.

“It’s alright Miss Hoyt. You’re safe.”

“My grandfather.” It barely came out, barely sounded like her.

“I’m sorry Miss Hoyt. Your grandfather wasn’t able to be saved. When he was shot, he lost a lot of blood. He also had a heart attack, that the doctors believe was brought on by all of the gunfire. He was pretty old.”

“He was a stubborn son of a bitch, but he was my grandfather.”

“You should drink some water.” The nurse handed her a glass of water and Bree drank deep. A moment later she handed the empty glass back.

“My family… have they?”

“They’ve been notified. We called your contact number and we were told if you weren’t dying that they didn’t care.”

“Of course you were…”

“Miss Hoyt?” Bree was cut off as a man walked into the room. She recognized him as her grandfather’s lawyer.

“Yeah. What can I do for you Mr. Lanning?” She asked sighing. The thought that her father had sent him already to tell her to get lost and out of the family home.

“Well, I know it is a tough time. However, I wanted to get here before your family descended down onto my office. I noticed none of them were out in the waiting area. I brought your grandfather’s will.”

“You wanted me to know what was in it, before they did?”

“Seeing as you are the sole beneficiary of the thing yes. I’m going to keep this simple. You were left everything. Because he knew that you hated taking care of him. He knew he was a cranky bastard. He told me so much himself. He was glad that you put up with him. That someone did without treating him like shit. Probably why he stopped treating you the way he did. He managed to make it so that his son and daughter in law, as well as the rest of the family, got nothing.” Bree stared at him, unsure of what to say to the man.