Grandma's Sandals

[Note: My grandmother is 97. Yesterday I gotword that she has very little time left. Funeral arrangements have beenmade. I am flying out to Texas later today. This is a story I wroteabout the times my grandma used to visit us when I was a little girls.It is part of a collection of short stories. I am posting it here toshare a little of my grandma with you. I hope you enjoy it.]

            Every year, in the summertime, my grandmother comes to visit us all the way from Texas, where she lives. Mygrandfather drives her to the bus station in Texas and three dayslater, we go to the bus station here, to wait for her and to bring herhome with us. She stays for two or three weeks and then she is gone again, til the next summer.

            I love it when she comes to visit. So do my brothers and sisters. We love it for several reasons. First, we love our grandma very, very much. She hugs us tightly and kisses us all over. Shebrings a suitcase full of presents for us when she comes and atChristmas, she sends us a big box with a present for each of us. On our birthdays, she sends a card in an envelope and inside the card is a crisp two dollar bill. I love grandma very much. Another reason I like her to visit is that when she comes, we get to go to a lot of places with her.

We take her to SanFrancisco, and we stop on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge sowe can look at the view and take pictures. We have a lot of pictures of us on the other side of the Golden Gate. They are all the same … our faces are covered by our hair because it is always windy when you go across the Golden Gate. The view doesn't change. We look at the water and at the boats in the water. In the middle of the water is a place called Alcatraz. My mother says there are bad men on Alcatraz. They are criminals and if they escape, they can come and get us. That's scary to me.

Sometimes we take Grandma to another beach place, called Santa Cruz. That is fun because there is a place called The Boardwalk, and there are lots of games and rides there. My favorite ride at the Boardwalk is these little boats that float in a big tub of water. We get to ride the boats every time we go. Theygo round and round, and every time we get to the place where my motherand my grandma are waiting for us, they are smiling and waving at us sowe get to smile and wave back at them. I like to play the game where you throw a dart at a balloon and try to pop it. I am pretty good at that game. When I'm all done playing, I give the lady or man my tickets and I get to pick a prize. My favorite prize is the pop-a-beads. They come in all colors and its fun to put them together and take them apart, all the way home from Santa Cruz to San Jose. It lets me forget that my mother and father say it is a dangerous road. We can't talk when my father is driving on that road because he might get in a wreck and we'll all get killed. So I just play with my pop-a-beads.

            But what we all love most about my grandma's visits is that while she is here, my parents are very, very nice to us. They don't scream or yell at us, and they don't spank us. Once, when my grandma came to visit, my father whipped Carlos real bad. He hit Carlos so hard that my grandma got very upset. It scared her. Shesaid she was not going to be a witness to my father beating any of usto death, and she packed her suitcases and got ready to go home. My father apologized and begged her to stay. After that, he never hits us or even yells at us while my grandma visits. That's why we really love her to come see us.

            When it's time for my Grandma to go home to Texas, we all get very sad. Without her here, there won't be as many trips to fun places and we won't eat the same kind of food when we barbecue. And when she leaves, no one buys little presents for us unless it is our birthday or Christmas. Without my grandma here, there are no more hugs and kisses from her. We aren't safe from my father's whip, either. That's when we miss her the most, when my father is angry and gets his whip out. That's when we wish our grandma could just stay and live with us forever. She shouldn't go back to Texas. It's too hot there, and mostly, it is too far from us.

            One year, when I was about four, I heard my parents and my grandma talking late at night. They were talking about the plans for my grandma to go home to Texas. She was leaving in two days. Inside of me, I cried. My grandma was leaving me. But then, all of the sudden, I got an idea in my head! Pop! It came right into my head. If my grandma lost something before she left for her home in Texas, she would not be able to leave. She would have to stay here with us till she found it. If she never found it, then she would have to stay and live with us! So it was then that I decided to make sure my grandma never left us. I would make sure she stayed and lived with us in San Jose, forever. I thought and thought about what I could take and where I could hide it so she would not leave.

            The next day, in theafternoon, while my grandma took her nap, which she did every day, Iwent to where she was sleeping on the sofa in the living room. Itiptoed, and then I got on my hands and knees and quietly, withoutmaking any noise, I got close to her and I could hear her breathing andI could see her chest going up and down as she took in a breath and letit out. I listened to make sure she was asleep. I knew she was because she was snoring, like she always did. I got up close and took her sandals. I grabbed them and stuck them inside of my shorts, and I breathlessly crawled backwards until I was out of the room. I took the sandals to the room I slept in with my sisters. I hid them between the mattress and the box spring of the twin bed. Iwas careful to put them way in the middle so that my mother would notfind them when she made up the bed, which she had to do often becauseGilda was only one and still wet the bed. I hid the sandals there and I told no one.

             Grandma's sandals were black and were filled with colored stones and sparkly diamonds. She called them gems. The sandals were old and worn out but grandma loved them. Shenever went anywhere without those sandals and everywhere she went wecould hear her coming and going as her sandals flip-flopped on thelinoleum floor. I knew that without her sandals, she would not go all the way back to Texas. She could stay in my room and sleep with me. Gilda could sleep with my mother and father in their bed. Grandma could stay in mine. Grandma was not going to go anywhere!

             When grandma woke up, I heard her ask if we'd seen her sandals, but I did not say a word. She called each one of us, one by one, and asked us to help her find the sandals. I pretended to look for them, never leaving the room, knowing they weren't in there, and I said nothing. I did not tell anyone. I helped them look under the sofa and under the chairs. I helped them look under the huge television set with the small round screen. I helped them look in the corner, behind the large planter. Ilooked everywhere, inside and out, but I did not find my grandma'ssandals because I did not look under the mattress of my bed.

             The next day, even though we did not make the sandals appear, grandma began to pack her things to leave. My brothers and sisters got sad but I smiled and played. I knew that my grandma would not be leaving. I even helped her pack her suitcases. I pretended to help my brothers and sisters to look for the noisy black sandals. I knew grandma would not be leaving the next night, as she kept saying she would. Whilemy brothers and sisters stayed sad and kept on crying because grandmawas leaving, I played and laughed in the yard. No one was playing withme so I went on the swings and played by myself and sang songs tomyself. I asked my brothers and sisters to come play hideand seek with me but they would not leave grandma's side, so I justplayed alone.

            Finally, it was time to take my grandma to the Greyhound station, and I still did not believe she would leave. Myfather loaded her two suitcases and her overnight bag into the back ofthe white Plymouth Valiant station wagon that seated nine people. On this trip it would seat ten. Gilda sat on my mother's lap on the way to the bus station.

Finally, they called us to get in the car for the ride to the bus station. I went out to the car, afraid for the first time that my grandma might really be leaving. But I could not understand how she'd go without her sandals. Although I knew it was impossible that she would leave, I began to get a little worried that she MIGHT go. I got in the car and sat between Sylvia and Irene in the seat that faced the outside of the car. From where I sat, I could not see my grandma's face, but I was still pretty sure that she was not really leaving.

My father started the car and backed out of the driveway. He drove down Seventh Street and turned right on Julian. As we drove down Julian and got closer to the Greyhound station on First Street, I began to panic. What if she really did leave without her sandals? What if I didn't get a chance to tell her that I had taken them? What if she left without me telling her that I had lied to her? My stomach felt sick. My throat was dry. The closer we got to the bus station, the more my stomach hurt.

           When we got to thebus station, my father dropped us off with my grandma and the luggageand drove around the block to park the car. Inside the station, my grandma went to the ticket window and bought her ticket, and then I felt like I could not breathe. She came back and began hugging and kissing us and saying goodbye to us one by one. When it was my turn, she squeezed me tightly and kissed me and said goodbye and called me "Corinita" like she always did. I liked it when she called me that. It made me feel special. ThenI saw that my father was helping the bus driver put the suitcases onthe bus, and I knew that grandma was really going to leave. Grandma walked to the front of the long silver and blue bus, turned to wave to us with tears in her eyes. Then she got on the bus. Injust a minute we saw her at the small window on our side of the bus andas she called out to us, we smiled and cried and waved at her.

        "Grandma! I'm the one that took your sandals! It was me." I called out to her but she could not hear me because the bus made too much noise. I watched with my brothers and sisters as the bus drove out of the station and around the corner. Grandmawas not ever going to know that I had taken her sandals, and she wouldnot ever know that it was so she could stay and live with us. We ran out to the street and watched as the bus got smaller and smaller. Finally, when we could see only the smoke behind the bus, we went to our car. Everyone was quiet, except me. I cried. I cried loudly.