No stranger to long nights, I shuffled into the kitchen and grabbed a glass of water. I sipped slowly as I contemplated the nightmare which revisited me for the third night since my grandmother’s passing.
She passed quietly in her sleep, but she knew it was coming. She picked out special mementos for each of us and hand-delivered them months ago. We all assumed her actions helped her cope with uncle Niall’s passing from a heart attack shortly before her gift-giving. I assumed the dream was my subconscious expressing grief until it proved otherwise.
The specifics always faded as soon as my eyes opened, but terror lingered. My feet kept carrying me away from some unseen horror. My heart slammed against my chest as if my rib cage kept it prisoner to fear. Each time, I came downstairs and stared at the few family pictures hanging where I could see them from the kitchen and the living room of my tiny apartment.
As my eyes rested on my grandmother’s youthful face from when she was about my age, I smiled at the resemblance. Then my smile faltered as her serious expression grinned back for a moment. As my mouth gaped open, she stepped out of the frame to stand before me like a reflection out of time. Her amorphous hand reached out to rest beside my cheek as if I could tilt my chin the tiniest bit and feel her comforting touch.
“My dear girl, you must listen…” she paused to assess my obedience, “I had one last thing to do. I thought I had time…”
Her dark eyes pleaded with me as she continued. “You have to find your uncle.”
I cringed from her words, whispering around a lump in my throat, “But he’s dead.”
“Not Niall,” she paused to give me an annoyed grimace, “Your uncle Seamus.”
I stared at her and confusion. “Who?”
“The black sheep of the family. No one talks about him, but he must come back to the family.”
I waited for her to say more. She sighed as she melted away into a misty apparition. “Just find him or I won’t be able to rest.”
The last flash of her eyes made it clear I wouldn’t either. Then she disappeared. The air around me calmed and my eyes grew tired. I almost fell asleep against wall in the hallway before roused enough to shuffle off to bed.
When I awoke in the morning, no remnant of last night’s haunting remained. I shrugged off my hazy memories. Without sleep, my mind clearly decided to start making up excuses for why my eyes popped open at the tiniest breeze when REM sleep should be entertaining me. I staggered drunkenly through my day, glad the days duties only included tasks around the house and the anonymity of my online works.
Exhaustion drew me to bed early, but insomnia pulled me back from the warmth of my covers before midnight. I sighed and headed to the kitchen for some fresh water. I turned from the refrigerator to face my family photos. I closed my eyes as my grandmother’s face wavered again.
My eyes opened as a cool breeze brushed my cheeks. My grandmother stood before me.
“I told you I can’t sleep until Seamus comes back to the family.”
“But no one talks about him? How do I find him?”
She smiled at me, the soft smile she reserved for my mother and Uncle Niall. “Even though I never talked about him, I still talked to him.”
I gasped.
“So just find my tablet and you can video chat with him.”
“How?” I asked.
“Figure it out,” the words hung in the air as she faded into nothingness again.
~~
When I woke the next morning, I resolved to assuage my grandmother. My first step involved calling my mother, who hadn’t been in the best mood since losing her mom, so I fortified myself with a double chocolate hot cocoa before dialing her number. She answered on the fourth ring with a heavy sigh.
“Josie, what do you need?”
I cleared my throat, “I just called to see how you are doing?”
“I just lost my mother, how do you think I feel?”
I bit back the urge to answer sarcastically and gently said, “I know, mom, I was just worried about you. Do you need anything?”
She sighed again. “I suppose you could grab us some dinner and come see me.”
“Thanks, mom. See you soon.”
~~
I showed up with her favorite take-out order and let her bemoan her fate to me for about two hours. I was just about to lead the conversation around to my grandmother’s tablet when my mother surprised me.
“I guess it is good you came over. Your grandmother left a few things for me that she should have given to you.”
I furrowed my brow and held my breath.
“Or maybe she wanted to encourage me to learn new things, but I don’t feel like it. Maybe you can use this,” she reached into her voluminous handbag and pulled out the very item I planned to beg for.
I paused a moment before reaching out a tentative hand, “Are you sure? She wanted you to have it.”
“I won’t use it, baby. You’ll make sure her gift isn’t wasted.”
“Okay, mom.” I found myself at a loss for words as a deep desire to explore the contents of the tablet struck me.
Luckily, my mother has always found spending time with me tedious after the first couple of hours. She dismissed me with a hug and a kiss for each cheek. She even threw in an unsubtle hint about the expected gratitude for the gift she had given by sacrificing my grandmother’s gift to her. I returned her kisses and walked slowly to my car, hoping to leave the illusion that I wasn’t in a big hurry to get away.
~~
“So how do I make you work?” I asked the tablet as I turned it on, surprised to find it still had seventy-five percent battery life.
As it booted up, my image appeared on the screen. Moments later, it informed me that it recognized my face. I moved on to the task before me, finding out how she contacted my uncle. Aside from the standard applications, she had one called familyconnect. I clicked on it and found a list of family members to connect to. At the bottom of the list: Seamus.
“Found you.” I whispered.
I smoothed my hair and studied my face in the preview video for a moment before taking a deep breath, flashing a tentative smile, and connecting the call. I tried three times before someone finally accepted.
“Not only do you look like my mother, but you have her persistence. So you must be my niece.”
“Yes, I’m Jocelyn, but everyone calls me Josie.”
“So you inherited me then?”
“Something like that,” I couldn’t help but smile at the idea of inheriting another human being.
“Well, you didn’t get much,” tears washed out his blue eyes.
“Grandma seems to think otherwise.”
“She’s my mom. She has to think that way.”
“Well, how about you let me get to know you and decide for myself?”
“Do you get an extra chunk of cash if you befriend me?”
I laughed. “If you were talking to grandma, you know that no one in this family has any money.”
He nodded agreement and his shoulders softened. That’s how the conversation started. It ended with him agreeing to meet with the family…
…if I could talk them into it.
By the end of the call, exhaustion consumed me again. Nights without sleep left me asleep moments after laying down and tucking my quilt under my chin.
I woke briefly as a gentle caress on my cheek and my grandmother’s whisper sent me back to sleep, “Thank you.”
~~~
Another late submission to my dear readers. If I keep getting closer and closer to posting them on time, I will eventually be back on schedule. Let us hope it is Friday, but we have a lot going over here in our little hobbit hole this week, so send some positive energy or someone to clean my house.
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