ten

I get in and Mum is home already, talking on the phone. She waves me over whilst saying, ‘She’s just walked through the door, just this second.’

She hands me the phone and mouths to me, ‘it’s Grandma.’

‘Hi Grandma!’ I try to sound as cheerful as possible.

‘Hello dear, listen, I won’t keep you long I just wanted to see how you were doing after your nasty fall. Mum told me all about it. What a brute!’

‘Yeah I’m fine now. Don’t worry about it. I’ve just got back…’ I try to fit in.

‘Oh good, good. And Mum says you’re quitting your job? Well you don’t want to stay in a job like that do you? And I guess it’s only temporary. You’ll be off to university in September, won’t you?’

‘Err…I’m still not sure about that Grandma…’ I'm rolling my eyes and looking over to my mum who is nibbling on food from the fridge and opening a bottle of wine.

My Gran continues, ‘Well I’m sure something better will come up in no time.’

I grind my teeth and say, ‘Fingers crossed. I plan on handing my CV in to a few places tomorrow and I was going to look on the Internet for some jobs tonight.’

‘Oh that is good. Well good luck my dear. Best of luck.’

‘Yeah. You too.’ I’m not sure what I mean by this.

‘God bless dear. God bless,’ she says before being replaced by a dial tone.

I picture her going to her arm chair and putting on an oxygen mask just to catch her breath back.