Growing Up Grams

A Short Story About Hope

Mandy Chew
Jul 22, 2017 · 5 min read

Lester’s eyes were heavy with the weight of it all. He blinked and pushed the items into his bag, transferring the last of his credit.

“Any help out today for you and your Grandmother?” The cashier asked.

“How dare you suggest we need help! We are perfectly capable of-”

“No. That’s ok. Thank you.” Lester interjected, pulling on the old woman’s hand, moving through the exit.

Lester decided to take the scenic route to the metro, glancing at Grams to see how she was taking in the outside scenery.

Grams definitely brought a new definition to the word rant. She barely took in a breath between her complaints.

Grams complained Lester was walking too fast. Then she complained that the trees smelled weird. Then she complained that there weren’t more things to complain about.

“Can I ask you something, Grams?” Lester asked.

“Didn’ you just ask me something in asking that?” Grams replied tartly.

“Why does the world seem so dark to you now?”

Grams paused for a few seconds. “ ‘Cause my eyesight is crap.”

“Good thing your nose isn’t…” Lester sighed, plucking a rose from a nearby bush. The scent lingered around them for a moment, filled with memories of the gardens Grams had once grown…

A spark of promise started to grow inside of Lester. He and Grams stared at the flower for a few moments. Grams began to reach out for it, her hand nearing Lester’s…

“Thorns!!” She screamed as she snatched the flower from Lester’s hand, flinging it away.

Flowers are a lot like hope. They’re fleeting. They’re facades. Once picked, they start to die…even if you can’t quite tell at first…

On the metro, Lester pulled the purchased items out of his bag and began to assemble them without delay.

Grams crossed her arms and barked, “What’s a young boy like you need all those gadgets for anyways?”

“You remember they’re for you, right Grams?”

Grams gave him a scathing look. “You’re exactly like your father, treating me like I’m some…”

“What?” Lester asked.

Grams paused. “Some smelly old person.”

“I think you smell like a rose” Lester replied.

“I think you’re full of manure.”

Lester put down his items. He touched Gram's hand.

“You’re tired. Get some rest.”

As if on cue, Grams leaned her head back and began to snore.

Lester felt the eyes of the other passenger’s on them as Gram’s snores began to escalade so intensely they became noisier than the train itself.

Lester noticed passengers beginning to move to the other cars. Gram’s snores had left all but a few stragglers…probably people who were deaf.

Was it just Lester’s imagination, though? One man in particular seemed to be eyeing them. No, eyeing Grams…Every time Lester would glance over, the stranger would turn away suddenly, as if he had just been caught staring at her.

After about ten minutes of this odd back-and-forth, Lester finally raised his voice. “She won’t give you her number. She’s stubborn as hell.”

“Sorry.” The stranger said. “She’s just…the best I’ve seen.”

“What do you mean?” Lester said.

“Did your parents teach you?” He breathed.

“…It’s just…me and Grams.”

“Grams…” The stranger repeated. He walked over and sat next to Lester. The metro car was completely empty now except for them.

“What do you want?” Lester asked the man, holding a arm out over the sleeping Grams.

“What if I told you that I know exactly what will help Grams to stop snoring so loudly?”

“You a doctor?” Lester asked.

“Mechanic.” The man smiled.

Lester sighed. The jig was up.

“You a good one?” Lester asked.

“Evil genius. Looking to hire.” The man smiled. “Grams has got quite the personality I must say.”

“She broke sometime last week.” Lester confessed. “Been trying to fix her. Used up all our savings now. Can’t seem to get the repositioning right. She’s-”

“Stubborn?” The stranger said as he rummaged through his large bag for a few minutes. He laughed, “I know what to do with the stubborn ones.”

Lester was wondering if this stranger, this self-labeled evil genius, was about to pull some sort of weapon out of his bag…

But just then a orange ball of fluff leapt onto Lester’s lap, wrestling away the string he had been working with.

“Oh.” Lester said as he pet the now-purring kitten.

“This is Billie. Kept biting me all last month. His personality’s right back on track now…”

“What?”

“It was a mess.” The man smiled. “Had to delete some of Billie’s mind anchors. Something negative had taken root in there and the darn cat somehow associated it with everything from then on. Mess. Mess. Mess.”

“You deleted a bad memory?”

“A unhealthy response to one.” The man said, pulling the cat back into his bag. “Responses become patterns and patterns become personality.” He pushed Billies paw, commanding him to sleep.

“I can’t fix Grams like that. I dunno. I’d like to think…she’s almost…”

“Human?” The stranger asked. He smiled and went on, “What if I told you Billie follows the same set of patterns, all the same internal processing as his counterpart cats? And you and me, we’ve both been wired at birth to do the same as our ancestors before us too. Really, we’re all just sets of patterns and programming. Sometimes we have to change the code, make it work for us.” He blinked. His eyes were alive with something Lester hadn’t seen in a long time.

“It doesn’t bother you though?” Lester asked. “That Billie isn’t really…”

“What? Real?” The man laughed. “First off, I’m deathly allergic to the organic ones. Second, you know what? I find that the things that are most real in life are simply just the things that we love the most…the things we focus on growing. If you’re growing and changing, now that means you’re really alive, right?”

For the first time in a long while, Lester smiled. And together Lester and the genius, who wasn’t quite so evil after all, began to repair Grams.

Lester’s eyes were alive with hope.

The Positopian

The Positopian is Medium publication for positive fiction, resources, insights and anything that helps someone to become the best version of themselves! …We still have our newsletter filled with tons of positive resources that you can subscribe to as well :)

Mandy Chew

Written by

I am a woman on a mission to seize life by the toes and always "Chews" Joy in life! You can follow more of my musings at www.chewsjoy.com or @mandydchew

The Positopian

The Positopian is Medium publication for positive fiction, resources, insights and anything that helps someone to become the best version of themselves! …We still have our newsletter filled with tons of positive resources that you can subscribe to as well :)

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade