Mirror // Van McCann

24. Gifts

I stood outside my grandma's room and knocked on the door softly.

"Grandma, it's me, Jess. Can I come in?" I asked. I heard a faint yes. I opened the door and walked in, making my way towards the curtains. I slowly opened the blinds, allowing grandma to adjust to the bright light. "Let me get someone to help you get ready."

I pressed the call button and asked for help. Within minutes, a caregiver came in to help brush her teeth, comb her hair, and clean her face. After half an hour, she was ready to eat her breakfast which was all warmed up, ready for her to eat. I decided to move my chair closer to her bed. I sat at the foot of her bed while she ate and I pulled out my chemistry textbook to continue studying. After half an hour of eating, I looked up to see that she was done.

"How was it?" I asked.

"Delicious," grandma replied.

"Did you have a good weekend?"

"It was good. I saw my friend Millie yesterday."

"Ahh, that's nice," I commented. I flipped my textbook to the next page.

"How was your weekend?"

I looked up in shock. Normally it's me asking the questions, not the other way around.

"It was good, thanks for asking. Saturday I went to my friend's funeral with a friend of mine, then we went out to eat, and I tagged along with him to band practice. Then on Sunday, I just did some chores around the house and met up with my friend again to just talk."

"Sounds like a fun weekend. I'm sorry about your friend though."

"It's alright...it's just how life is sometimes," I answered, shooting her a small smile.

After that, grandma stayed silent but I couldn't help but smile at the little progress we made. I looked forward to seeing her tomorrow.

-

After visiting grandma, I went to the grocery store to buy a few items my mom asked me to buy. I wheeled past the flower section and paused. There was a spider plant for sale and I couldn't help but grin. I grabbed the plant and put it in the cart.

-

With the spider plant in my hands, I made my way towards the Fuller's house. I reached the front door and right as I was about to put the plant on the ground, the door opened, revealing Amy.

"Hi," Amy greeted me. "Whatcha got there?"

"It's a spider plant for Van. You know—to replace the one he killed in his room."

Amy laughed. "I don't know—he might kill that one too."

"I really hope not," I replied. "Have you talked to Ryan yet?"

"Not yet! He was busy unpacking yesterday and getting ready for school, I didn't want to bother him. Instead, I just tagged along with Van to band practice. Oh, you should've been there. Guess what I did to him this time?"

I couldn't help but laugh. "You can't leave him alone, can ya? What did you do?" I asked, curiosity getting the best of me.

"Well he was singing Homesick and he was at the end of the song where he sings real slow and it's just him and his guitar—no one else is playing. I sang along with him but with the wrong lyrics just to mess with him and I got him to mess up! He got so mad he started chasing me and he tripped on the wire of his own mic." I burst out laughing, trying to imagine what the scene was like.

"You did not!" I shouted in between laughs. "You're horrible. He's not going to invite you anymore."

"Nah, he loves me too much to do that to me," Amy replied, smirking. "But the best part was that when Van tripped, Bob started laughing. And Bob has one of those funny laughs that make you laugh. It was awesome!"