Full Bloom

This Can't Happen

Karen pulled the hippie bus onto the shoulder of the road. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. My grandma was standing there in her pink sweater with blood dripping down from her lip. A well-dressed, angry guy who had to be in his thirties was yelling and pointing at the rolls-royce. I could see a woman in the passengers' seat, who was probably around the same age, that looked like she was well-to-do.

When we opened the door, I could finally hear the conversation. I ran over to the scene as Karen and Nassi trailed behind me. I just needed to get to my grandma.

"You idiot! What the hell were you thinking? Look what you did to my car!" said the red-faced owner of the rolls-royce. "You need to watch where you're going you stupid old bag! What the hell are you doing on the road?"

"Please stop! I'm so sorry!" I said, getting right in front of my grandma and coming face to face with the angry driver. "She has dementia. She's not supposed to be driving. She got a hold of my grandpa's keys. I'm so sorry."

"Sorry isn't going to fix the damage to my car! She could've hurt my wife! If she has a miscarriage because of this accident, I swear, I'll financially ruin whoever you are!" he said.

"Oh please, get over yourself, Tim," said the woman as she stepped out of the car. "We have the abortion booked for next week anyway."

"Katherine, honey, please. I can handle this," said Tim.

"I don't think you can. All you've done is yell at this confused old woman. You haven't called a tow truck, you haven't called the police to file a report, and you didn't even ask me if I was okay! I swear, you're a poor excuse for a man sometimes!" Katherine said.

"Grandma, are you okay? Did you hit your lip on the steering wheel?" I asked her. She nodded. "Does anything else hurt?" She shook her head. "Grandma, what were you doing?"

"I knew I was at a party for someone...but I had no gift. I needed to go get a gift," she said.

I hugged her. "Grandma, it's okay. I didn't need one."

"Why do you keep saying you want a family if you keep getting abortions every time?" I heard Tim yell at Katherine.

"Because I'm not ready and it's my choice, dumbass! It's my body and I'll do what I want with it" Katherine yelled back at him.

"I'm not going to stay with you if you keep aborting our kids!" Tim said. "How are you not ready? You're almost in your late thirties! That girl over there is what, seventeen? And look, she's carrying her baby to term!"

"Fine! I'm aborting this one but the next one we can keep if it means so much to you to be a father!" Katherine said.

I heard sirens coming up the road. A police car pulled over. An officer got out of the driver's side, and my grandpa got out of the backseat. He immediately ran over to my grandma.

"Oh my God, Poppy, look at you!" he said, taking her face in his hands. "What did you do to yourself?"

What followed was a lot of talking, exchanging of info with Tim and Katherine, and then a ride to the hospital. Unbeknownst to us, Grandma's injuries were more severe than we thought. She had a pretty serious concussion and had to be in the hospital overnight for monitoring.

The kind officer, in addition to dropping us off at the hospital, gave us a ride to the rental car place too. Once we got the rental car, we could finally go home. We ordered Chinese food and had it delivered. The deck was still covered in unopened presents and wrapping paper. I didn't have it in me to open them. I was too busy sitting in silence with Grandpa across the kitchen table.

"I'm sorry Grandpa. This whole thing is my fault," I said, breaking the silence. "I should've done a better job watching her."

"No, no. It's my fault. You shouldn't have to babysit your grandma at your babyshower." He sighed. "I don't think at this point it matters who's fault it is. My car is totaled and we're gonna owe a lot of money to this Tim guy and his wife for wrecking such an expensive car."

"Can you afford to pay it?" I asked.

"We'll see how much the insurance covers and go from there." He shook his head. "I think it's really time to think about assisted living."

"What? Grandpa, no! She can stay here with us! We'll get more locks for the doors and keep an eye on your keys so she doesn't get out."

"Look, I don't want to no longer live with the love of my life anymore, but I can't see her like this. She's not the woman I knew. With this dementia she's just...gone. She can't take care of herself. I raised your mother, I raised you, and we've got a little baby coming soon. I can't take care of your grandmother, too. Assisted living is the only place that'll guarantee she's safe."

I started to cry again. Stupid hormones.

"I know. I know," Grandpa continued. "I hate it as much as you do. But I don't see any other way."

"It's just hard because I don't have a mom. Grandma is my mom! I don't want to send her to a facility."

"This can't happen again. This is a wakeup call for you and me. She needs to live somewhere where she'll be properly cared for."

I tried to take a deep breath. My grandma raised me. She was here for me my entire life. I couldn't imagine the house without her in it. First I was having a baby, and that was a big change, but now my grandma is going to leave? It was too much. I didn't know how I was going to handle it.