“Hi girls,” Mom opened the door. She stuck her head through the small space into my bedroom.
“Hi, Miss Lisa,” my best friend Zoe said. She arrived this morning for our playdate. I tilted my head and shrugged my shoulder.
“We are going to have pizza delivery for lunch,” Mom said.
“Thank you, Miss Lisa,” Zoe said. I shrugged my shoulder again. Mom looked at me through squinted eyes. The corners of her mouth turned down. I held my breath because she usually uses her stern voice when she looks at me like that, but she closed the door.
“Whew,” I let out the breath I was holding.
“What’s wrong with you, Nia?” Zoe asked. We were sitting crisscross applesauce. She leaned forward and pressed her hands into my rainbow rug. Her fingers disappeared when she leaned towards me.
“What do you mean what’s wrong with me, Zoe?” I was so shocked my mouth dropped open so far, I could catch flies. Zoe’s lips turned down and she scrunched her nose. “You know my mom is sending me to stay with a stranger for the summer because she has to work in California and dad’s job moved him to Minnesota.”
“Yeah, I cried when you called me and told me we wouldn’t be going to camp together this summer. Zoe sighed. “I cried, too,” I confessed.
“I would rather stay with Aunt Amy than stay with a stranger,” I said and I leaped up from the carpet to walk over to look out of my window when I heard a car door close. “Oh, great.”
“Who is it,” Zoe asked as she came to stand next to me. “You were just talking about your Aunt Amy.” Zoe covered her mouth and laughed. She started covering her mouth after her two top teeth fell out.
“I think your Aunt Amy is funny,” Zoe said and she covered her mouth when she giggled.
“Haha. You can laugh, because I have to hear her speech about how I should be glad that I have a great mom, blah, blah, blah,” I blinked away the hot tears that filled my eyes.
“She’s right about your mom,” Zoe said with a sigh. “Let’s go downstairs so you can say hi to your Aunt Amy and get the speech over with so we can go outside and play on the swings until the pizza gets here.” Zoe spun on her heel and I followed her. She swung open my bedroom door, and we jumped as our hearts leaped into our throats.
“Hi girls,” Aunt Amy said. I can’t believe it, I thought. “Have a seat.” Zoe spun around and almost skipped over to my desk. She pulled out the chair, sat down, and folded her hands on her lap. I thought I was going to gag. I walked across the room and sat down on my bed.
“Nia, I know that you are upset about the plans your mother made for you this summer,” Aunt Amy said. I clenched my teeth because I was getting mad because she was getting ready to tell me that it’s a great plan blah, blah, blah. “You have every right to be upset.” My mouth dropped open.
“I do?” was all I could say because I was shocked that she was on my side.
“Yes, you do because your grandmother, is a stranger to you because when you met her you were only three days old.” Aunt Amy said. “So of course I have the perfect solution to this problem.” Of course she did was my thought. Aunt Amy will probably want to send me to my grandmother’s house sooner.
“I invited your grandmother to stay here with you and your mother for a week so you can get to know her,” Aunt Amy stood straight and tilted her head back. I bit the inside of my lip to keep from laughing when I looked at Zoe, she covered her mouth with her hand.
“You did what?” mom almost yelled. “You know mom and I quit speaking when I married Nia’s father,” Mom pushed my bedroom door open and put her hands on her hips just like the morning I was playing jacks on the kitchen table and knocked over my bowl of Tootie Frutti.
“Robin, you heard what I told Nia,” Aunt Amy said, but she didn’t stand as straight, and her head wasn’t tilted back anymore.
“You don’t have the right to invite our mother to stay at my house for a week,” mom said as we watched her slowly turn red from her neck all the way up to her forehead.
“Mom,” I had to ask.
“Can it wait, Nia, your aunt and I are in the middle of a discussion,” mom asked but she didn’t really want me to answer the question.
“Well, it’s important,” I said. Mom dropped her hands from her hips. “Okay, Nia, what is your question?”
“If you don’t want your mother to come to stay with us for a week, why do you want me to go stay with her for the whole summer?” I folded my arms and tilted my head up a little. Aunt Amy started laughing. Mom turned a darker shade of red, which caused a chill to run down my back, but I didn’t move. Aunt Amy stopped laughing and it was so quiet we could have heard my cat, Mittens, walking on the wood floor. Mom opened her mouth to say something, but the doorbell rang.
“Pizza,” Zoe leaned towards me and whispered. I dropped my hands onto my lap and let out a deep sigh. I didn’t know my lungs could hold so much air.
“Come on,” I leaped off my bed and ran towards the door. “Let’s go get some pizza.”
“Great idea,” Aunt Amy swung the door open, and Zoe and I ran out of my bedroom and down the steps. I stopped dead in the middle of the staircase when I saw a woman that I have never seen before standing next to Mom with a suitcase in her hand.
“There she is,” the woman said. “Hello Nia, come give your grandmother a hug.” I tried to move but my feet were stuck to the step at least, that is how it felt. “She looks just like you, thank God,” the woman continued. Mom waved her hand at me to come to her. It was as though someone loosened my feet because I was able to run down the rest of the steps towards my mother.
“Nia, this is my mother, your grandmother…what should she call you?” Mom asked her mother.
“Nia, you can call me Nana,” Nana said. She sat the suitcase onto the floor next to her feet, and she leaned forward so that we were eye to eye. She had a few wrinkles on her forehead that disappeared when she smiled. She wore very little makeup, but she still looked pretty for a grandma. I smiled, too, because I didn’t want to be rude. “I heard that you don’t want to spend the summer with me,” Nana said. Her smile disappeared, but she still seemed nice. I nodded my head. I couldn’t stop my eyes from filling with tears. “Don’t cry, Sweetie,” Nana said as she leaned back and opened her arms. It was like my feet had a mind of their own and walked me into Nana’s arms. She smelled so good. She smelled like flowers. I don’t know why I started crying so hard I began to shake. Nana started humming Jesus Loves Me. I felt myself calming down. “I am a stranger right now, but by the end of this week you and I will go from being strangers to being friends. I pulled back and looked up at her. I rubbed my eyes with the backs of my hands. When I looked up at mom she was wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands. Nana stretched out her arm and my mom walked over, and Nana hugged me and my mom. “From this day forward, I am going to be the best Nana I can be, and not a stranger,” Nana said.
“What about me?” Aunt Amy said. I turned around to see Aunt Amy standing on the step with her arms folded and her bottom lip was poked out. She told me that I was too old to pout, if I am too old to pout, she is antient so she shouldn’t be pouting.
“Amy, we love you, too, even though you are too old to pout,” Nana said. I started laughing. “That’s what you were thinking, too isn’t it, Nia?” Nana asked.
“How did you know what I was thinking, Nana?” I was so surprised. “It’s like you read my mind.”
“It seems we are a lot alike,” Nana said. We smiled. The doorbell rang.
“Pizzas here,” Zoe yelled, and we all laughed.