Morina
The rest of the evening, I waited like prey ready to be slaughtered any second. I jumped at the slightest sound and my grandmother even scolded me
“Mo, is this so scary to you? What’s got you so tense?”
“Oh, I don’t know. The mob being in our town, for one.”
She sighed and rubbed a hand over her wrinkled brow. “It’s not like you think. I fluff my own ego by acting as though we’re still at war. Like a soldier wounded in battle that gets to remember those days as some of the bravest ones he ever lived, I like to talk like it still might happen, huh? Don’t get your panties all in a bunch. They’re mostly businessmen now. Like I said, gentleman mobsters.”
I took a deep breath. “What do you mean, Grandma?”
“Ach. They have hearts now. They live by new rules. They make clean money instead of bleeding those who crossed them.” She waved toward the big city. “They know how to move things without death now. I think it's better this way but maybe more cruel. I’ve heard of how Bastian works. He’ll cut off dealings with those he doesn’t want to work with and let the wolves underground rip apart those he doesn’t protect. He wants everything legal but still holds everyone’s cards in his hand”
“That sounds just as scary.” I shivered as a breeze passed through.
“Maybe. But there’s ethics now. Code he lives by more than his dad ever did. It’d serve you well to marry into that.”
Sighing, I dug my nails into my hands so as not to jump down her throat right away.
Grandma meant well. In her mind, marriage still could smooth over many things. She thought Bastian would be protecting me with his name but she didn’t understand. “They love me here, Grandma. You know that right? Jonah is out on the water every day with me, Iago is at the food truck bright and early and I’ve worked at the humane society for years. Dr. Nathan–”
“Don’t be naive, Mo. Men love a pretty woman to look at. They won’t risk their lives for you. And who’s going to take care of you when I’m gone?”
I stumbled at her question in shock. I tried to school my expression but she caught it.
“Oh, I know. You think you take care of yourself but I pay the bills. I run the numbers of the real businesses we have. I’m your protection.”
Her words were like a punch to my gut. “I’m perfectly capable of doing all of that, Grandma.”
“We will see.” She murmured and went to her room.
She died that very night,her last words loomed, now ominous with their weight.
There wasn’t a sound made. No glass fell to the ground, no cry for help, not even a great sigh from her bedroom. She went the way everyone hopes they will: quiet and warm in her bed.
My grandmother had taken life by the horns and maybe she’d wanted to ride out of it softly. Either way, I liked to think she chose it. She’d always been able to steer things her way. Why not death?
I’d taken one breath, two breaths, and then maybe fifty more as I stood over her the next morning.
In the end, we’d planned out her funeral, wake, how she’d wanted to be spread across the beach. Or maybe that was for me but, either way, we’d agreed on everything.
It was all planned perfectly.
Except what I would do the day it happened.
I was alone and the only sound in her room was my breath, not hers. The gulls outside, the waves and their rhythm with my breathing.
Not hers.
Just mine.
Life was too quiet without her rattling breaths. The room was so empty with just my own.
The sun shone into the window as if mocking me and I turned the bracelets on my wrist for far too long before deciding to call the non-emergency line.
They came right away, much like if I’d called 911.
Yet, no sirens. No sound.