Bitter Sweets

say.”

    She rushed to him. “Colonel Neilson, don’t go yet. Stay for at least one cup of coffee. Really, you’re in no condition to drive.”

    Again, she grasped his arm, but more firmly than before.

    “Get your hands off me, before I forget you’re a woman, and knock you on your ass.”

    Savannah’s face hardened. Grieving father or not, she was getting her can full. “You could try,” she said, lifting her chin a couple of notches, “but I’m not sure you would succeed.”

    Slowly, she released his arm, knowing there was no way to hold him if he was determined to leave.

    “I really need your input, Colonel, if I’m going to help your granddaughter,” she called as she followed him out of the house. “Later, when you’ve thought things over, we need to talk. Please, stay in touch.”

    Ignoring her, he staggered down her sidewalk toward his car, which was parked at the curb. The rain was falling more heavily by the moment, dripping on her from the bougainvillea that draped the porch. A cold wet trickle slid down the back of her collar, causing her to shiver.

    When was this rotten day ever going to end?

    Through the wet haze, she saw the outline of a yellow car...a taxi... pulling up behind his Lincoln.

    Who was...?

    No one she knew ever took a cab, not in San Carmelita. To her knowledge, the local service only had two cars, one for the senior citizens’ retirement home, one for Friday night drunks.

    The cabbie rushed out of the car and around to the rear door. He opened it with flourish and offered his hand to his passenger.

    Savannah watched, holding her breath as a woman unfolded herself from the taxi. A beautiful head of silver hair that glowed like moonlight beneath the streetlamp. A more-than-ample female figure in a long, flowing caftan, covered with a brilliant floral print. Sparkling, youthful eyes set in an aged, lined face.

    The beloved face of her grandmother.

    “Gran?” she whispered, her heart hopping up into her throat between her tonsils. “Granny Reid?”

    Savannah was only dimly aware that her grandmother’s attention was fully on the colonel, who didn’t seem to notice anyone or anything as he climbed into his own car and pulled away from the curb.

    “Gran?” Savannah called, finding her voice at last. “Gran, is it you? Of course it’s you.”

    “Savannah?” She squinted, nearsighted as always, but still unwilling to admit that she needed glasses. “Is that you, baby?”

    “Oh, Gran!” Savannah sailed across the space that separated them and threw her arms around the person she loved most in the world. Warm, salty tears of joy mixed with the cold rain on her face. “How did you...when did you...?”

    “Just now. Flew all the way from Atlanta, I did, into Los Angeles.” Her Southern accent was as sweet and poignant as the rose perfume she had worn for as long as Savannah could remember.

    Gran shoved some cash at the driver, then cast a lingering look at the colonel’s car as it disappeared down the street. “Guess I shoulda showed up a few minutes earlier. Then, maybe I could have made the acquaintance of your gentleman caller. He looks more my age than yours.”

    “It’s probably just as well,” Savannah said under her breath.

    The cabbie handed Savannah a suitcase, nodded respectfully, wished Gran a wonderful vacation, and dismissed himself.

    Savannah had always been fascinated by the amount of adoration a woman in her eighties could receive from members of the opposite sex.

    “This is such a wonderful surprise,” Savannah said. “When did you arrive in California?”

    “About an hour ago. I flew on a red nose. It was cheaper.”

    “A red nose?” Strange visions of reindeer danced through Savannah’s head until she had completed a quick, mental translation from Gran-ish to English. “Oh, you mean a red eye .”

    “Don’t you go correcting your elders, young lady. I know what the hell I flew on.” She stood on tiptoe to plant a bright scarlet, lipstick kiss on each of Savannah’s cheeks.

    Savannah returned the kisses.

    “Now, are you going to invite me in for a nip of something to warm these stiff old bones,” Gran said as the taxi drove away, “or are we going to stand out here in the rain ‘til we catch our death o’cold?”

    Savannah had to hug her one more time; she couldn’t remember when she had been so happy to see someone. She couldn’t remember when she had needed anyone so much. Gran had a way of