Bitter Sweets

showing up just when Savannah expected her least and needed her most.

    With the suitcase in one hand and her other arm wrapped around her grandmother’s shoulders, she walked her up the sidewalk toward the house. “I’m tickled to death to see you, Gran,” she said. “Whatever made you decide to come out now?”

    “I’m going to die soon, Savannah.”

    Savannah felt a seismic tremor run through her soul. She dropped the suitcase, grabbed Gran’s shoulders and whirled her around to face her. “Oh, God . . . Granny! What is it? Is it your heart? Oh, no...it’s not ca...cane-” She couldn’t bear to say it, couldn’t even think it.

    “What? Oh, pooh, you’re such a silly girl. It’s nothing like that.”

    “But you just said-”

    “That I’m going to die soon. Well, for heaven’s sake, Savannah, it’s true. Let’s face facts; I’m eighty-three years old. I’m bound to kick off before too long, and I figured I’d better do some of those things I’ve always been intendin’ to do, but never got around to.”

    Savannah felt her knees go weak with relief. “Then, you aren’t sick, or-?”

    “Hell no. What an imagination you have. I came out here because I want to go to Disneyland.”

    “Disneyland? You want me to take you to Disneyland?”

    “No. I’m going to take you . Tomorrow morning, bright and early.”

    “Tomorrow?” Reality returned in a nauseous wave. She retrieved the suitcase and searched for the appropriate words, that didn’t seem to be anywhere near the tip of her tongue. “Ah...Gran, I’ve got some things going on here that... well... oh, shoot... just come inside and I’ll fix you a hot toddy.”

    Looking up, her grandmother blinked at the drops falling onto her face. “I thought they said it never rains out here in California.”

    Savannah started to reply, when she saw a familiar, battered old Skylark lumbering down the street in their direction. Dirk was behind the wheel. He pulled up in front of the house and cut the engine.

    “Great...” Savannah muttered, “that’s all I need now. Unfortunately, Gran, that bit about the perfect climate isn’t altogether true,” she added with a sigh. “And sometimes, when it rains, it really pours.”

    “What do you mean, you’re going to arrest my granddaughter for murder?” Gran stood in the middle of Savannah’s living room, her hands on her waist, her feet spread in a battle stance, her face looking like a Mississippi River lightning storm. She was glaring at Dirk, who sat on the sofa, squirming miserably beneath her scrutiny.

    “I wasn’t exactly here to arrest her, ma’am, I just...”

    “Gran, please.” Savannah sat on the edge of her easy chair, clutching both cats to her sides for comfort.

    “You’re that Dirk guy she’s written me letters about,” Granny continued. “You used to be her partner, and now you’re supposed to be her friend. You know damned well she wouldn’t kill an innocent person.”

    Gran shrugged and seemed to briefly reconsider. “Oh, well, she did shoot a couple of fellows, way back when,” she conceded, “you know, her being a peace officer and all that, she had to. And she’s knocked the snot out of quite a few when they were askin’ for it. She knows that fancy black belt stuff and she does have a bit of a temper, but she wouldn’t-”

    “Really, Gran,” Savannah interrupted. “Please don’t ‘help’ me.”

    “Well, somebody sure needs to. It sounds like you’ve got yourself in a heap of trouble this time. Worse than usual, even for you.”

    “They just want to talk to you for a while, Van. That’s all.” Dirk turned pleading eyes to Savannah.131
    “Talk? Bloss and Hillquist want to grill me like a porterhouse-rare and bloody-and you know it.”

    “Who’s Bloss? Who’s Hillquist?” Gran demanded. “Do you want me to go down there for you, sugar? 1 could set things straight.”

    “No, really!” Savannah spoke so loudly that the cats both ejected themselves from her lap. “You don’t need to do that.”

    “I don’t mind at all.”

    Memories flashed across the back screen of Savannah’s mind: Gran literally tossing a vacuum salesman and his wares off her back porch, Gran telling Savannah’s grade school principal to “Sit on a fence post and spin” because he had kept Savannah for an hour after school, Gran threatening one of Savannah’s dates that she would “Jerk a knot in his tail” if he “got out of the way”