“I was a child. I didn't understand the sister code yet.”
Grandma Sarah shook her head slowly, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “All these years later and you're still relitigating childhood grievances.”
Lauren's phone buzzed in the cupholder. She glanced at the screen and groaned.
“Jeff again?” Sarah asked.
“Third time today.” Lauren picked up the phone and answered with forced cheerfulness. “Hey, honey! How's everything going?”
Her husband's voice came through slightly panicked. “Lily won't eat anything I make. She says my grilled cheese tastes wrong. How can grilled cheese taste wrong? It's bread, butter, and cheese.”
“Did you use the white cheddar? She only likes the orange kind.”
“There's a difference?”
Lauren pinched the bridge of her nose. “Yes, Jeff. There's a difference. The orange cheese is in the drawer on the left side of the fridge, behind the yogurt.”
“Okay, okay. I'll find it. Also, Daniel drew on the wall with permanent marker. Just a heads up.”
“Which wall?”
“The one in the hallway. The one we just painted.”
Lauren took a deep breath. In the background, she could hear what sounded like a small explosion followed by her son's delighted laughter.
“What was that?” she asked.
“Nothing. Everything's fine. Totally under control. Love you, bye!”
The line went dead.
Sarah watched her with barely concealed amusement. “Sounds like Jeff's having a great time.”
“Don't start.”
“I didn't say anything.”
“Your face said plenty.”
Grandma Sarah chuckled from the driver's seat. “Marriage is a beautiful institution. It builds character. Mostly through suffering.”
“Grandma!”
“What? I know a few things about it.” She checked her mirrors and changed lanes with the confidence of someone who had been driving since before seatbelts were mandatory. “Walter is probably at home right now, enjoying the peace and quiet, eating crackers in bed without anyone telling him he's making crumbs. Men always recover faster than we think they will.”
Lauren's phone buzzed again, this time with a text.
Found the cheese. Crisis averted.
The landscape outside had shifted from endless strip malls to something slightly greener, though everything was still brown with early spring. They were somewhere in central New Jersey now, that strange no-man's-land where the turnpike seemed to stretch into infinity.
“How much longer until the next rest stop?” Sarah asked. “I need to stretch my legs.”
“We just stopped an hour ago,” Grandma Sarah said.
“That was for gas.”
“And you didn't use the facilities then?”
