“Charlie Crane,” Grams scolds him. “That wasn’t for you to decide by yourself. You should have given me a choice. I deserved a say.” Grams’s voice was growing louder by the second, and I couldn’t tell if it was out of anger or pain, but she didn’t sound happy. I didn’t see their reunion going thisway.
“You’re right, but at the time, I thought I was doing the right thing. Please forgive me?" Charliebegged.
A few more loud exhales bounce off the wall of her room before either speak again. “There’s something you need to know, Charlie, something you would have known had you come up to me in the airport that day,” Gramssays.
I move an inch closer to the door, needing to make sure I don’t miss any of this. “What is it?” he asksher.
“We have a daughter,” she says, her words shaky, butfirm.
There’s deafening silence in the pause between them. “As well as a granddaughter.” Again, there issilence.
“I have a daughter?” he musters the word as if his tongue is lodged in histhroat.
“Yes, her name is Clara.”I was right…Mom. Mom has noclue.
“All this time, I’ve had a daughter, and she grew up without me. Dear God,” Charlie says with muffledwords.
“But who was that man I saw you with?” heasks.
“My late husband,” she said. “Max and I became friends when I moved into my first apartment in New York. He lived in the same building, and he was always bringing food for us, and toys for the girls. He just loved spending time with us, and he was a good man. As our friendship grew, he told me he’d help me with everything, and I wouldn’t have to take care of my family alone. He asked me to marry him, and I saidyes.”
“He married you even though you had a daughter with another man? Did you love him?” Charlieasked.
“Of course, I did. He helped me take care of my family. What’s not to love?” I roll my eyes at a comment only Grams could come outwith.
“That’s not what I’m asking you, Amelia,” Charliesays.
Grams’s voice lowers to a whisper. “Let me finish the story, Charlie. Max was homosexual. You know it wasn’t common back then for somebody to admit to that, and nobody knew the truth except me. We had a good life together. I was married to a man I could laugh and cry with, and we took care of each other. It was easy. It wasnice.”
As I peek around the corner, Charlie looks dazed. I’m sure it’s a lot for him to take in all at once. First, he reconnects with the love of his life after decades of being apart. Then he finds out that she’s been waiting for him all these years, while he was staying away so she could be happy. What kind of cruel irony is that? “What about you, Charlie? Did you ever marry?” Gramsasks.
“No,” he says, simply. “No one ever held a flame to you. I dated a few women, but honestly, I gave up trying after a while. I was meant to be with you, and if I couldn’t have you, I was surely meant to do something different with my life. I always felt like losing you was my punishment for the wrong I did in thisworld.”
There is a sudden silence between them. It’s killing me, and I can’t stand out here wondering what’s going on. I turn the corner, going back into the room even as Jackson is trying to keep me where Iwas.
Instantly wishing I had just listened to him, I quickly return to the hallway and press my back up against thewall.
“I told you to leave them alone,” Jackson says. “What’s thematter?”
“They’re kissing,” I tellhim.
“That’s a man who knows what he wants,” Jackson says, his eyes filled with mirth. “I could see it as soon as I methim.”
I elbow Jackson gently in his side “Stop that,” Isay.
“Hey, give him a break. He waited more than seventy years to kissher.”
With a deep breath and my eyes closed, I knock on Grams’s door because I’m worried about the effect on her heart if she gets tooexcited.
I open my eyes after a long second, finding two sets of eyes gazing at me with pride. “Emma, my dear, you are my granddaughter,” Charlie says as he approaches me with his arm stretched outwide.
He holds me tightly, and I return the embrace. I don’t know this man other than what I’ve read, but if he was good enough for my grandmother to love, then I want nothing more than to get to knowhim.
“Apparently so. I just found this out myself last night,” I tellhim.
“Your grandmother is good at keeping secrets,” he says with a proudsmile.
“Hey, doc?” Charlie callsout.
