by Andie Anderson

Created on: July 12, 2008   Last Updated: January 28, 2009

The Best of Both Worlds

The seasons were changing once again. Autumn had arrived with her leafy jacket of orange and brown. The air was crisp and the geese were preparing for their trek to warmer lands.

Lisa Brown sat on the front stoop watching little whirling currents of air spin the leaves around and around like a dradle down the street. She knew they were called something devils and she scrunched up her nose thinking what the exact word was for these miniature whirlwinds that appeared on blustery fall days.

The zinnias and shasta daisies were drying up from the first night's frost and the once bright and cheery flower beds lay in ruins. Her eighth birthday was next Wednesday and she was wondering if 'Mee-Mee', her loving grandmother would be there for the party. Her grandmother's name was Mimi Addison Brown and Lisa called her Mee-Mee instead of 'Nana' when she was two. Papa sat in the parlor reading the newspaper. He was an expert at hiding his true feeling when she appeared in the room with him. He would smile and ask her "What's on first? Who's on second, and I don't knows on third" She would then go through the antics of the Abbott and Costello skit with him, laughing all the while.

Mommy and Daddy had gone to the store that morning looking for a gift, she knew, but she wasn't all that excited. The joy at birthdays and holidays just wasn't the same since her beloved grandmother had lost her sight. She went back in her memory of the day she went to the hospital for surgery. "Mommy, I'm afraid if I go to sleep at night, I'll wake up and be blind, just like Mee-Mee." Her mother had put her arms around her trying to hide her tears and tried so hard to console her only child. "Sweetpea, you know your grandmother has a small growth in her head, and it's putting pressure on the nerve to her eyes, that's why she cannot see, it's going to be taken out and she will be able to get her vision once again, I'm sure of it." The truth was, her grandmother did get better, the tumor was benign, but the irony was that the 'good' tumor made her permanently blind. Such are the ways of life.

Lisa felt let down. She wanted so much for grandparent to see, to see her in the school play of The Nutcracker where Lisa played a toy soldier, to see her graduate, to take her places like they used to, to see her grow up.

She got up from the stoop and decided to take a walk with Musty, her Cairn Terrier down to the boatyard. He padded beside her and still possessed the light spring in his

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