by Pat Merewether

Created on: February 10, 2009   Last Updated: February 14, 2009

Last week I found something in my Grandmas bedroom. I ended up in big trouble for snooping, but I got a good story out of it so it was worth having to scrub the bathroom. She says I should know better now that I'm eleven.

Grandma lives in Detroit. Mama can't convince her to move in with us, where it's safer, whatever that means. But when I was six, a bunch of people got mad at something and nearly burned the whole town down! You'd think they'd be more civilized in the 1960's, but Daddy said they'd been pushed too far, and I'm not sure what that means either. All I remember was hearing helicopters all night long and then we moved. Grandma says all troubles pass and that she's not moving anywhere as long as theres breath in her body.

I was bored that day so there I was in Grandma's bedroom. The window was open and music was coming from Mrs. Martin's house next door. It was from her son's bedroom. Grandma says he has heartburn or something because his girlfriend moved to Ohio. He plays it over and over and sings along with it every time. He has a good voice, but if I hear "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone" one more time I'll scream. Besides, Mama says "ain't isn't a real word", so how did it end up on a record in the store? The houses are so close together that you can hear everybody's business when the windows are open.

Anyway, we were visiting Grandma Mama says that nothing much had changed in her house since "before the war." Granddaddy died in that bedroom so I think maybe she didn't redecorate just in case he comes back as a ghost, she want's him to know where he is.

I never thought of her bedroom as interesting, but when you're bored in the middle of summer vacation you'd be surprised at how ordinary stuff becomes interesting. I felt kind of creepy being in there all alone. Mama wouldn't like it if she found me poking around. But Mama was buying groceries at Food Fair and Grandma was watching "As The World Turns" then "Guiding Light" so I knew I had at least fifteen minutes to myself.

Don't get me wrong, I don't usually go snooping through a person's bedroom, except my friend Linda's but we're like blood sisters. We even poked our fingers and mixed a drop of our blood together on a piece of toilet paper to prove it. I won't do that again! But Grandma's room seems more like a church so I was really careful. I opened the closet but didn't see much but her dresses and shoes in shoe boxes. Grandma keeps her them like that so they always look brand new, even twenty

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