Shannie's insight made me pause; I never thought we would move again.
"We'll exhume the ashes and take them with us," mother announced.
"Your being retarded!" father snapped.
"She lost touch with reality," Shannie barked over the phone that night.
"You should reconsider," Floyd protested before the memorial.
"Stay out of it," Mother hissed at Floyd.
After the service, during the rest of our stay in Pleasanton, and even on the flight home, mother didn't let grandfather's urn out of her sight. "She kept it in her bedroom last night," I told Shannie. "I think she's afraid Dad's going to swipe them."
"That's it!" Shannie said tapping the side of her head. "You're a genius Just James, Why didn't I think of that?"
"Think of what?" I puzzled. "Oh no," I protested catching on. "I'm not going there. I'm not stealing his ashes!"
"You promised your grandfather. Your integrity is at stake. All we need to do is get your mother out of the house for five lousy minutes . Five minutes," she reiterated.
"She'll notice he's missing."
"We'll make a switch. We take your grandfather out and put phony ashes in. Your mom's happy, your grandfather's happy and you're off the integrity hook. Get her out of the house and I'll do the rest."
"How??"
"Geezus Pete, do I have to think of everything."
***
I was fretting away the afternoon when a brown UPS truck stopped at the Ortolan's. The driver knocked on their front door. Diane exchanged a few words, signed for a decent sized brown box and the brown clad driver hoped in the brown truck and drove away. Shit, that's it! "MOM," I yelled bounding down the steps.
"What?" she asked with bloodshot eyes. She was taking Stan's death hard. She dealt with her grief by spending an inordinate amount of time in the kitchen, she hated the kitchen. She looked pitiable with flower smudged on her face and her remaining hair wrapped in a bandanna.
"I was thinking. You've always wanted to eat at Brownback's." Brownback's was a restaurant mother always talked about, but could never get my father to take her. "Lets go tonight. On me."
She smiled despite herself. "What a sweet offer," she set down her rolling pin and hugged me. I coughed from the cloud of flower. "How are you going to pay?"
"My birthday money; I didn't spend it yet."