The Twins Were Here

Gramma,

It was a rare occasion that the twins were here for the weekend.  The girls turned eight on Halloween.  Their mother died of MS a year ago.  The baby is eighteen months and was here briefly while the girls were being dropped off.  They live with Dave's ex-wife and her husband in a small apartment.  They do not have legal custody.  I suspect that the kids are getting on their last nerve and  they wanted a break.  I fully expected to be hit up for money for something. 

The father of the children is busy hunting and fishing.  He bought a new boat with government money meant for the girls.  He does not volunteer anything to support the kids, including his time.  He is a weird little puke who should be in jail for tax evasion.  When his dog died, he put the collar on Tanya's grave.  The dog was not special to her.  He got another dog.  I would guess the dog gets little more attention from him than the children do.  We did not ask the twins any questions about how things are and they did not offer any information. 

Bubba and Veve were here as well, so there were four kids making noise.  Although I said no about a hundred times, I let them be kids.  No, you can't go on the roof of the house if I am not with you.  No, you can not go on the roof with shoes, it's bad for the shingles.  There is a deck that goes from a bedroom onto the roof, but the shingles are much more interesting.  Yes, you can go on the roof of the small playhouse.  There is a ladder and slide involved.  No, you may not go on the roof of the treehouse.  Get off that ladder.  No, you may not go on the dock out to the island if I am not with you.  Yes, there is a monster. 

A trip to Wal-Mart was made to pick out a birthday toy of their choice.  Nope, that's not an option, choose something else.  The multitude of pre-landfill plastic disgusts me.  Grampa came along.  He NEVER goes to Wal-Mart.  I do not go on a Saturday.  I get pissy just thinking about it.  The old woman and the old cashier in front of us were having a social event.  Dave and I exchanged glances and stink eye.  It was good for Grampa to see how fast and far $150.00 goes.  He tried to hand me a twenty for a Dairy Queen cake.  I rubbed my fingers together and smiled.  He waited in the car. 

The kids helped take down all the Halloween décor.  They demonstrated the speed of a beer truck being unloaded at a biker event.  I took the four-wheeler out back with the kids in the trailer.  We got stuck and unstuck more than once.  We raced around the yard with the dogs trying to keep up.  Then we had more ice cream cake outside.  And more popsicles.  They dragged their feet cleaning up their own stuff to go home.  I always start the process two hours in advance. 

They think we live in a mansion.  I have corrected that notion to clarify that it is a castle.  My hope for their time here is to go home and say how much fun they had.  I hope they tell their cousins all about it.  They were here once, three years ago.  Maybe they will pester to visit.  More kids is not much more work.  In the end, it's the same amount of clean-up. 

In a month, the twins will be coming for another weekend.  We will go see a Christmas play with three of my grandkids.  It will be their first time seeing our house decorated with the village and upside down Christmas tree and the lit up Jesus people out by the road.  Their mother is watching.  I know because their were dragonflies following me when I was mending fences the day they came to visit.  Dragonflies were their mother's thing.  They are not in season here in late fall.  This is all good for Grampa's spirits.