My Grandfather's Girlfriend

 My grandfather’s girlfriend has many suitors, as my grandfather is well aware.  She has never spoken of these other men, but he knows all the same.  When she comes to him, the idea of the others trails behind her like the last moments of a breeze.  Sometimes she is sun-kissed and warm, the smell of sunscreen almost overpowering the whiff of cologne at her neck.  Almost.  Other times she betrays more, the heavy smell of a sweat that isn’t hers clinging to the leather of her bowling bag, never obliterated by the smoke from the bar.  A coat she doesn’t own wrapped tightly around her shoulders returning from a day of unanticipated cold, the fabric rougher than anything she would purchase for herself. 

He never asks, and she never offers.  From the moment she steps into his presence until the moment she leaves it, she is all he cares about.  She comes to him on her knees, putting her hands on his legs as he sits in his easy chair, their connection anything but easy.  She places her head in his lap and lets his hands roam her face while she smiles life into the words, “I am yours, I am yours.”  Once he explores every line of her face, he takes her hands in his and kisses into them.  “You are mine, you are mine.” 

She’ll cry then, as she always does.  It will start with a quiet tear and it will end with a shoulder shaking sob.  She will crawl into his lap and he will hold her there, taking in every second he can, while he can.  They won’t make love, but they will be just as spent, and when she leads them to bed it is so they can both fall into a heavy sleep.

In the morning, he will wake and know she is gone before he reaches for her.  The dark of early morning will fade from the world, but will stay with my grandfather as he opens his eyes.  He will grope the furniture as he heads back to his favorite chair, too stubborn to use a cane and too familiar with the house to care.  As he eases into his chair and his day, he will think briefly about all that he sees without actually seeing, and then he will begin to count the hours until he can be with my grandmother again.