“So you’re Joy’s grandpa?” Charlie asks me while Suzy and Joy are in the bathroom in my apartment.
“Uh-huh,” I tell him.
“And are you, like, a dream, or are you a dreamer like me?”
“He’s a dream,” Justin says immediately.
“I’m a dream,” I say almost simultaneously.
Justin looks at me strangely. “Are you okay knowing that?”
I shrug. “It’s the truth. Not a problem.”
“Hmm. Okay.” He’s surprised.
“Do you have grandparents, Charlie?”
“Yuh-uh. I still have all four.”
“Oh, that’s good. Your mother must be young. Is she--” But I never finish my question. Joy and Suzy board the ship. My mischievous side gets the better of me. “Young lady, you went to the bathroom in my house,” I tell Joy.
“Yuh-huh,” she says.
“That’s one dollar,” I say, placing my hand in front of me, as if I’m going to get the money.
“Dad!”
“I’ll owe you,” Joy retorts without thinking.
Suzy and I stare at Joy. That ‘That’s one dollar’ is something I do back in the ‘real’ world. That’s what I tell everyone who comes to my house and goes to the bathroom. ‘I’ll owe you’ is something Justin always tells me!
I look at Justin. “Does she know the one dollar bit?”
Justin bites his lips and looks down.
He did! That bit I do with him he has done with her! Enough times to make it a habit.
That makes me so happy for some reason!
Suzy recovers first. “Justin. There’s a few things we need to talk about, regarding raising Joy.”
He looks up at her, ready to hear some bad news. “Yes, Mom…” he says with resignation.
(To be continued…)
—Told by Grampa Walt