A quick word about this chapter before we get into it. I knew where I wanted this to go but, try as I might, I couldn't get it there. Since last Friday, I had been trying and hated everything I wrote. But, I plodded on and kept at it. By Tuesday night, I was afraid I wouldn't have a chapter to post for you today. Wednesday afternoon, though, an idea finally struck me and I found a 'beginning' which tied everything together for me.
It didn't take me long to write it. I found it particularly easy, really. After that, everything I had written before fell into place and I suddenly had my way to get the the ending of the chapter that I wanted. I hope you enjoy it. It's the chapter which almost wasn't.
Neil 
WATCHING BRAD
Part 162
Hi, everyone.
It's me again. Brad. Ted asked me to write this, but I hate doing it because I can't write worth a damn because I never know when I should use those commas and stuff but he asked me to so I will. Anyways, he wanted me to tell you about my grandparents. Like I said I don't know why but I'll give it a shot.
My Grandma and Grandpa Banks, (that's Mom's mom and dad) lived about an hour's drive east of here on a dairy farm. We didn't live in Mom and Dad's house then. I remember the farm but I don't remember much about Grandma Banks. She died when I was 6 years old. (Pops told me I had to write out the numbers as full words but I never write them as words. I always write them as numbers so I'm not even sure how to write some of the big ones like dates or something so if he wants to change them all later on he can.) Anyways, like I said I don't remember much about Grandma Banks, she was awful sick when I was a kid and the last time I saw her was on Christmas day for Christmas dinner when I was 4. We almost didn't make it there that day. Man it snowed that day! Maybe it's because I was just a little kid but it looked like I could get lost in all that snow. And it was windy, blew snow all around so Dad couldn't hardly see where he was driving. The main roads weren't too bad but the farm was out in the country and the plows didn't get to them yet and Dad drove through a deep snowbank that crossed the road and we spun around like two times before we stopped spinning. Mom was screaming. I was laughing. It was more fun than the rides at the fair.
Anyways, we made it to the farm okay and had a great dinner. Grandma was sick even then but she didn't look like it. She loved making Christmas dinner for the family and I'm sure it was good. I don't remember it. I remember getting a remote control car from Grandma and Grandpa, though. I still have it in the shed out behind Dad's house. It still works. I should go dig it out for Justin and Jeremy. Grandma would like that they have it.
Grandpa stayed on the farm by himself for a few years after that but he got sick too and he sold the farm and moved in with us when I was 9. He kept getting sicker though and had to start using a cane to walk around and then he had to use one of those aluminum walker things. He used to smoke all the time. He was the only one Mom ever let smoke in the house. And he drank Scotch. A small glass of it every day. He liked to read those romance novels too. I remember thinking it was so funny to listen to him sniffing and blowing his nose when he got to the sad parts. I never read any of those stories, but Mom told me it wouldn't be a Harlequin if it didn't make you cry.
Grandpa Banks went into the hospital when I was 14. He couldn't get out of his chair anymore and he peed his pants because he wouldn't let me help him. I went to tell Mom and she went to help him and got him in the bathroom and washed and changed and then she phoned for an ambulance. Grandpa died a few weeks later. Mom said he just gave up living when he couldn't get around anymore. I cried a lot when he died. I used to sit with him for hours and he'd tell me all these stories about the war and the battles he was in and how he got shot in the face and all the time he spent in the hospital in England until he was well enough to send home to Canada. I never knew Grandma Banks enough to really miss her but I think I miss Grandpa Banks more than I miss Grandma and Grandpa Hayes.
Grandma and Grandpa Hayes owned a farm too. They didn't grow cows though. They grew tomatoes and cucumbers and stuff like hay and straw but they sold the farm when I was just a kid and Grandpa went to work for Canada Post delivering mail out on the back roads on a rural route. I used to go with him sometimes to help him. Especially in winter so I could help dig him out of snow banks if he got stuck. I remember there was one place on the route where there were two big hills and the road went down one hill and right back up the other one and right at the bottom were two houses one on each side of the road and two mailboxes. Getting down the hill in winter wasn't bad but then Grandpa wouldn't be able to make it back up the other one if the roads weren't sanded and he stopped. So he would stop at the top of the first hill and let me out of the car with the mail I had to put in the boxes and then he'd drive down and up the next hill and stop there and wait for me until I slid down and put the mail in the boxes and then walked up the second one. I'm glad I didn't have to do that very many times. It was a long walk up that hill specially when it was cold enough to freeze your nuts off. (I can say ‘nuts', can't I Pops? If I'm not supposed to just change it to something else you can freeze off. Oh, and don't forget to delete this stuff between the bracket things.)
Grandma was the sick one of the two. Old people get sick a lot, I guess. She used to be a school teacher when she was younger. I remember she always wore these big earrings with pretty stones that she would clip on her earlobes. And matching necklaces too and broaches she would wear on special days and when she went to special places like dances or parties at the Legion Hall. She liked watching hockey just as much as Grandpa did and they would watch it all the time on "Hockey Night in Canada" on CBC and they would yell at the players and give the refs shit if they made a call against the Leafs. They liked watching wrestling too. I never figured that one out. (You can change shit to crap if you want to Pops.)
Grandma spent a week in the hospital the summer when I was 16 and I had to go stay with Grandpa to help him cook his meals and clean the house and make sure he was okay. I remember Grandma's legs swelled up real bad and her doctor put her in the hospital until they could get her back too normal. I had to help Grandpa get undressed for bed too. They didn't sleep in the bedroom upstairs anymore. My Dad and Mom had moved the bed downstairs and put it in what Mom called the front parlour. Even in the summer Grandpa wore longjohn underwear. I would have melted but Grandpa always wore them. They had buttons all the way down the front and a flap at the back so he could go to the bathroom without taking them off. It's weird that one of my last memories of Grandpa was seeing him in that underwear.
Grandpa died suddenly that fall and Grandma died a few months later just after Christmas in January. Dad was surprised when Grandpa died but he wasn't surprised when Grandma died. Dad told me with Grandpa gone there wasn't any reason for Grandma to live any longer. She would rather be with Grandpa and she just died.
I miss them a lot but I really wish Grandma Banks could have lived long enough for me to get to know her. I think I would have liked her a lot. It's tough to get to know someone from pictures.
* * * * *
I knew
what was going to happen. I just didn't know how or when. If Brad hadn't been as excited as he was and so caught up in the moment, he might have been more curious as to what was going on around him. As it was, if he noticed Nathan and Barry and Brook and David running around in front of and behind the Head Table and getting things set up for me, he didn't mention it.
He did mention something else, though. "You haven't said anything about my haircut."
We were sitting by ourselves now, taking a breather from our mingling and awaiting dinner. The twins were still with us, sitting in our laps and reluctant to leave us for a single moment. I didn't mind, and Brad didn't seem particularly bothered, either.
After Brad's comment, my eyes looked up to his hair. . . or, rather, to the lack of it. It wasn't as short as David's ‘buzz', but there was certainly a lot less of it than there was before he went back to his parents' place after the wedding rehearsal on Thursday night.
"I like it," I told him. "It makes you look more mature."
"More like a ‘dad'?" he asked, practically beaming with pride and flashing his chipped tooth at me. As he said it, I could see him hugging Jeremy just a little bit closer to him.
I beamed my own smile back at him. "Yes, Tiger. You look a
lot more like a ‘dad'." I looked down at our son who was snuggled up comfortably against Brad's chest. "Jeremy, why didn't you tell me about his haircut?"
Jeremy looked up at me and said, "Daddy Brad tolded me to don't."
His grammar would have got me a rap on the knuckles from my grade two teacher, but I understood what he meant and it actually made both Brad and I giggle. Once again, Brad hugged Jeremy closer and bent his head down to kiss the top of Jeremy's hair. Jeremy tilted his head back and looked upside-down at Brad's grinning face. His lips puckered up for some ‘sugar' and Brad easily bent down further to give it to him.
"I wasn't sure you'd like it," Brad said when he'd settled back into his chair, "but I was getting tired of all the sweat dripping down my face and neck from it."
"I miss it, but I like the new look," I added. "I'm sure it will grow on me."
Brad started to laugh. "Now,
that's funny!"
* * * * *
The music which had been playing softly in the background suddenly fell silent and a familiar voice came over the speakers. Well, at least it was familiar to me. "Theo? Are you there, Dear? I can't see you. Lizzy, where is our Theo? Why can't I see him? Am I looking in the right place?"
"You must be patient, Mother," came Lizzy's voice. "He shan't be long."
"Don't tell me to be patient, Liz! I'm too old to be patient! Theo! Where are you, child?"
I had been looking at Brad when the voices began and a most delightful and confused grin crossed his face. "What in heck is
that all about?" he asked through his grin.
I set Justin on the floor and took him by the hand as I stood up. "Come with me and find out," I told him. As I began to walk across the floor with Justin walking beside me to my left and Jeremy and Brad following us on my right, I called out to Lindsay and held out my hand to her. She rushed forward, still holding her bouquet and wearing her corsage on her wrist, and took my hand. From the look on her face, she recognized the voice as well. She walked along with me as we made our way to the small table set up in front of the Head Table. Mom and Dad fell in behind us. An open laptop computer sat on the table with a webcam attached. Facing the table and the computer were two chairs with two other chairs offset behind them. Nathan was there and waiting for us, too, and holding a remote control in his hand.
I released Lindsay's hand and bent down to pick up Justin before sitting in one of the chairs and settling my son on my right leg. I moved Lindsay into position to sit on my left leg. Brad sat in the chair to my left with Jeremy in his lap and Mom and Dad took the chairs behind us.
Nathan aimed the remote control behind me and pushed a button. When he stepped aside, I knew everyone else in the room could now see on the large monitor behind us what we were seeing on the computer screen. I leaned forward a bit to turn the laptop slightly.
"Hi, Gran," I said with a huge and elated smile. "Can you see us now?"
Gran is, of course, my Mom's Mum. She's a little wisp of a woman, a good head shorter than me and thin enough to appear as though she would sway in a gentle breeze like a long blade of grass. She was still a feisty woman, determined and independent, but age and arthritis had slowed her down considerably these past few years and she was no longer able to travel the way she used to, which is why she hadn't been able to come to the wedding. The last time she'd been to Canada was when Lindsay was four years old.
We'd been to England since, and I had hoped to go back this year with my daughter, but the adoption and the wedding made that impossible. If all went as planned, though, our entire family - including Mom and Dad - would be going over next Summer.
My Aunt Elizabeth, Mom's younger sister, sat beside Gran. Auntie Liz looked a lot like Mom. It was easy to tell they were related. Her husband, Clive, a man who grew more hair on his shoulders and back than he did on the top of his head, sat beside my aunt.
Gran's thin and arthritic fingers moved to cover her lips as her eyes drank in the scene on the computer screen in front of her, apparently surprised that she could see each and every one of us and we were actually moving. "Oh, my, Theo," she said tenderly. "My gob is right properly smacked!" That meant that Gran was absolutely speechless. Her fingers were quivering and I could see the moisture of tears moving into her eyes as she moved her hand down until it came lightly to rest on her chest at the base of her neck. "So beauti-f-u-l." The last of that word was an effort for Gran to speak and her voice broke apart and faded into silence as she clipped the word short with a forced and difficult swallow.
"Hi, Nana," Lindsay said lightly, smiling and waving. "Can you see me?"
"Hello, child," Gran said quietly. "Indeed, I can see you." She was still trying to find her voice after seeing all of us for the very first time. I'd sent her photographs, of course, but photos certainly can't match the closeness and intimacy of live-action video.
"These are your two newest great-grandsons, Gran. This one is Justin and the other one is Jeremy. Say ‘hello' to Nana, my Sonskyns."
Justin turned around to look up at me. "What's a ‘Nana'?" he asked.
"It's another name for Grandma."
His eyes popped open so wide that I could see white all around the pale blue of his pupils. "We have
another Grandma?" His lips formed that familiar, astonished ‘O' which I found so endearing and he turned back to look at the computer screen. A quick glance at Jeremy showed a similar expression on his face.
"Hello, my precious ones," Gran said, raising her fingers to her lips to blow them a kiss.
"Hi, Nana," the twins said in unison and blew kisses back to the screen.
"How old are you now?"
Both boys held up one hand and splayed their fingers and thumb and said, "Five."
"Blimey," she said delightedly. "And right proper gentlemen, you are, too. Intelligent and precious." And then, to me, she added, "Two nicer gifts you could never have given to me, our Theo. Thank you, child."
"You're welcome, Gran," I told her. "And now I would like to introduce you to the
newest member of the family," I said as I reached out to put my hand on Brad's shoulder. "This is my husband, Brad."
And then I held my breath. In our correspondences and telephone calls, Gran hadn't seemed to have had a problem with the fact that I was going to marry another man. I'm certain she understood what it meant to be gay, and I got the impression that she had accepted it, but this would be the first time she would be faced with the reality of it in her immediate family and to hear me actually call Brad my husband.
Gran sat back in her chair and said, "Indeed." She paused long enough to pick up the cup in front of her with both hands and to drain the remains of her cuppa. She returned the cup to the table and then she began to speak. Her words were clearly aimed at Brad. "I met our Theo's granddad when I was fourteen. By the time I was seventeen, I was married to him. I loved Richard more than I loved anything else in the world. For fifty-six years, I. . ."
"Mother," my Mom interrupted.
"Belt up, Lillian!" Gran warned. "I need to know this! I have a right to know this! Now, belt up!" She was answered with silence and, when she was completely satisfied, she began speaking again. "For fifty-six years, I cooked my Richard's meals and cleaned his house and bore his children and saw to their needs. I darned his socks and sewed buttons on his shirts and stitched his trousers and sewed on patches. If he was ill, I cared for him. If he was injured, I tended his wounds. If he was cold, I kept him warm. He never had to wash a dish or mop the floor or Hoover the carpet. He never had to scrub the tub or unbung the loo. It was my job to care for the children. It was Richard's job to discipline them. When he was right, I confirmed it. When he was wrong, I told him he was right. I did all of this because I loved my husband and it was my duty to so. Do you love my Theo enough to do all of that for him as well?"
Without a moment's hesitation, Brad replied, "No, Ma'am."
Gran's eyes flew open in astonishment and what I can only describe as ‘shock'. As matriarch, one did not disagree with or challenge my grandmother. I suppose I should have warned Brad about that. I actually heard Mom gasp behind me and I could hear her whisper, "Careful, Bradley!".
Brad's eyes remained locked on the monitor. "I love Ted very much, Ma'am," Brad continued as I turned my gaze away from the monitor and toward him, "but I'm his husband, not his wife. And this is the new millennium. The ‘good old days' are yours - not ours. Ted and I are in this marriage together and we are equal partners in it. We share the duties of taking care of the house and we compliment the family with both our abilities rather than to pile them all onto one person. We both take care of the kids and we make sure they're safe and happy and healthy. I'm certain you were very happy in your marriage to Ted's grandfather, but that could never work for us." Brad looked at me then and his beautiful, green eyes locked onto mine. He looked at me, but he spoke to Gran. "I love Ted and I love this family more than anything else now, and the rest of his family becomes mine as well after today, and that includes you. . ."
Brad paused a moment as he turned his gaze back to the monitor: ". . . but if you think I'm going to do all of that for your grandson, then I'm very sorry to disappoint you. Your sort of marriage may have worked for you, Ma'am, and no disrespect is intended, but it certainly wouldn't work for us."
I think everyone in the room was holding their breath as we waited for the computer to explode. Even the twins and Lindsay sat very still and silent, sensing somehow that it was extremely important that they remain so. My hand searched for Brad's hand and found it. We held onto each other for dear life.
Those few seconds seemed to take years to tick by. Gran's expression didn't change, but I could see her jaws working as she thought intently about what she had just heard. Finally, she blinked hard several times and crossed her arms over her chest, and then she opened her mouth and began to speak again.
"A bit cheeky, eh what?" Her stern and powerful gaze didn't waver as she stared at the screen for several agonizing moments. "You've got bollocks speaking to me like that, young man! I would be well within my rights to tell you to bugger off!"
And then a miracle happened. Gran's face softened and her arms uncrossed themselves as her hands slid into her lap. A small, gentle, polite smile crossed her face.
"It's high time someone in this family had the bollocks to stand up for themselves. Tell me, child," Gran said gently, "do you love our Theo as much as I?"
Brad, who was still holding my hand, squeezed it tightly. "I don't know how much you love him, Ma'am, but every morning I wake up thinking that I couldn't possibly love him more than I already do, and then I suddenly discover that I was wrong. Somehow I manage to love him more every day."
Gran nodded. "As I did with my Richard. Tell me, child, are you happy?"
"Oh, yes," Brad beamed. "I'm well chuffed."
Gran burst into raucous laughter which rang throughout the hall. It was quickly contagious and, within seconds, the intire ballroom was filled with the laughs of everyone who had joined in. Justin was screaming in delight and clapping his hands and bouncing on my leg, and Jeremy was doing the same thing in Brad's lap.
Brad looked at me, keeping a firm, one-handed grasp on the bouncing boy in his lap. He had a look of sheer panic in his handsome face. "Did I use the wrong word, Pops?" he asked anxiously. "It means ‘happy', right?"
I squeezed his hand this time and grinned my reassurance. "You couldn't have picked a more perfect word, Tiger," I told him as I leaned toward him to give him a quick kiss.
The laughter continued for another minute or so, then slowly faded and eventually disappeared entirely when Gran began to speak again.
"Welcome to the family, Bradley," she said. "May I call you ‘Bradley'?"
"Yes, Ma'am," Brad replied, "you may."
"And you may call me ‘Gran'."
That was it. Brad was ‘in'.
"I am very-much looking forward to cooking dinner for you and our Theo when you come to visit me next weekend."
Twenty years ago or so, there was a sitcom on television called
Golden Girls. It stared Bea Arthur and concerned four older ladies sharing a house. Now, one of the characters, Rose Nylund, was not the brightest lightbulb in the chandelier. Deliciously portrayed by that magnificent actress, Betty White, Rose could hear a statement she didn't quite understand and then you could actually see her brain working as she tried to figure out what it really meant, and then her face would light up when she finally figured it out.
That's what was happening with Brad. He had heard what Gran had said and he knew it meant something, but, at that moment, it eluded him. His brow furrowed and his eyes squinted and his mind went to work. When realization finally struck him, his beautiful green eyes flew open and he turned his surprised face toward me.
"England?" he asked excitedly. "You're taking me to England for our honeymoon?"
To Be Continued
I have been somewhat late in acknowledging the latest chapters as I've only just returned from holiday. Needless to say, your uniquely spellbinding story has been at the top of my to do list.
And like all your other fans, wish that this saga could be published in hard copy. Perhaps two or three books. Surely someone amongst your readers could advise or even help. This beautifully tender tale teaches tolerance to a degree that I have never before experianced. I'ts publication would, I feel, greatly advance the sympathetic understanding of the general public.
