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We all laughed together, and the others headed to the kitchen to get the rest of the dishes and bring them to the dining room, where the other delicacies were already waiting to be eaten.
I bent down to help Grandma Margaret up from where she was seated in front of her puzzle. As she stood up, a couple of puzzle pieces clattered softly to the carpet.
“Oops,” she muttered with a mischievous gleam in her eye.
I looked at her in astonishment. “Are those—?”
“Shh!” she held up her finger to her lips.
I shook my head at the audacity of my owngrandmotherto cheat my Dad and Uncle Jacob at a puzzle race. “So, Cookie and Buddy got them, huh?”
She nodded her head. “That’s what I think.”
I laughed and patted her hand as I walked with her to the dining room. “Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.”
“I always knew there was a reason you were my favorite grandchild.”
I shook my head. “Grandma Margaret, I’m youronlygrandchild.”
Just before we entered the dining room, we heard a strange clattering noise, followed by a rather suspicious meow. I looked at Mom, she stood there with the corn wheels plate in her hands while her eyes widened when she realized that Buddy and Cookie were nowhere to be found.
We ran into the dining room as Cookie jumped off the sideboard. On the floor was an upended tray surrounded by a bunch of broken cookies.
A certain dog was gobbling them up. Cookie daintily sniffed at the cookies then sat on her haunches, feeling rather proud of herself.
“Buddy! Cookie! No!” Mom cried out, horrified.
Dad grimaced. “And this is why we named herCookie.”
Mom shook her head. “I forgot to warn you that she has a thing against cookies of some sort. She likes turning them over onto the floor for some absurd reason!”
“Whatever it is,” Dad winced. “Buddy always appreciates her efforts. We really can’t say the same.”
Anna just laughed. “It’s lucky that I made an extra batch and left it in the oven,” she said. “We can still have cookies, for those who want them.”
We gathered around the table and Anna said grace. As soon as she finished, the entire table erupted into a cacophony of laughter and chatter as Uncle Jacob and Dad each piled on their plates with their favorite food while Mom and Aunt Martha looked on with helpless smiles.
I scooped some pasta and salad for Grandma Margaret and gave her a bit of the steak. She smiled at me and pointed at my own empty plate.
“You should eat more, darling girl. You’ve lost quite a bit of weight already,” she told me softly.
I smiled warmly at her in gratitude and served myself a bit more of the steak.
The food was absolutely delicious. Mom had perfected Dad’s favorite steak and it was perfectly paired with Aunt Martha’s corn wheels with spicy honey butter. The pasta with fresh vegetables was also a refreshing dish that tempered the heaviness of the meat.
I ended up eating more than I could and thanked my lucky stars that I had gone with a forgiving dress and cardigan today. My belly was certainly rounder than it was before dinner.
After dinner, we all went out to a nearby lake to watch the fireworks, while eating some oven-baked s’mores that Anna had made earlier. She even used red, white, and blue marshmallows to make it suit the occasion.
As we watched the brilliant pyrotechnical display, I could feel Grandma squeezing my hand from beside me.
“Is something wrong, Grandma?”
She shook her head with a soft smile. “I just wish I could be one of those fireworks soaring in the sky. I could fly up to heaven and meet your Grandpa again. We would burst into light and colors again after all those years of loneliness.”
I choked back the tears. “I’m sure he misses you, too, Grandma.”
She just smiled and nodded, turning her wrinkled face back to the fireworks display, the pyrotechnical flowers reflected in her glossy eyes.
