A quote: “Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance.” ~~ David Mamet
I’ll start with a story …
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“Come on, grandma.”
The contempt in his voice was plain.
I’m hustled into a small, sparse room. I sit quietly, letting my head nod to my chest. The door opens to admit my questioner. Bored, he opens a folder, noticing my black eye …
“You were pretty far from home, grandma. Why the Heights? Know someone there?”
I shrug “No, sir. I just like to ride.”
I smile; he recoils. Last year I lost a tooth on one of my “rides” when a mugger punched me in the face, frustrated I carried nothing of value. I never got it fixed. Now, along with my white hair and wrinkles, it allows The City’s petty civil servants to dismiss me out-of-hand.
He closes the folder, hands me back my id, “Stay closer to home, grandma. I read you still have some value.”
I want to laugh in his face but keep my act. “Value”, yes. I’m in-demand for trade goods I make. Intricately embroidered goods that townships trade highly for. Embroidered goods where I have written, in series of knots, dashes, and esoteric symbols everything I observe on my “rides”.
I will ride again. Just need to protect my hands. Moral imperative.
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Now, it’s your turn.
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. Featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license
GWB says: I’ve often read it as “Experience and treachery…”.
And I try to live by that motto. Not that I desire to be dishonest, but I will shiv you in ways you won’t remotely grasp if you try and harm me or mine or the “defenseless” in my care. The last words from you will be “But that’s not faiiiir!”
Cameron says: My grandmother was busy with her latest project and she smiled at me as I walked in.
“Hi, sweetie. I left out some cookies.”
“I had one, grandma. I just wanted to talk business really quick.”
“Hold on just one moment.” She quickly put an end to the current row and set the needles down. “What’s going on?”
“Well, there is this convention that would love to bring you on as a guest speaker.”
“Oh, I’m not that interesting.” she replied.
“Grandma, your instructional videos are a big hit.” I passed over a printout from the group.
“Cosplay?”
“People that make costumes of their favorite characters.”
She smiled. “Oh. Like you dressing up as that Wolverine? There’s people that have this as a hobby?”
I showed her pictures of attendees from previous cons and her eyes went wide. “Oh my. Some of this work is incredible. And they want to see me?”
“You really lifted a lot of people’s spirits during the lockdown. And here’s what they are offering.”
She looked shocked at the number. “They can afford that?”
“Along with a nice room and meals.”
“Well then, tell them I said yes. What do you think I should pack?”
Lewis says: She stood at my gate for a while, I finally called out to her to come on in, sit with me on the porch. It took a few more minutes, but she finally managed to drift up and sit on the edge of an old rocker. She shyly opened her tote bag to show me the contents.
“Can you show me what to do with this stuff?”
I grinned a little, looked at her eyes, put down my needles, and asked where she got that “stuff’.
“I found the bag when my grandma died. It had my name on it.”
We emptied the bag on my porch table. There was an adorable needle holder embroidered with flowers, a good-size wooden box with thread, several different sized hoops, and the loveliest gold stork scissors I had ever seen.
Near the bottom a box of stitch patterns and ideas for projects. Then under some lovely lengths of linen was the old McDuffy Reader. The shy one looked at me under her eyelashes.
“The girls at school call me Dumb Bunny. If I could do something they can’t, they might like me?”
Years later she bounded up my walk with her diploma, she had graduated high school the day before. She had brought her “project”, and the McDuffy. It had been a challenge, but we both had risen to the task. Now she couldn’t care less if anybody liked her or not! Not only could she produce exquisite embroidery, but she had learned to read on the porch that summer so long ago. Old age and youth had combined treachery and exuberance to set a path for success. Now on to college to become the lawyer I didn’t know then I was going to need with trouble soon to come!
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