Where Dandelions Grow {Part 7}

Hey! I thought it was time for me to give y’all another glimpse of my book, Where Dandelions Grow. I hope that you enjoy seeing what happens next in Destiny’s little corner of the world.

Thanks, Michlyn!
        “You’re worried, aren’t you, missy?” Mrs. Reed asked me. 
“Should I be?” I don’t know where I learned how to ask a question instead of answering one, but it works sometimes. 
“Of course you should be.” Mrs. Reed was walking at a surprisingly fast gait down the sidewalk. “After all, I run this town, you know.” 
“You do?” I hurried to keep up with her. And when I first saw her I thought she was old!
“Not officially, but yes, in a way I do. Don’t worry though. I don’t run it by fear. More like everyone loves me to pieces and would walk around in circles all day long if it weren’t for me.” 
Perfect character for one of my stories. The thought took me by surprise. How long had it been since I’ve been thinking of my writing? With so much stuff going on and how full my mind was with re-establishing my relationship with Lexie, I had barely thought of my writing for a whole week. An extremely rare occurrence for me. 
“We’re almost there. Your grandma lives just down the road from Novelty, so it shouldn’t be hard for you to drop by and visit her.”
“I hadn’t even realized she was still alive.” For some reason I felt the need to defend why I hadn’t visited her before this. 
“Your grandma?” a stranger walked up and joined our conversation just like that. 
“Yes.” Weird, weird, weird. 
“Your mother never talked about her?” The lady ‘tisked’. “No wonder really, with the way she drove her daughters away from each other.”
“What do you mean by that?” We had arrived at a small apartment building by now, and Mrs. Reed was knocking on the door in a commanding tone. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking ‘knocking in a commanding tone’? But really, she was. I gave my attention to the stranger. 
“Oh, always comparing them to each other, trying to get them to succeed. They were never good enough for her, and she was never good enough for them. All she wanted was success. Daughters were a disappointment to her. She’d always wanted sons. She bred bitterness and anger between them, not love like a mother should. It’s no wonder they finally had enough and left.” 
“But what was it that happ-” I broke off when the door began opening and I saw a frail looking woman standing there. 
“I’ll see you later!” The stranger gave a little wave and continued her way. The strangeness of the conversation almost overrode the strangeness of the conversationist. 
“Hope, come in, come in.” The lady, who I assumed to be my grandma, stood back to let us in. “And who do we have here?” 
Gulp. Like, major gulp. Seriously, I opened my mouth and nothing came out. I couldn’t even remember my grandma from when I was growing up, and it was such a weird feeling to be meeting her. 
My grandma motioned for us to sit down in her very tidy living room, then sat down with her hands folded in her lap. “I didn’t catch your name, dearie.” 
“This is Destiny. Destiny Sparks. Erin’s daughter.” 
I didn’t know what to expect, but it was surprising when her mouth became a hard line. Is she mad at me? What did I ever do? 
“I’m just going to go and get myself a drink of water. I’ll be back soon, girls.” Mrs. Reed got up and hurried out of the room. 
Even though I didn’t know quite what I thought of Mrs. Reed, I knew I was a lot more comfortable around her than around my grandma. 
“I suppose you hate me.” 
I jerked my head up in amazement. 
“And I agree, you have every right to.” 
I opened my mouth to assure the lady in front of me that the thought had never crossed my mind, but she held her hand up, a plea for silence. 
“I raised my daughters in a stupid manner, and I regret it. Instead of the success I always dreamed up for them, I drove them away from me. Now I’m a lonely old lady who has no contact with three out of four of her children. What kind of life is that? Where is the success I dreamed about? I pitted them against each other. Always making each of them think the other was better than them. Thinking them it would drive them to success. It drove them alright. Just not to success. It drove them away from each other.” My grandma seemed to sag under the weight of what she had just told me. “Everyone in town knows I’m a forgotten and unloved lady. You may go ahead and declare your hate for me now. I just wanted to make sure to warn you not to raise your children the same way I did.” 
I stared at the pitiful lady in front of me, realizing that even if I had hated her, it would take a person with a heart made of stone to continue to hate someone as frail and sad looking as her. 
“If you detest me so much you can’t even talk to me, so be it.” 
Realizing my silence had been taken the wrong way, I shook my head. “No, it’s not that.” Suddenly I felt very protective over Grandma. 

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