Disclaimer, all characters, scenarios, places etc etc are fictitious.
The Anderson family live in the old town part of Shelvick, in a massive 8 bedroomed house opposite a small shopping centre. Mum Tina, Dad Dennis, both work in the centre, mum in her older ladies fashion shop and dad in his gents hairdressers.
Then there is me Brian, I run my own computer and mobile phone repairs shop. Sat at home are grandma Gladys and grandad Bob, who own the house we all live in.
We are a happy family but it is a bit of all work and no play. Gran and grandad do their own thing, which seems to be do as many holidays as they can. For a couple who are in their seventies they are as fit as fiddles as the saying goes. In the winter months they go off to the sun three or four times for two weeks. But are always at home for Xmas.
The holidays they get are the only thing mum and dad are jealous about, as they can only take time off if they shut their respective shops. They do have people who work for them part time, so they do get some hours off together,to do things but never full days. I am a lot luckier, I started my shop and employed a friend from university, he works for me four days a week and I do also four days, we are both in on a Saturday, always our most hectic day.
Life as we knew it was pretty non eventful until one fateful Wednesday afternoon at 6.30pm. As was the norm the shopping centre closed at 6pm we packed up our shops which are next to each other and as usual we would walk home together, the only difference tonight was Grandma and Grandad was with us.
Dad had cut his hair and trimmed his beard. We approached the pelican crossing and I was joking with Dad about Grandad getting his freebie haircut and him getting his usual 1 pence tip. When there was a loud crashing noise and a car flashed in front of me, totally wiping out dad, grandad and grandma. Mum and I just stood there frozen to the spot, until her screaming finally registered in my brain and I went onto auto pilot. In all the car had taken out 8 people. Mum was on the floor holding dad, blood was pouring out from the top of his right leg, I was looking at grandma who was just laid there out cold, right next to grandad I couldn't physically see anything wrong with her, but from the angle of grandads neck, it didn't take a genius to know it wasn't right. Other people had arrived and were trying to help as best as they could. A passing police car had stopped and had called for help,which ended up being 5 ambulances more police and the fire brigade. It transpired that the elderly lady driver had had a heart attack rammed into the side of a bus bounced off and gone straight through the gap at the crossing before hitting the large planter outside of the shopping centre, she was pronounced dead at the scene. All in all 3 people died including her, my grandad from a broken neck, my dad from the internal injuries and the massive blood loss from the shattered thighbone of his right leg. The others had cuts and bruises, broken legs, all except grandma, who seemed to have no visible physical injuries, but she was still unconscious, some three weeks after the incident.
Life was just starting to get into a bit of a routine, mum had opened up the shop again after being closed for two weeks. My shop had stayed open mainly because of Mike who had been an absolute star, he had even opened up and locked up my Dads hairdressers for Julian dad's part timer, so it was not full time but it kept the business viable.
Mum and I took it in turns to visit gran in hospital, I did the afternoons and mum went after closing up. Visiting someone who is in a coma is weird, they tell you to talk to them, as a familiar voice soothes them and possibly stimulates them, but you feel really odd talking about what went on in the shop today or the old favourite the British weather.
Three weeks turned in four, five, six, seven and still nothing had changed. Then my mum was sat reading a book out loud to her and as she admitted herself she was quite into it, when gran rather incoherently said "she did what." Mum repeated it before she realised gran had spoken. Nurses and doctors were summoned and the tubes in her nose and throat were taken out. Then mum had the unenviable task of telling her, Bob and her son in law Dennis had both died at the scene of the accident, plus how it had all happened. I was just glad it wasn't me that had to do that, but when mum rang I was at the hospital as soon as I could get there.
Mum was sat outside grans room in the corridor when I arrived, the doctors were in there doing tests. They eventually came out and told us, apart from the her throat being sore from the tubes, she appeared to be in excellent health, she had no loss of memory or bodily functions and she would be allowed home in the next few days.
The few days turned into a week, because gran got a throat infection and was quite poorly. When eventually she came home late on a Sunday afternoon our lives had taken another step to get back to a bit of normality, it seemed strange at first, not doing the visiting and having Gran pop into our shops just to chat, although it was a very welcome change.
Mum had found a new unpaid assistant, she had tried to help in my shop but other than make a cuppa, all the technical stuff I did was way over her head. When we could finally talk about our new home arrangements, gran the formal lady of the past was rather more forthcoming. We were sat having a Sunday morning breakfast before going over to the shops, when she asked mum if she missed having her Sunday morning fuck as much as she did. Mums reaction was spectacular she sprayed a fountain of tea across the table and had a coughing fit. I was laughing, gran wanted to know what the fuss was about, all she had asked was did she miss sex.
I joined in and asked mum if she was going to answer her, I got what can only be classed as a if looks could kill look.
