Nanas Cookies Ch 03

I did not remember falling asleep, but I sure as hell remembered waking up.

I was alone in bed, with Nana's side already made up like she had been awake for hours. The clock told me it was almost eleven, but I refused to believe it. I felt like a groggy mess, and the only thing that convinced me to forgo further sleep was the chance to spend an extra hour or so with my grandmother.

My phone was nearly dead; I had forgotten to charge it the night before. When I plugged it in, I was greeted to a series of missed calls that all came from one place. I dialed back and braced for impact.

Dad lit up like the Fourth of July before I even had a chance to speak. "James! How ya doing, buddy?"

I wiped the sleep from my eyes. "Pretty good. Missing home, but everything is good here."

"That's awesome. We miss you, too. It doesn't feel the same without you here."

I noted that his mention of "we" came without a vocal confirmation from Mom, and I silently hoped that I had caught him at a time when she was out of the house. "Sorry I haven't called sooner, Dad."

"Aw, don't worry about it," he said happily. "How's Nana doing?"

I craned my neck to try and hear her shuffling in the kitchen, but the house was silent. "I just got up and she's not here in bed anymore, so she must've left before I got up."

Dad was silent for a beat. "Wait, I must have misheard you. You're in

her

bed?"

My heart dropped into my stomach like a lead balloon. "Uh, yeah. You definitely misheard me, or I misspoke, I dunno. But yeah, no, yeah I'm in my bed and I can't hear her moving or anything so I'm just assuming she's gone somewhere." I prayed that he would not catch on.

"Oh, boy," he said firmly. "You must be working yourself to the bone out there."

To the "bone" is right,

I thought to myself.

"It's been a lot. It's a heavy workload for sure, but Nana is helping me through it."

"That's awesome," Dad said proudly. "I knew you'd be successful, buddy. Hey, Mom's here if you wanna talk."

I did not, but it felt rude to admit that. "Sure, put her on."

The first thing Mom asked me was exactly what I was dreading, and I knew right away that she had not changed a bit.

"Have you been staying clean?"

"I'm not a drug addict, Mom," I whined.

"You're addicted to dopamine and porn," she said curtly, making it clear once again that she considered it equivalent to jonesing for heroin.

"Well, if that's the case then I'm definitely not clean."

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothing, I guess. I'm just having a really good time with Nana. She's making this whole thing a lot easier."

"That hippie wacko isn't letting you sulk in your room watching porn, is she? No offence, dear." That was a weak apology to Dad, not me. Perish the thought. "I mean she's a lovely lady, but I didn't think the two of you would get along so well."

"She's not a hippie wacko, Mom," I snapped. "She's actually a really cool person. You would know that if you took the time to get to know her."

Mom took the shot in stride, and fired back one of her own. "Whatever. I just hope she's not rubbing off on you

too

much."

I chortled. "You don't know the half of it."

"Uh, okay, care to explain what you're talking about?" I could hear how furrowed Mom's brow was at the prospect that she was not being taken seriously.

"I just feel

happy to be alive

," I admitted sincerely. "I finally wake up every day, for the first time in a long time, excited to see what the future brings. She's a part of that, so she deserves credit for supporting me through this shit."

"Plus she can cook like nobody's business," Dad chimed in. "That's a bonus."

That's your contribution to your own mother's defense, Dad? Really?

"Anyway, buddy, I think we've gotta jet. There's a boat show at the marina and Mom wants to go look at something pricy."

Of course she did. We said our goodbyes and hung up. As far as conversations with my parents went, it had been in the top ten.

From outside the room came a creak from, the floorboards -- a sure sign that I was being spied on. I called to the only other person who could be behind the door. "You know, this is

your

house, Nana. You don't have to sneak around."

I waited for her sardonic reply, but nothing came. What I did hear was a poor attempt to hide the telltale symptoms of a tearful sniffle, so I leapt into comfort mode.

I left the bed behind me and bolted to the door. When I opened it, I was greeted by an open hand halting me in place like a stop sign. She'd known I was going to come to her aid as soon as I'd heard her crying.

Nana was standing with her back to me, and she could not bring herself to turn around. "Just... just give me a minute, Bunny." She waved me away and walked briskly to the bathroom. She reappeared in the hallway with a Kleenex, dabbing her watery eyes with lips atremble.

"Is everything okay?" I asked, my heart heavy.

"Very much so," Nana choked out.

She blew her nose into the Kleenex, then tossed it into the wastebasket by the bathroom door. She took another second to settle herself, taking a deep breath before she asked, "Did you know that I was home?"

"Er-- no, I didn't. I thought you went to the market, or the library, maybe? I had a bunch of missed calls from my parents so I figured I'd call them back. If I'd known you were home I would have come to say good morning first! Is that what this is about?"

Nana laughed her signature ugly laugh, but it had grown on me in such a way that I wished it would never change. "You think I'm crying because you didn't come say good morning to me?"

"Then what is it?"

"You didn't know I was home..." Nana fiddled with her fingers. "... but you still stuck up for me like that?"

I replayed the conversation in my head just to make sure I had not said anything stupid. "You heard that?"

"Your end, yes. This hippie wacko has rather good hearing."

"Well, she's wrong. You are so much more than that." I smiled warmly. "But you're still kind of a wacko, which is good, because I am, too."

Nana rested her head on the wall. "Have you ever been in love, Jamie?"

"I don't think so. Not real love, anyway."

"I thought not. You said a lot of stuff on that phone call. I might not have heard the whole thing, but I heard enough."

I was mortified she was going to crucify me for almost publicizing our secret with silly innuendos. "What did I say?"

Nana looked at me with unmistakable fear in her eyes. "Jamie, Bunny, you talked about me like you're falling in love with me."

"Is that a bad thing?"

Nana chewed pensively on her bottom lip with a whirlwind of thoughts flickering behind her eyes. "I want to show you something. Come on." The spark in her iris blinded me like a stun grenade, and in that flash she took my hand and guided us toward the laundry room.

When we arrived, Nana produced a large stack of envelopes from the highest shelf she could reach. They were yellow and tattered, each one looking more miserable than its neighbour, but she flipped through them like a scrapbook she had memorized long ago.

She pulled a single sheet -- perhaps the most crumbled of them all -- from the middle of the stack. "This one."

As she mulled over the words she had likely read two thousand times before, she slowly sank onto the floor. She crossed her legs and leaned back against the dryer, patting the floor for me to join her.

"I like to keep them in order so I can read them the way I did the first time," she said as a matter of fact, handing me the beaten page.

"What are they?" I sat next to her with the sheet in hand. Despite the ratty nature of the paper pile, they appeared to have been perfectly organized by the date that she had received them.

Nana flipped through the pages. "When your grandfather joined the war, we were still very young. He was quite a bit older than me, but it sure didn't feel like it.

"He left me behind with no job; he didn't have a choice. Back then it was hard for women to get into the workforce. I was afraid I was going to have to find another man to help me get by until your grandfather came back or... well, didn't."

Nana stroked the edges of the paper stack, appearing to relive memories with every pass of her finger over their crinkled surface. "We decided, the day before he left, that we had something special. I promised to wait for him if he promised to write, and he did."

I listened intently while she recalled her time alone, waiting every day for a letter that would make the entire week worth living through.

"We were rocky for a bit, especially at the start. Long distance is hard. Turns out that it gets harder when you add a

war

into it." Nana swallowed a lump in her throat. "One day -- the day before he wrote that letter you're holding -- he hit a landmine."

"Jesus," I whispered under my breath.

"I guess he threw a rock in a bush, or something like that, and it exploded. Thankfully he wasn't killed, but he was hurt pretty badly."

"I never knew that."

She cleared her throat. "That's not the important part. Afterwards, they put him in a field hospital. His arms were in casts, but he got the nurses to write down everything he said."

I scanned the document as best I could, but it was difficult to read the hasty scribbles. "What did he say?"

Nana ignored my question; she was deep into the retelling. "I remember feeling like I knew what I wanted for the first time. I finally knew what we were to each other, and it took a near death experience to get us there."

She pointed to the bottom of the page. "He talks about how he couldn't think about anything but me while he was hurt, and how he wasn't afraid of death itself. He was only afraid that he wouldn't get to come back to me."

The story filled me with emotion, but I had yet to see why Nana had dredged up that particular story. I was trying to read along with her, but her retelling was much more engrossing than my failed attempts to decipher the poor handwriting of a stressed-out field medic.

"That's really sweet, Nana. It sounds like you two really loved each other -- like you were

meant

for each other." I even felt a little jealous of my grandfather for getting to enjoy such a long, loving relationship with her.

"I'm glad you think so." Nana scooted close to me so our legs were touching. She laid her head on my shoulder and hugged me around the waist with both arms. "Can you read the last few lines for me, Bunny? Out loud, please."

"Uh, okay. Here?" I held the paper in the sun to give myself the best chance of reading it. I cleared my throat. "'Rose, you are my everything. The world does not turn for me unless you are by my side. For the first time in my life, because of you, I know I am

happy to be alive

.'"

My stomach dropped. I turned to her with shock across my face. "I didn't know."

She squeezed me tightly. "How could you? Sometime it scares me how much you remind me of him."

"But I never met him. He died before I was born. How can that be?"

She chuckled in between sniffles. "I'm not one for spiritualism, but this might be the best case for reincarnation that I've heard yet."

"Do you ever miss him?" I knew the answer, but Nana was feeling something truly profound just then, and I wanted to give her a chance to let it out - to share it with me, even.

"Of course I do. He was a wonderful man, and he gave me a life that I would not change for anything." She thought pensively for a brief moment. "But your grandfather was more than ten years older than me when we met, so this was bound to happen. Ever since he passed, it feels like everything is hanging on by a thread. Everything but you, James."

"Your world doesn't turn without him in it." I used Grandpa's quote to fill in the blanks for her.

"That's what scares me, Bunny. I felt that way for a long, long time when he passed." She could not bring herself to look at me, but her impassioned embrace told me exactly what she was feeling. "It's scary that I don't feel that anymore. My world is turning again. I remember what it's like to matter to somebody."

"You do?"

Nana looked up at me with the fire of new love, unchallenged by the sands of time, burning behind her eyes. "I do now."

It was a tough headspace to shake ourselves out of. Any morning spent awash in the memories of a lost love will put a damper on your day, and I didn't want to try to force Nana to be the exception to that rule.

That didn't mean leaving her alone, though. It did not feel right to abandon her after she had expressed such vulnerability, so, to keep her mind off the past, I spent the afternoon tailing her like a shadow, completely ignoring my studies. She told me she was fine by herself, but I knew she appreciated the company.

We folded laundry together, worked on a massive jigsaw puzzle, tended to her garden, then went out grocery shopping and stopped for a bite to eat on the way. I could tell Nana was carrying a burden the whole time, but as we got further into the day it seemed to weigh on her less and less.

By the time we got home with an abundance of groceries in our arms, she was back on track. I told myself I was doing it for her, but truthfully I would have used any excuse to avoid studying in exchange for a day with such an incredible woman.

Nana rattled off directions as she pointed to the various items we unloaded onto the counter, ending with the bananas. "Freezer, fridge, cupboard, cupboard, cabinet by the stove, fridge."

"Wait, you put bananas in the fridge? How have I never noticed that before?" I shook my head and subjected the bananas to their fate. "This can of whipped cream, I get that. But why bananas?"

"I like them cold." She nudged me with her fat bottom. "I have

other

bananas that I prefer warm."

"Keep talking like that and you're gonna have to split this banana!" We stared at each other blankly for a moment before we both burst out laughing. "Okay, yeah. That made way more sense in my head. I guess I need to work on my flirting."

Nana winked at me and packed a couple cartons of crackers into the cupboard by her feet. "I think you flirt just fine, honey." As soon as she bent down, I was behind her with my hands on her hips. "And what do you think you're doing back

there

?"

"Uh, nothing." I grinned devilishly as I hiked up her skirt to expose her luscious, creamy thighs. "Just practicing for tonight."

"Not a chance!" She spun to face me and wagged a finger in my face. She flattened down her skirt like a flustered librarian. "You've still got assignments to do! What makes you think you've earned a fast pass to Nana's pussy?"

"I did finish!" I insisted. "Remember? You went to see your friends while I toiled endlessly over a hot laptop to create something that, from a literary perspective, is truly mythical! I may have accidentally written the next

Odyssey

!"

Forget her eyes; Nana rolled her entire head around her body. "Oh, brother! I thought we were doing a good job of keeping you in focused on school."

"We were!" I lied through my teeth. "So, tonight then..."

"You are the very definition of the word 'insatiable,' Bunny." Nana squeezed my cheeks like I was a kid again, but the way she kissed me afterwards was much different than those historically innocent pecks. "Tell me what you're expecting, and I'll tell you if you're crazy."

I thought through my options. "You

did

make a promise, and I know how important those are to you."

Nana nodded her head while waiting for the other shoe to drop. "And what was that promise?"

"I think, if I'm not mistaken, that it involved your mouth and my, uh... warm banana?"

She chuckled at my poor attempt to flirt. "You are

so

lucky you're cute, Bunny. This would never work on a girl your age."

"I don't want it to," I said defiantly. "I want it to work on

you.

"

Nana popped a grape into her mouth, then put a finger on her chin to exaggerate how hard she was thinking. "Well, in that case, I think I owe you a treat for working so hard."

My heart sung a glorious melody. "Really? You do?"

Nana turned away from me, then backed up until her rump was pressed into my crotch. She snapped her fingers a couple of times, then held them open expectantly. I took the hint, placing my hands in hers so she could wrap my arms around her body like a shawl. We rocked steadily in place while I clung to her.

"Tell Nana what you want, honey," she sang sweetly. "Don't be shy."

"I really, really want you to suck my dick."

She paused her swaying for a moment until I used my manners. "Sorry! I mean, please, Nana, will you suck my dick?"

She resumed her peaceful rocking once I asked nicely. "Hmmm, how badly?"

"

This

badly!" I pushed harder into her behind so she could feel my burgeoning cock between her cheeks.

"You think

he

wants to go in

my

mouth? Are you sure?" Nana nibbled on my thumb and circled her tongue around the tip. Knowing I was watching intently, she slowly opened her mouth just wide enough for the fat digit to fit inside. Her lips worked their way down until my thumb completely disappeared, after which she happily sucked on it.

I moaned as I wiggled my thumb. "Holy Christ, Nana. It's so warm in there."

She released the suction with a loud

pop!

"Just imagine how much better it's going to feel on your cock tonight."

"Tonight? Really?" I finally understood the expression "jumping for joy."

As if she needed to make it any clearer, Nana laid out her plan with certainty. "Tonight, honey. I pinky promise to suck your dick tonight."

Never in my life has time passed so slowly. The first night of anticipation had been tough, but I hadn't known what to expect. That time, I was fully aware that Nana was going to rock my world when the sun went down.

I knew what she could do with her hands, and it was better than my wildest dreams. Given that, I didn't think I'd ever be able to last more than a few seconds with her mouth around me.

We ate dinner earlier than normal. Nana did not say why, but I had a feeling that she'd picked up on how impatient I was, and did not want me to break down into a horny wreck at the dinner table. I don't think I chewed my food more than once per bite.

Nana watched me devour my plate full of food in record time with a smile on her face. She didn't say anything, but she knew exactly why I was doing it.

I finished eating and leaned back in my chair for a big stretch. "Delicious as always, Nana."

She cocked her head to the side. "You liked it?"

"Loved it!" I confirmed.

"Okay, honey. Can you do something for me?"

"Sure, anything."

She smiled sweetly. "Just look up at the ceiling for me."

I obeyed, then shrugged my shoulders with confusion. "Like this?"

"Yeah, just like that. Now,

without

looking down, can you tell me what we had for dinner?"

I froze, but my mind was racing. I must have been in a heavier haze than I'd thought.

Wait, I literally just finished eating. Why can't I remember? Did we have spaghetti? No, that was a different night. Was it soup? Chicken and potatoes?

I lowered my gaze from the ceiling, admitting defeat.

Nana twirled her fork and gathered tendrils of spaghetti from her plate. "Somebody's been daydreaming. You really aren't thinking about anything other than how my mouth is gonna feel, are you?"

I swallowed my pride. "I've been, like, halfway to hard since we sat down."

Nana choked on pasta. "Bunny, no! Oh, you poor thing. I was just trying to tease you by drawing it out. I didn't think you were

that

obsessed!"

The word "obsessed" did not even come marginally close to covering it. When I closed my eyes, all I saw was her: naked and beautiful, legs coiled around me, tongue dancing with mine as we melted into a single harmonious entity.