George noticed me.
“Grandma, why are you staring at us?”
“No reason.”
“That’s suspicious.”
Jeffrey laughed.
I stepped outside.
The sun was warm.
Across the yard, the basil was growing too fast again.
My knees hurt.
My hair was white.
I was seventy-four by then.
And I no longer felt defensive about any of those things.
Jeffrey leaned against the railing.
“Do you ever think about that court day?”
“Sometimes.”
George grinned.
“Jeffrey’s famous five-word speech?”
Jeffrey groaned.
“Please stop calling it that.”
“You froze an entire courtroom.”
“I said one sentence.”
“Five words.”
Jeffrey looked at me.
“You remember it?”
I smiled.
“I’ll remember it forever.”
She only wants Grandma’s company.
Five words.
They exposed Vanessa’s motive.
They changed the direction of that hearing.
But they weren’t the most important words Jeffrey spoke that day.
The important words came later.
I don’t want to be taken away from the person who raised us.
