Sunday Scribblings: Running to the Ocean

His grandfather kicks back the recliner and walks into the living room. On the sofa, he - the grandson - is alternately reading a few work documents and a Coelho novel. The grandfather, unsure about whether he should interrupt, shuffles along quietly, but the grandson seems to want to chat.

'How's it going in there? Any good games on television?'

The grandfather turns, elated that he can chat with someone. 'Nah,' he says gruffly. 'Just baseball. They pay those guys too much. I just do the puzzles and fall asleep. A good life, if you ask me.'

'Sounds it,' the grandson replies. He doesn't necessarily want to ask what's new in the case that he gets into a long conversation, but he also doesn't want him to leave. He continues making eye contact.

'Oh, so, you're grandmother was wondering why you came running into the house last night? Was there anything wrong?'

The grandson chuckles. 'No, nothing wrong. I just had to go.'

'Huh?'

The grandson raises his voice a few decibels. 'I had to go!' He pauses to ensure that his grandfather got it. He keeps his voice loud. 'I decided to run from the house down to the ocean. It's about five miles, no big deal.'

The grandfather looks surprised, makes a sound that falls somewhere in between a laugh, a cough, and a gurgle.

'Well, it's two and a half miles down and the same back. So, at the beginning of the run, I felt the slightest urge.'

The grandson has decided to use parlance to which the grandfather can relate; the word 'urge' is one of his favorites.

'I had a lot of water at dinner. Almost three glasses. And I didn't go before I left.'

'Oh boy,' the grandfather was hanging on every mundane word.

'So, I got down to the ocean, but I don't like to stop running once I've started.'

Again, the lachurgle.

'By the time I was half way back, I was thinking of stopping at some random house. But that's embarrassing. So, I kept going. It made me faster, anyway.'

The grandfather was laughing outright by this time, intermingling his 'oh boys'.

'But I made it. From now on, I think before I go running...'

At that moment, the grandmother who's watching television in her room - at least twenty feet down the hall - yells, 'You shoulda took a pee.'

The grandfather, of course, couldn't hear what she had said. So, the grandson tells him. And they both start laughing hysterically. It was just like the grandmother to be able to hear everything and anything happening in the house. She has the ears of a rabbit.

'Exactly,' I agree.

The grandfather walks back into the den. And the grandson decides his day is over. So, he closes up shop and meanders back to talk to his grandmother.

He sits down next to her and asks how things are going. They chat a bit. Then, the grandmother asks, 'Why did you come running in the house last night? Is everything okay?'

The grandson looks at her; he's a little perplexed. 'Didn't you hear me tell the story to grandpa earlier?'

'No,' she admits.

'Why did you say, "You shoulda took a pee?"'

'What?'

'You said that earlier. What were you watching?'

A big smile brightens her warm, white face. 'Oh, that. I was watching Wheel of Fortune.'