Ghost Granny (2 page)

“Mom, this has been the best walk-about
ever! Thank you, you are the best mom in the whole wide world!”
Cody said, hugging his mother tightly.

The next morning Catherine and Cody took
advantage of the hotel’s free breakfast buffet and both ate more
than they thought they could after their big dinner the night
before.

They decided to take a walk around the
quaint little town. When they passed a shop that sold sewing
material Cody said “Mom, look! Halloween is coming soon, can we get
some material for my costume?” Catherine had always made Cody’s
Halloween costumes even though she was no seamstress, not by a very
long shot. “Not today, Cody.” Catherine answered him.

“That’s O.K. mom, we have time. I am not
even sure what I want to dress up like this year anyway.”

They walked up to a crowd of people on a
hill. “Wonder what is going on here?” Catherine said. She then
noticed a sign that said “Pumpkin mile - $3.00.” Catherine and Cody
walked up to a lady who was sitting behind a table taking money and
handing out small pumpkins. “Excuse me, we are just visiting, what
is the pumpkin mile?”

“Oh, it’s not really a mile, just down the
hill. Three kids at a time get to roll their pumpkin down Luna’s
Hill here and the one who knocks into the big Luna, wins.”

“And the pumpkins are $3 each?” Catherine
inquired. “Yes, and the kids are matched according to age, wouldn’t
be fair if a teenager was playing against a five year old. Would
you like your son to participate?” Cody’s eyes grew big when she
looked at him. “Why not? One fast pumpkin, please!” Cody was so
happy, he hugged his pumpkin to his chest as they continued up the
hill to the top. There he only had minutes to wait before they
motioned him to put on the sticker with the number on it that they
marked on his pumpkin with black marker as well, take his place and
get ready to roll the pumpkin down the hill.

Catherine didn’t have a clear view of what
was at the bottom of the hill, so she kept her eyes on her son.
“Good luck, Cody! You got this!” She cheered him on. Cody got into
position and had a look of purpose on his face.

One – Two – Three – ROLL! The man in charge
yelled and all three children gave their pumpkins a hearty push
down the hill. The little girl’s pumpkin took a side trip to the
right and finished it’s decent in the wrong direction, the other
little boy’s pumpkin was more on target, he had obviously done this
before.

It looked as if the other boy’s pumpkin
would win, but at the last minute it hit a rock and it jumped
somewhat and then split in two! “You won Cody! You won!” Catherine
found herself jumping up and down. Cody ran over to her and said
“Did you see that mom? It hit her right in the big ole booty!”
Catherine didn’t know what he was talking about. She noticed some
people motioning them to come down to the bottom of the hill for
Cody’s prize.

Catherine looked at the target, now lying on
its side on the grass at the bottom of the hill and she blinked. It
was a bigger than life sized cut out of the lady she had seen last
night in the restaurant, the one with the blue dress. As Cody had
already told her, the pumpkin looked like it had smashed right into
her very abundant butt!”

The man who had motioned her down the hill
wore a big funny hat and he was now handing her an envelope and
shaking Cody’s hand. Someone was there taking a picture of them and
there were smiles all around. Cody and Catherine thanked everyone
and told them how much fun it had been.

They then walked over to the pumpkin pie
booth and each ordered a big piece of pie with whipped cream on
top. When Catherine took out her wallet the lady in the booth said
“Oh no, your money is no good here! Your little feller is the
winner today! Enjoy!” She said, handing them the pie and each a
bottle of cold water.

Catherine and Cody walked over to the
nearest picnic table and sat down to enjoy their pie. “I am so
proud of you Cody! First time you have ever done that! I bet most
of these kids who were playing live near here and get to do this
every year and yet you beat them all!”

“Can we come back here every year?” Cody
asked. “Maybe, it’s not all that far from home. I’ve never been to
this area of the state before. Look at that beautiful lake, Cody.
Let’s walk over there after we finish our pie. It is such a
beautiful day.”

Cody and Catherine went back to their room
and Catherine started packing up their overnight suitcases. This
had been a special night and day for them and she was overjoyed
that Cody had so much fun.

“Mom – we have to go back!” “Back where,
Cody? We are leaving to go back home in a couple of hours, did you
forget something at home you need?” “No, I forgot to get my prize
that I won at the hill!” Catherine had forgotten all about the
envelope the man with the big hat had handed them after the race
was over. She took the big envelope out of her purse and stuck her
hand in and pulled out a voucher.

“Just some ole piece of paper?” Cody said,
looking disappointed. Catherine read it and then turned to Cody and
smiled. “Yep, just a piece of paper, saying we have a full week
that we can stay here in this hotel – FREE! How would you like to
spend another night?”

“Cody started jumping around and punching
the air. “Yes, Yes, oh yeah!” Catherine called down to the lobby
and mentioned their prize and asked if they could keep the same
room, or would they have to move to another one since they were
originally scheduled to check out today. The front desk said no,
they were all set, enjoy and just bring the voucher whenever they
were ready to leave.

Mother and son then walked the few blocks to
the little town’s center and stopped in to get an ice cream cone.
Again, when she tried to pay, the lady in the ice cream shop told
her their money wasn’t good there, ice cream was on the house for
the pumpkin mile winners. They thanked her and walked outside to
sit on a bench and finish their ice cream. Catherine took out a
hand cleaner from her purse and a wash cloth and they cleaned off
their hands. They then continued their walk and came to a
department store.

Catherine was in a very happy mood. If she
didn’t have to pay for the hotel room that meant she could do
something special for Cody. They walked towards the Halloween
costumes and Catherine told her son to pick out what he wanted to
be that year.

Cody looked at all the Halloween costumes
before him. He took his time going through each one on the rack.
“Can I be a super hero mom?”

“You already are my super hero, Cody, you
can get any Halloween costume you want!” Cody picked out what he
wanted most – a super hero that Catherine had never heard of, but
that Cody was thrilled to dress up like. “Can I really get this
mom? I promise I will wear it next year too!” Catherine looked at
the price of the costume. $45.00, there would be no way she could
afford that in her everyday world, but not having to pay for the
hotel and with the free daily breakfast the hotel offered, she
decided to splurge. Catherine put the costume on her credit card
and they left the store smiling.

Catherine and Cody walked back to their
hotel and decided to go down to the pool since it did not look very
busy when they walked past it on the way to their room. When they
got into the elevator Catherine thought she saw a puff of blue
smoke right before they entered. “Hold up, Cody.” She said, looking
all around the inside of the elevator, but seeing nothing out of
the ordinary. A couple walked up and asked “Going down?”

Cody was having fun splashing in the
children’s pool while Catherine sat watching him. What a wonderful
time they were having. It might be another year before they would
be able to get away for a weekend again so she was determined to
have fun with Cody.

Cody got out of the pool on the other side
from where Catherine was sitting. He started running towards her.
Just has she was going to yell for him to stop running, Cody
slipped on the wet surface and started to fall. Catherine jumped up
and was going to run to her son, when a blue mist formed in front
of her eyes. “Cody!” She yelled. Catherine wiped her eyes with her
hand and when she could see again saw Cody right in front of her,
upright and smiling.

“Cody! I thought for sure you were going to
fall! You should never run like that around a pool where you could
slip on all the water! You scared me!” She told her son.

“She caught me.” Cody said. Catherine looked
around, ready to thank whomever it was that helped her son, but she
saw no one. “Who helped you, Cody?” Cody also looked around and all
they saw was an oversized blue beach ball. “I guess it was that
ball, mom, I thought I was falling, but then all of a sudden that
big blue ball rolled and it kept me from hitting the cement.”
Catherine looked at the ball that she had not noticed before when
they arrived at the pool.

“I think maybe we should call it a night,
Cody, what do you think?” “O.K.” Catherine turned right before they
exited out the door and looked at the pool, the big blue ball was
gone.

“How does pizza sound for diner, Cody?”
“Pineapple and ham?” Cody asked her hopefully. “Pineapple and ham
it is!” Catherine answered. They got in the car and drove to the
town’s little pizza shop. When they walked in they found a young
man holding a pizza box and his supervisor, who was not all that
much older than the other boy. The slightly older boy said “Now
what? We will never be able to sell that pizza, you should have
known someone was calling in as a prank. Well, you can have it,
just be more careful when you take orders on the phone.”

“I don’t want it, I don’t like this kind.”
The delivery boy said to his boss. “Oh, excuse me, may I help you?”
Said the supervisor, turning to Catherine.

“Yes, please, we would like a medium cheese,
ham and pineapple pizza.” The two young men looked at each other
and laughed. “If you don’t have pineapple….” Catherine started to
say. “Oh no, that is not it – someone ordered this pizza and when
we went to deliver it, there was no one at that address. It is
cheese, ham and pineapple! We don’t usually get many orders like
that. We use the pineapple on a fruit desert pie we are
experimenting with. Here, it is yours, on the house!” “Oh I
couldn’t, let me pay for it.” Catherine said.

“You would be helping me out actually. We
are just closing and the register has already been counted. I
should have locked the door ten minutes ago. Here, please, take the
pizza.” The supervisor said.

Catherine thanked the two young men and she
and Cody walked out to their car. “This is very strange, Cody.” She
said, but Cody was looking out the window and didn’t appear to hear
his mother, so she let it go.

Catherine and Cody were working a new puzzle
they brought from home and finishing up their pizzas when Catherine
noticed her cell phone on the table. “Oh Cody, I forgot my phone
when we left.” She checked through her cell and found that there
were two messages. One from her boss, Mr. Dobbs, saying that his
mother had slipped and fell. She was O.K., but that he was going to
close the office for a week so he could go visit her. He added that
of course he would pay her for the week since this was so sudden.
The second was from Cody’s school. Apparently, a hot water pipe
broke and had flooded the main floor of the school so classes were
suspended for at least the next several days.

Catherine picked up the hotel room phone and
pushed the button for the Front Desk. “Hi, this is room 340, the
one with the week’s free stay gift voucher? Our plans have changed
and I would like to take full advantage of the gift after all.
Thank you!

Mother and son hi-fived.

Catherine watched her son devour his ham and
cheese omelet and felt at peace with the world. What a treat it was
to spend this time with him without having to rush and get to
school and work.

Today Catherine wanted to explore more of
the town. So far they have only seen the main street area. It was
inviting and quaint. Although they had the bigger department store
at the end of the business district, most of the stores appeared to
be specialty shops that were filled with items made by the local
population. Catherine wanted to take some time today to venture out
into the neighborhoods surrounding the area they were in.

“Walk-about ten, mom?” Cody looked at
Catherine, smiling. “You got it!” “Can we stay here, mom?” Cody
asked as they walked out of the hotel and onto the main street. “It
is nice, but we probably could not afford to live here.” Cody did
not ask again, if there was one thing he understood, it was the
lack of money they had to do special things. He was very happy that
he had this time to be with his mom.

A gust of wind blew around them and it was
so sudden that neither mother nor son noticed the tinge of blue
coloring it had. Cody almost tripped, bumping against his mother.
“Oh, your shoe has come untied.” They were next to a bench, so Cody
sat down and Catherine bent down to tie his shoe for him. “I can
tie my own shoes, mom.” Cody protested. “I know, but I like doing
small things for you.” She answered him. When Catherine put her
hand on the bench to help her stand back up, she noticed a
newspaper that had an article with the heading “Love our town?”
Catherine sat down to look at the newspaper more carefully.

The title was above the help wanted ads.
Along with the usual waitress and school teacher positions open,
was an ad which was larger than the others and had a couple of
speckles of blue glitter near it. The ad was for a house sitter for
one year. Apparently, someone was willing to let someone live in
their house for a full year while they traveled Europe. The ad said
that no outer maintenance would be required. All that would be
required in that the person take care of the owner’s cat.