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The day Grandma Dickerson was discharged after her stroke, my dad sent me out to get some herbal medicine to build her strength back up.
My best friend's grandfather happened to be a herbalist known all over the area, and he put together the most nourishing tonic for me and charged me only two thousand dollars, his cost.
The second I got home, Greg Dickerson snatched the packet of medicine out of my hand. "This is worth two thousand? One whiff and I can tell it's cheap garbage boiled down from ingredients that didn't cost fifty bucks. You trying to hurt Grandma?"
Before I could get a word out, my dad slapped me hard across the face.
"Your grandmother is weak right now! You think her body can take you messing around like this?"
Grandma was so furious she grabbed a glass and hurled it at my forehead.
"A worthless girl really is a worthless girl! Vicious to the core, never wishing me a single good thing!"
Greg rushed right over to fawn on her. "Grandma, I know someone who can put together a tonic for just three hundred! You drink that and I guarantee you'll be healthy and live to a hundred!"
Grandma smiled and handed him her pension card. "All right. My good boy is the only one who's thoughtful and knows how to treat me. Whatever's left after buying the medicine, you keep it and spend it!"
Watching them be one happy family, my heart went cold. I told my best friend to cancel the herbal order I'd set up half a year in advance.
A month later, Greg stood outside the emergency room, his legs going weak with fear.
1.
The glass hit the floor and shattered everywhere.
Blood ran down from my forehead, along my cheek, and onto my clothes.
I pushed through the dull throb in my forehead and pulled a prescription slip out of my pocket.
"Renee's grandfather wrote out the prescription. You don't believe me, look for yourselves! Every ingredient is top-grade, expensive, and nourishing. I have no reason to lie!"
Grandma took the slip from my hand, tore it into pieces, and threw them in my face.
Then she let loose on me.
"What am I supposed to do with a scrap of paper? You think I'm stupid? You've got so many tricks up your sleeve, who's to say you didn't just write that yourself?"
"How did the Dickersons raise a rotten little thing like you? I'm your own grandmother!"
The next second she slumped back onto the couch, rubbing her temples.
"Oh, you're going to be the death of me, you really are! You won't be happy until I'm dead, is that it?"
"Just thinking about having a granddaughter this vicious makes my head pound."
I stepped forward on instinct, wanting to check on her, and my dad shoved me away. "Get lost! Don't touch my mother!"
He put a lot of force behind it.
I couldn't keep my footing, and my spine slammed hard into the corner of the coffee table.
The pain made me suck in a sharp breath.
My dad didn't spare me a glance. He hurried to Grandma's side, all tender concern.
"Mom, are you okay? Can you still walk? Can you hold on? We're going to the hospital right now!"
Grandma kept her eyes shut and waved a hand.
"I'm fine, it's minor. I just got too worked up and my old condition acted up. It's nothing."
Greg leaned in and gripped Grandma's hand tightly.
"Grandma, don't be upset. This is all my fault. Don't hurt yourself over it."
"If I hadn't pointed out that the medicine Gail Dickerson bought was cheap junk, you wouldn't have gotten this angry, wouldn't be feeling this bad."
With Greg's words, Grandma's headache cleared up on the spot.
She opened her eyes and switched to a doting look.
She squeezed Greg's hand back, patted it twice, and said in a gentle voice,
"How could I ever blame you? My good boy, you told the truth for the sake of my health. If I'd been kept in the dark all this time, I'd have been done for."
As she spoke, she turned her head and shot me a resentful glance.
"Not like some people, vicious beyond belief, pulling tricks even with the medicine meant for me, not wanting this grandmother of hers to have one good day!"
"Probably figures I'm this old and useless anyway, so she'll do whatever it takes to see me dead! And once I'm gone she can carve up my inheritance!"
