My Grandpa

Grandpa was hoeing vegetables in the garden. He was working fast, for a dark cloud was hanging over his head. He knew that meant in a few moments the rain would begin and maybe last for days. Grandma was in the kitchen when she heard the rain dropping on the old tin roof. But grandpa was determined to finish the job he had begun, and luckily he was on the last row. Clothes wet and mud all over his shoes, he drug home with a smile on his face. The face that we all loved, wrinkled with lots of moles and somewhat sunken from having no teeth. My grandparents had raised me from a baby after my mother died trying to deliver me all alone. I guess she was afraid to tell them that she was pregnant so out in the barn among the animals I was found early in the morning. My grandpa said that he thought my whimpering was from the many cats he owned. Then he saw me laying between my mothers legs, umbilical cord still attached. Mother had bled to death during childbirth. He said grandma cried for days for the daughter she lost and the grandson she would have to raise. Grandpa and Grandma hated my father even though they didn’t know who he was for they never let my mother date, she was only 16. And the picture of her over the mantle was that of a pretty smiling young girl. They say I had her eyes, a greenish, gold.
Since we lived on a farm we were somewhat isolated. I had few friends except for the ones at school so I loved going to school, riding the bus and eating the fast food. Something that I never got at home. It was always home grown vegetables: fruit from the trees and berries we picked from the vines. Grandma canned them and they last all winter long. Yes life was simple. Grandpa kept fishing poles, he even made me a little one.. And Dark would often catch us fishing in the pond. Sometime I would just go swimming while grandpa watched. He said he was too old to drown.
No matter what we did during the week we always went to church on Sunday. The church was a ragged old building that the members build themselves. It was supposed to be white but the paint has chipped so much it was mostly brown. Most of the members and the preacher were old like grandpa and grandma. They sang and shouted all over the church and spoke some kind of language that I didn’t understand. The few children were instructed to sit quietly and listen. That was my childhood, simple but happy. When I was about 16 I met this pretty girl that looked somewhat like the picture of my mother. So I picked her some flowers from the field and invited her to dinner. We met at the one store in town and walked the long dirt road to my grandparents house. They were expecting us and the table was set with our best dishes, Grandma had cooked a big roast, the vegetables were plentiful and she made one of her delicious apple pies. When we walked in the door grandpa almost fainted. He had a funny look on his face. Then grandma yelled from the back “ill be out in a minute make yourself at home girl. I have been waiting to meet you.” Grandpa pulled me aside after he got his voice and said boy that’s your cousin. When I was in high school I dated her grandmother she didn’t tell me about the baby until I had married your grandmother. So we never had any contact. I’m going to ask you to take her out of here. And don’t mention anything about this to your grandmother.
Back in the family room, I made an excuse for us to leave. Just as grandma was coming in the room I looked over at grandpa’s face and saw the look of shame. I wondered if history really does repeat itself, if that look of shame on my grandpas face was the same look my mother had when she found out she was pregnant with me? I cried for days and blamed grandfather for ruining my life.
I really didn’t want to look at him so I joined the Army. I am a man now and its good to be home after a long order. An as he walks in the house muddy and wet I see love. Time has healed my wounds and here I am and seeing grandpa after all these years and I understand…. He too was once young and in love.