Taking After Gramps

Taking after Gramps

“What happened next?”

“I told you!” Grampa said.

“Well,” twelve-year-old Bonnie said, “you said they got rescued by town people. So… after that?”

“It wasn’t a story, it really happened!”

“I didn’t mean you made it up, I meant what happened next, what was the whole story.”

“You take after me. News nosey! But today’s news is always on TV already, if you write it down people have already heard it because they watched it on TV.”

“I know, but sometimes they write big stories in magazines that explain it all when TV news can’t. I want to do that.”

“Why?” Grampa asked, still confused.

“I don’t know, I just do. Is that a silly thing to want?”

“Absolutely not! I find myself wondering what happened next lots of times because you hear what happened, but you never find out how it got fixed, or what really did happen next.”

“Exactly! That’s what I want to do for my job, tell everybody what happened next!”

“Well, you have a good start since you know this already and you’re only twelve.”

Grampa thought of that often as Bonnie went through her teens, dressing up, hair, makeup, gossip, dating. Thoughts of “news” seemed to be totally gone from her thoughts.

However, when she was twenty-four, and won a prize for her coverage of a deceitful business caught swindling retirees. Grampa reminded her about that conversation when she was twelve.

“I really thought you had forgotten all about news, after that, but you never did, did you.

“No,” she said, “but I knew if I wanted to fit in, so I could get at private information, I had to learn to be social. So, I did that first.”

“Well! Now I am now totally positive! You absolutely take after your grandfather!”