“And what have you been up to since we last spoke?” Maga said.
“I hosted Sister E this past weekend, so that was fun.”
“Did you go out to eat in New York?”
“Boston.”
“Easton?”
I repeated myself, but she still didn’t catch it. She prompted me again. Before that devolved into a shouting match, I rephrased because I had a sneaking suspicion she wasn’t wearing her hearing aid. “Sister E came to visit me, so we didn’t go out in New York, but rather in the city of Boston.”
“Oh, she stayed with you in your apartment?”
“YES.” I’m not ashamed to admit I pumped my fist. “I hear you have some big dinner plans of your own tonight.”
“Why yes. C and J are taking me to the taverna place near me. How did you know that?”
“C texted me that she kindly made dinner plans with you but accidentally made them for Tuesday and she didn’t want to interrupt our usual call. Which is why I’m calling right now.”
“It’s been some time since I’ve seen them so we’ll have lots of catching up to do. How’s your weather been?”
“All over the place. Rainy then hot then perfectly sunny and now back to coolish and cloudy.”
“But no snow?”
“Oh gosh no. Just rain. And hopefully no more of that for a few days.”
“That’ll be a little bit of all right.”
“Agreed.”
“I don’t like snow in the spring or summer.”
“Umm. Me neither. Is that even a thing?”
“When you’re at an altitude of 5,280 feet it is. And do you have any upcoming travel plans?”
“Not really. Not yet. I’m still getting used to the new budget now that I’m a home owner.”
“Taxes and all that. Yes, I know. You’ve been doing a lot of travel for business and for personal reasons, though. It’s good.”
“I am very lucky, yes. You traveled a lot too back in the day.”
“Yes, with Jobo. I went many places with him while he was on business.”
Impressed with her recall of Denver’s altitude, I decided to test her memory. “What was your favorite place to visit?”
“You’ve just thrown me a curve,” she said, but barely two seconds later, “Probably the trip to China. Taiwan. I’d written to the Wellesley office to see if they needed me to take anything to a classmate who lived there and they sent me a huge box of souvenirs and such and so I brought it all to her and we had tea.”
“That was nice of you. Who was she?”
Maga repeated the woman’s name, but I didn’t catch it. I prompted her again. She rephrased it because she had a sneaking suspicion my global, political knowledge wasn’t up to par. “The wife of the President who was in charge before the Communists drove him out.”
“Woah. You had tea with the First Lady?”
“Yes. It was a very interesting trip. I enjoyed it immensely.”
The time was creeping closer to her guests’ arrival, so Maga begged off the call to give herself time to spruce up which left me with more questions than answers, but also with a greater understanding of just how cool my grandmother is.
Abigail Mumford 