Halls of my Home

Chapter 1: Crazy Grandma

You see, I have this crazy grandmother. Or, that's what everyone seems to believe anyway. They tell me she must have overdosed on some sort of medication or drugs when she was younger because she insists that this book she wrote when she was young was actually true. My grandmother is completely positive that all of the characters and places she wrote about in her novel Echoes of Valor…[We are the Final cry of Man] exist in another dimension which she entered through this portal in some locker in her middle school.

Sounds crazy right?

Because of this fact, once my grandfather, Grampy Jake, passed away, Grandma insisted that she go to a retirement home. She didn't want to live in the area where she had been reunited with the man of her dreams, the prince of the realm of River Belle Path which was the kingdom in her book. She insists he came out of its pages to be with her in the apartment the two of them shared together. So, my mom and dad, despite having been estranged from my grandma for obvious reasons, placed her in a secure assisted living environment for her.

However, my parents rarely visit Grandma Katie and it made her sad. I remember being little and going to school and hearing stories from my friends about how they visited their grandparents and had gotten handknit sweaters or cookies from them, and getting sad. I never was allowed to see my grandparents until after Grampy Jake died and Grandma called asking to be placed in the retirement home.

Up until that point, all that I really knew about the pair of them was that my grandma was actually quite the popular author back in the day. She'd only written one book, but it stayed in print for many decades after its original publishing. It was a fantasy novel that she claimed documented the adventures she had had in another world, and it was utterly amazing. After having gone to the local bookstore and picking up a copy I read it and just fell in love. Being a well-read person myself, I adored the writing style and heartfelt emotion my grandmother had put behind every word. I wanted to meet her, despite my parents never having had much to do with her in the past.

Once news reached them of Grampy Jake's death, the three of us went to help Grandma Katie move into her new home in the assisted living community. The staff there seemed friendly enough, and treated my grandmother with well enough respect. Although it seemed as if they all thought she was a kook too. Going a bit senile in her older years and trying to convince others that your popular fantasy novel was actually a biography of sorts was bound to get that sort of effect I suppose.

But. The move was done and over with. My grandmother was settling into her single room lined with creamy walls and polished white opal furniture along the walls when I noticed her pull out a rather large piece of parchment wrapped in plastic from a box. Intrigued by the weird tingling sensation I was getting in my fingers, I asked my parents if I couldn't stay a bit longer with my grandmother. Since I hadn't seen her in so long, I wanted a bit of bonding time. Also, at 89, I wasn't sure how much longer she was going to be with us. My parents shrugged it off, insisted that I not believe any of the crazy stories I was bound to hear, then left me with her.

"Grandmother?" I asked softly, padding across the soft plush carpet in only my socks. The staff insisted that we not wear our shoes when inside any of the little houses. My grandmother turned towards me and held the paper close to her chest as if she thought I might take it from her. It made me think how much criticism she had suffered at the hands of cruel people intent on just hurting a poor, ailing elderly woman. I let a small smile spread on my face.

"What is it Aaliyah?" Grandmother asked.

"Is that the picture that was mentioned in your book? The one of the Caravan Tsiknus?"

She seemed a bit stunned by this question. I knew that I was one of very few of her family members who had read her book and not mentioned some slightly snide comment about it or her sanity. I knew what the picture was and wasn't teasing her for it.

"So what if it is? Are you going to tell me as well that I am nothing but a crazy old bat too?" She snapped, made irritable by years of torment at the hands of others. I felt stung by her comment. That she would so readily make that assumption of me hurt. I looked up to her so much! I loved her book, not hated it.

"I…don't think you're crazy Grandmother," I mumbled under my breath. "I actually adore your story. It's lovely. I only want to see the painting I've only read about in person if you don't mind?"

Grandmother stiffened and stared me up and down as if trying to assess that I was telling the truth. She gazed from the top of my dyed-black, waist-length, shiny hair, looked across my average-sized chest and curveless hips to my long, thin legs in their little white socks. When her eyes roved back up my body, they eyed the silver and red ring I always wore on my left index finger and looked hard into my tanned-from-volleyball-practice-on-the-beach face. I felt a bit uncomfortable, but kept my chocolate brown eyes which now seemed to look a lot like hers straight ahead. I even had the same little bump on the bridge of my nose as hers. It was the constant source of my insecurity. As if being alarmingly tall for a girl at 5'11" wasn't enough, I was rail thin and yet slimly muscled from my years of volleyball playing on the beach with my friends. I curled my mouth into a little smirk as I saw the little mole on my grandmother's right cheek. I had one in the exact same place. I raised a finger up to rub the spot and at the same time my grandmother did the same. I couldn't help it.

I started to laugh.

At first, my grandmother seemed alarmed that I would laugh for no apparent reason, but if her book was any indication, she had laughed at even the most bizarre and horrific times and places. After I wiped a mascara-lined tear from my cheek, Grandma Katie held out the paper for me to look at.

What I saw that day was enough to spark a cherished friendship that would change my life forever.

For one reason or other, when I had unrolled my grandmother's picture that day, I had gotten an intense electric shock from it. It didn't physically move me in any way, but when I gazed down at all the faces of the characters depicted in my grandmother's story, a strange sensation sprouted in my fingers while they held the picture. It felt as if something were leaking off the paper and into my body. Perhaps a sense of belief. I understood that at that moment if my grandmother were to tell me her story was actually true, that I would more than likely believe her. It felt as if my heart and mind were suddenly capable of holding all the information in. When my eyes roved the faces of my grandmother as she stood amongst the prince, my grandfather, the bandit leader Geoffrey, and her childhood friends I had heard had gone missing when she was young, they started to cry.

My grandmother seemed alarmed. She bustled over to me and took the picture from my hands. I reached out at first, slightly irritated that she would take something away from me that was so important for some reason. But then my arms dropped to my sides and I stood there, staring at my grandmother who probably thought that I was the crazy one now.

"I believe you!" I had cried.


RAC: Yay! Aren't a cool! 5 years after having started the original Echoes of Valor story, I have decided to start work on the sequel! Yes, just as was foreshadowed atleast a year ago now in the original, I've decided why not try working on a sequel. This probably is going to take me even longer than the original to write ((which was 3 and 1/2 years I believe)) but why not. I guarantee no regular updates, but I'll keep you posted as often as I may. But, to keep ya posted on what's going on with me, let's just say I have plans to attend Indiana University in the fall! Yupp, going for my major in Physical Therapy I am. Also, I dumped Nich ((as I think I might've said in the old story, not too sure)) but I've been dating my new boyfriend Brett as of 17 months today ^_^. And I plan on going to Ohayocon in 2 weeks. Ok, see you all later!