As the miles stretched on, Penny found ways to distract herself from thoughts of her father. She watched the scenery fly by and tried to enjoy the brilliant shades of red, yellow and orange brought on by autumn, played the elements game with Sheldon (and lost four times in a row), and sang along with the CDs she found stuffed under the passenger side seat after Sheldon took over the driving duties.
"It's bad enough that you are subjecting me to this awful racket," Sheldon complained over the wailing guitars of Penny's favorite Guns n' Roses song. "Please don't sing along."
"I'll just turn up the music so that you can't hear me," Penny chirped as she cranked the volume. Sheldon grumbled something about forgetting to pack a pair of earplugs but didn't protest.
Once the song ended, Penny turned the volume down and continued flipping through the CD booklet. "Whoever owned this car was trapped in the late 80s and early 90s, music-wise... Rush, Aerosmith, Weezer, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Green Day..." She looked up at Sheldon, amused. "You don't know any of these guys, do you?"
Sheldon sniffed. "Popular music consists of repetitive chord progressions and unimaginative lyrics. I have no interest in it."
"What DO you like, then?"
"Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky. Occasionally Chopin if I'm in the mood. And a handful of broadway showtunes." He cast a sideways glance in her direction. "I bet you don't know anything by those musicians."
"Hey, I know Beethoven!" She crossed her arms. "And I was in Rent that one time. All I'm saying is, it can't hurt to broaden your musical horizons a little. Pop music wouldn't be popular unless it was doing something right."
"If the goal of popular music is to appeal to the simple ears of the general populace, then it certainly is doing its job," Sheldon said. "I personally have higher standards for the sounds that are interpreted by my temporal lobe."
"Whatever," Penny muttered as she put in an unmarked CD. The first track was quiet and haunting with a gentle voice wrapped around the melody. "I don't know this song," Penny admitted as she listened. The lyrics were a sad reflection on the death of a loved one.
"It just occurred to me that popular music may no longer have an audience," Sheldon said, his voice a solemn tone over the undercurrent of music.
"Yeah..." Penny changed the track. The next song was just as wistful. "In the end, there may not be anyone left to make music."
"Oh, there will be. The problem is that most of the humans that survive will be concerned with procreating in an effort to maintain the species. There will be very few of us interested in preserving knowledge, and even fewer that have the time to devote to being creative. We are not a species that adapts well in the face of a major threat."
"I'm sure it won't be as bad as all that," Penny said optimistically. "The world is a pretty big place. There's no way these aliens can wipe us out to the point that we lose everything and have to start over."
"You'd be surprised by how easy it would be," Sheldon said quietly. "And the Earth is incomprehensibly tiny in comparison to the Universe."
Penny frowned. It was too much to think about, too hard to fathom. "Let's try a new CD," she suggested. "What do you say to some ELO?"
Sheldon hit the breaks a little too hard when he drove up to a small cottage well off the beaten path. "We're here."
The house was painted a pale yellow and dotted around the perimeter with colorful flowers. A single redbud tree reached out with naked branches from the well-maintained front yard. The only thing that kept the scene from being perfectly picturesque was a gigantic garage looming a handful of feet away that was nearly twice the length and width of the cottage.
"What the heck is that?" Penny asked, pointing.
"My Pappy drove commercial freight rigs for a living. When he died, my Meemaw sold his garage but refused to move. Which explains the strange juxtaposition."
"Gotcha." Penny noticed that Sheldon's hands were shaking as he moved to take off his seat belt. "Are you ok?"
He didn't look at her. "Let's just go in."
When they reached the front door, Penny half-expected Sheldon to knock three times and call for his Meemaw, but the door opened a crack before he could rap his knuckles against it. A weathered, bespectacled face peered at them myopically.
"Who's there?" The older woman asked. Her voice sounded as eroded as her face looked. "Do I know you?"
"Meemaw, it's me," Sheldon said patiently. "It's Sheldon."
"Oh! Moonpie!" The door swung open, and the woman enveloped Sheldon in a warm hug. To Penny's surprise, he hugged her back without hesitation. "What in heaven's name are you doin' here?" She asked once she released her grip on him.
"I— we— came to check on you. I was worried that you wouldn't follow my directions."
"Oh, honey, you know I always listen to everything you say!" Sheldon's grandmother exclaimed. "Please, come in. Who have you brought along?"
"This is Penny. A good friend," he added. It was still strange for Penny to hear him say it.
"Oh! A girl?" Sheldon's grandmother patted him knowingly on the arm. "I knew someday you'd find a girl. I always told you that everybody needs somebody, even a genius boy like you."
"Meemaw, I'm not a boy, I'm a grown man," Sheldon whined in a tone that suggested the contrary, "and she's not... my girl. She is my neighbor."
"Any girl that has the patience to put up with you and ain't your mother or me is probably yours for the keepin'," Sheldon's grandmother said with a wink. Penny pretended she didn't notice the blush making its way across Sheldon's cheeks.
"I'm really happy to finally meet you," Penny said, extending a hand to the tiny form in front of her. "Sheldon has told me a lot about you."
"That's not entirely true," Sheldon pointed out. "You breached my privacy and read my letters from her, and then refused to do what I asked unless I disclosed information."
Penny waved a hand in front of his face. "Whatever. He only said nice things," she said to the other woman, smiling.
"Well, that's because my Moonpie don't have a bad thing at all to say about his Meemaw!" Penny had never met someone with so much energy, and the woman had to be almost four times her age. "I'll make some tea. You like tea, right, Penny?"
"Absolutely," Penny responded, but Sheldon's grandmother had already left the room. Penny patted Sheldon on the back. "I'm so glad your grandmother is ok. She's awesome!"
"Yes, well," Sheldon started, closing the door they'd left ajar when they entered, "I called her the day the extra-terrestrials landed and warned her to stock up on food and use the rations I'd left for her when the food ran out. She does, however, have a forgetful streak, so I was somewhat worried she wouldn't heed my instructions."
"I'm not sure the bad food would have taken her out, anyway," Penny commented. When she sat down on the couch, she noticed two shotguns propped in the corner of the room, near the door. "I see both of our families like to greet visitors with a gun in the face."
Sheldon took a seat next to her. "When I was 7, a local hoodlum tried to rob my Meemaw in the middle of the night. She shot him in the foot with his own gun, tied him to a tree, and called the police. Ever since, she's kept a couple of guns in her room and by the front door, just in case."
"Wow," Penny murmured in awe.
"Tea's ready!" came a voice from the kitchen.
Sheldon rose. "No beverages in the living room," he explained before heading in the direction of the voice.
The tea was delicious, and whatever Sheldon's grandmother was cooking on the stove smelled great. "What are you making?" Penny asked before sipping her tea.
"Gumbo," Sheldon's grandmother said, beaming. "The best in the state. Won three county fairs and the state fair twice. You'll love it."
"Have you heard anything from my mother or my sister?" Sheldon asked suddenly. Sheldon's grandmother stopped stirring the gumbo.
"Your mom's just fine," she said, "and Missy is all right, last I heard. But it's been a week or so. They listened to you, just as I did, and haven't been eatin' anything new. In fact, most of the people you called came by and told me how grateful they are that you warned them ahead of time. Seems like a good chunk of Texas will make it through, at least."
Penny fought to keep her jaw from dropping. Sheldon had called people, and they'd listened to him? The crazy guy who probably drove them all nuts as a kid? She couldn't believe it.
"Why don't you bring in your things from the car?" Sheldon's grandmother was saying. "Penny can keep me company while I cook."
Sheldon nodded and took to the task without argument.
"I'm impressed," Penny remarked after he left the room. "Trying to get him to do something for me is like pulling teeth."
"Now, I'm sure that's not entirely true," Sheldon's grandmother said with a grin. "You wouldn't be here if he wasn't being at least a tiny bit accomodatin'. Speaking of, why are you here?"
"I'm from Nebraska, so we decided to stop there first," she explained. "We're going to DC after this to meet up with our friends."
"I see. Anyway, it's good to meet you. He's mentioned you over the phone before."
"Oh really? What did he say?"
"I think he referred to you as 'the obnoxious female across the hall'. Never by name, mind you. Somethin' must have changed if you two are buddies now."
"I guess so," Penny mumbled. She sat in silence for a moment and watched Sheldon's grandmother stir the boiling gumbo slowly. "So... what was Sheldon like as a kid? Was he ever... you know... normal?"
"Who's to say what's normal? He was just as fascinated by the world around him as any other kid... difference is that he took to science like a fish to water, and found these interestin' ways to learn how things work. His daddy hated that he wouldn't play in the dirt like every other little boy, but he was a sonuvabitch who never showed Sheldon any love at all, so it's his loss." Her words were bitter. "Sorry for swearin'."
"Sheldon doesn't talk about his dad much," Penny said.
"He barely knew the man, thank the good Lord. He had his mother and me, and that was enough." Sheldon's grandmother turned to face Penny. "Why you askin' me about Shelly's childhood? Why don't you ask him?"
Penny had to think for a minute before answering. "He'll only tell me about the things he did as a kid, and that doesn't say a lot about the kind of person he was, or is. I guess I'm just wondering how he could grow up here and be so... different."
"He ain't that different, trust me. He's smart and he thinks he don't need the things that everybody else needs, but he's wrong. He'll catch on someday."
Penny was deep in thought when Sheldon re-entered the kitchen. "Penny, stop asking questions about my childhood," Sheldon said briefly before sitting down.
"How could you hear that?" Penny asked in astonishment.
"Vulcan hearing." His eyes gleamed playfully over the rim of his tea cup.
"Quiet, you," Sheldon's grandmother said, swatting at him. "Tell you what: we'll make it even. What were you like as a kid, Penny?"
Halfway through dinner, Penny realized that, for the first time in what felt like decades, she was having fun. The conversation between herself and the others at the table was lively, and Penny soon discovered that Sheldon's grandmother was definitely not afraid to press her grandson's buttons and was more than willing to ask him delightfully embarrassing questions. She had an interesting story to go with every memory and a laugh that shook her entire body and brought tears to her eyes. Penny loved talking to her and wondered if her own grandmother had been as much fun during life.
After the table was cleared and the dishes were clean, Sheldon's grandmother announced that she was going to sleep. "My bones can't handle staying up past 8 o' clock," she explained before hugging Sheldon and Penny in turn. "Good night, you two. Be good and don't wake me up; Sheldon knows what I'm like if somebody gets me up in the middle of the night."
"A mistake I only made once," Sheldon said to Penny as his grandmother made her way up the steps to her room. "We should probably go to sleep, as well."
"Not so fast," Penny said with a cheeky grin. She darted to her room, grabbed something out of her bag, and brought it with her to the kitchen. A look of horror crossed Sheldon's face when he saw what she was holding.
"Penny! My Meemaw definitely does not allow alcohol in the house!"
"Then we'll drink it outside," she said, heading for the back door. "And anyway, I saw a bottle of brandy tucked away in the corner cabinet."
"That is for cooking!" Sheldon exclaimed. Penny snorted and held the door open for him. He reluctantly followed her. "And you said 'we'. I do not drink. You know that."
"I've seen you inebriated before," she said, enjoying the feel of the fancy word as it slipped through her lips. "More than once, actually."
"I took off my pants!" he cried.
"Well, if it happens again, I won't be offended." Penny watched the innuendo sail over Sheldon's head before sitting down on the stoop. "Come on, Sheldon. One drink won't hurt us. Our families are alive and we're alive. That's worth celebrating, right?"
"You and I participate in different celebratory activities," Sheldon countered. He was still standing in the doorway, stiff as a board.
Penny patted the concrete next to her. "Sheldon, if you don't sit down right now and have a drink with me, I will pour tequila all over the kitchen table and go wake up your Meemaw. I imagine she'd be super pissed if I told her you did it."
The threat was a little weak, but it seemed to do the trick. Sheldon took a seat, glared at her, and took the first swig from the bottle, germs and all. Penny immediately wished she had a camera to record the twisted grimace he made in response to the taste.
Penny took a long draw from the bottle, hissed, and put the lid back on. "Not so bad, huh?"
"I hate you," he choked.
I am super mean for ending this chapter the way I did. :D And, yes, I'm playing the booze card again. I might as well get all of the cliché BBT fanfic scenarios out of my system in one fic!