Ranger loaded us into the car, did up our seatbelts and got behind the wheel. He opened the windows and called my mother. "Grandma, Stephanie and I are out and it doesn't look like we'll be home in time for dinner. We'll just grab something on the run and will deliver Grandma home in time for bed."

"Is everything alright?" said my mother.

"Yes, of course", said Ranger. "I need to go. There looks like an accident coming up, and I should pay attention to my driving."

"Okay. Thanks for letting me know."

Ranger hung up the phone. "You're going to Hell for lying to my mother", I said and I laughed again.

Ranger shook his head.

Grandma started to panic. "What will Helen think? I'm going to be in so much trouble. It's just that I always wanted to try pot, so when it was offered, it just made sense to try it."

"I know, Grandma", I said.

Grandma thought for a second, and then said, "I'm hungry."

"I am too", I said.

"Ella will make us something good for dinner", said Ranger. "I had already called her and she is making something for us as we speak."

"I'm hungry too", said Lula.

"Then I'll give you twenty dollars so that you can order a pizza for your own dinner", said Ranger. "I'm sorry, but there won't be enough dinner for you as well. Ella is only expecting three. I need to get Steph and Grandma back to the apartment and into the shower to get the stink off them."

"Do I stink?" I said. I sniffed my skin.

"Pee-eww!" said Grandma. She laughed again.

Ranger pulled up in front of Lula's house and waited while she got out of the car.

"It's been a blast", she said. "Literally." She laughed as she took her house keys out of her purse as Ranger handed her a twenty, picked up her new pair of shoes, and tripped up her front stairs. Ranger waited until the door opened and Lula went inside.

As he drove back to the apartment, he said, "this is how it's going to work. We'll go into the apartment, you'll each have a shower, and then we'll have some dinner. After dinner, we'll wait a little bit and, when you aren't high any longer, we'll take Grandma back to your parents' house."

"I'm so hungry. Can't we eat first?" I said.

"No. You two stink so bad that it would turn my stomach."

"Come on, it's not that bad, is it?" I said. I took my fingers and walked them up his thigh from his knee to his groin.

He sighed and shook his head, then grabbed my hand and held it still.

"Spoilsport", I said with a flirty pout.

He smiled.

I heard a loud snort before the snores settled into a regular rhythm, and I looked back at my grandmother. Her head was thrown back and she was sound asleep. I decided that was a good idea, and I put my head back as well.

Minutes later, Ranger shook me awake. "Babe", he said, "we're home."

I opened my eyes and saw that we were in the parking garage. "I'll carry your grandmother up to the apartment so that we don't have to wake her, but are you okay to walk up yourself?"

I nodded and stretched. I sniffed as Ranger closed the windows on the car. "I stink, don't I?"

Ranger smiled. "Yeah, you do."

"I don't think I am high any longer."

"That's good."

"I'm still hungry though."

"I'm not surprised."

"And I want a shower."

"That's good, since that is where you are going as soon as you get in."

I nodded. "My high won't last as long as Grandma's high. I just had the effects of secondhand smoke and one drag on a joint. My grandmother took several hits from the joint and was right beside the secondhand smoke. I imagine that she'll sleep for a while."

"She can always stay the night."

"My mother will be furious with us."

"She'll be more furious with us if she sees your grandmother high."

"That's true."

Ranger got out of the Cayenne and carried Grandma to the elevators while I locked the vehicle and followed them. By the time we got to the fifth floor, Grandma was still passed out and Tank got on the elevator. "Everything okay?" he said. He looked slightly surprised when he smelled the lingering scent of weed on us.

"We went shoe shopping at Mooner's", I said in explanation. Tank looked at Ranger in confusion. When we got to the seventh floor, I opened the apartment door and walked in, kicked off my shoes, and said, "I'm going for a shower."

I could see Ranger's lips twitch as he said, "good idea." He laid my grandmother on the sofa to sleep, and then turned to Tank to give a full explanation of what had happened. I left when I heard him saying that Grandma had decided to try pot for the first time.

I had a very long shower, and by the end of it I was feeling pretty good. Tired and hungry, but clean and optimistic. It had been a very long day that had a number of events to it, and I was ready for bed. I left the bathroom dressed in some comfy clothes, and padded off to bed. I thought that I'd just sleep for a little bit before I ate some dinner. That was the last thing that I remembered for the rest of the night.

The next morning I woke up when Ranger's alarm went off. Having skipped dinner the night before, I was ravenous. "How are you feeling?" asked Ranger when he saw me stir.

"Starving. Did I sleep the whole night through?"

"Yup. There is leftover casserole in the fridge if you want something to eat", he said. "It was a chicken zucchini bake and was very good."

"Okay, thanks. What happened with my grandmother?"

"She also slept the night through. I phoned your mother and told her that Grandma was with us and that she would stay the night. Your mother suspects something is up, but she doesn't know what it is. When she asked to speak to your grandmother, I had to tell your mother that your grandmother was sleeping already. I checked on your grandmother about every two hours throughout the night, but she seems to be doing fine and is snoring up a storm."

"Thanks for doing that."

"No problem. So your grandmother was smoking a joint?"

"I don't know how much of it she actually smoked. Lula and I were in the front room looking for shoes for most of that time. When I noticed Grandma was missing, I went into the kitchen and found her on Mooner's knee and smoking a joint. I didn't even know that she knew how to smoke. She was as high as a kite."

Ranger's lips twitched as he thought about smiling. "I noticed."

"That can be another thing that she strikes off her bucket list. I think she'd always wanted to know what being high would be like."

"Why do you say that?"

"She said that she'd like to know. I had been able to talk her out of it by telling her that she'd eat so much that she would no longer fit in her clothes, but I guess the call of the joint was too strong for her. When the opportunity presented itself, she seized it."

"Lucky us."

I smiled. "Better us than my parents. My mother would have been furious, and my father would have shaken his head and muttered about old ladies and the amount of trouble that my grandmother could get into." Ranger chuckled.

I rolled out of bed and stood, and Ranger looked surprised. "Are you up for the day?" he said.

"I guess twelve hours of sleep are enough even for me", I said. Ranger smiled as I said, "I know – it's hard to believe, but there are times that even I have had enough sleep."

"Impossible", said Ranger with a quirk to his lips. I grinned.

"I have designated another fleet car for you to drive today", he said. "I'll report the destruction of your car to the insurance company this morning."

"I really am sorry. I don't know what it is about me and cars, but I don't seem to have a lot of luck with them."

"You drive a nice car and go into places where nice cars are seen as valuable."

"My own cars traditionally haven't been that nice, yet they are often vandalized or stolen."

"Yes, but they are an equivalent quality of car compared to most of the cars driven by the inhabitants on Stark Street."

I nodded. That, unfortunately, was true and said a lot about the income bracket of the local residents there. The only people who had cars that were in worse condition were undercover police officers. Those cars were lucky to have both bumpers and less than five bullet holes through the body.