An Angel.. For my Granny I was in Wal-Mart looking for it. “I don’t understand” said Nikki, “Why get her a Christmas present when she might not be here?” I gave her a look of disgust and continued my search. She backed off and followed from a distance. After walking up and down the various aisles for forty-five minutes, there it sat on a shelf surrounded by the red and silver tinsel. It was beautiful. Two angels perched on the side with doves in their hands. One angel stood in the middle of the globe and glitter sparkled around it as if heaven’s rays dusted upon it t to say”this is it.” I grabbed the box it was in as if I touched it in the wrong place it would shatter. It was the most beautiful angel globe I had seen. After all, my Granny deserved only the best. Nikki, not saying a word, just shook her head at the cash register. While wrapping the globe in my room. My mother entered and found Christmas paper and bows all over my floor. “Are you taking it to her today?” My mother said looking hopeful. “I figured I would wait for Christmas,” I replied. Changing the look of hope to a look of sorrow, my mother passed the barrier of the threshold children have on their rooms concerning their parents and sat on the bed. “She may not be with us on Christmas day, Melinda”. I sat the red ribbon and scissors down on the floor beside my leg. Sitting there I stared off into space continuing to think of the many times I had crawled into my Granny’s bed in the middle of the night, sat on my knees beside her while praying for the next day to be better for everyone than the last, going to church and her showing me off to everyone she could talk to. “She’s very sick, you know that.” I turned to my mother and said, “She will be okay.” Disappointed, ,my mother got up and walked to my door, turned around and said ”You will take that present to Baptist hospital today and you will tell your grandmother you love her. She asks about you constantly and you don’t have the common decency to go see her on her death bed... You are that woman’s world and everything in it.. I expected more from you.” I said nothing and finished wrapping the globe with tears covering the paper. I waited in the parking lot hesitating to approach the double doors. Five minutes after seven, I pressed the arrow button to the elevator to the third floor. I watched a married couple walk off the elevator with the smallest form of human life possible. A human so tiny, so vulnerable, and so full of life was born less than a day before I had arrived and I know they loved their child just as much, yet no more than I loved my Granny. But I knew I wouldn’t be leaving with my pride and joy. I walked to the room 312. I stood in the doorway for a minute, soaking up the aroma of needles, mediciane and sheets of cleanliness. Present in hand, I slowly walked to find my Aunt Barbara hovered over my granny as if she was waiting for her to jump out of the bed. I knew this wasn’t going to happen because of the amount of morphine the doctor had her on but I always say that “wishful thinkin’ never hurt nobody.” I smiled at my Granny, encouraging her not to look upset as she did the last time I had seen her. I could tell she was looking at me even though she couldn’t move her head due to the medications the doctor had her on. Fighting the tears, I strained myself to move towards the left side of her bed. “She is too weak to open it herself” said my Aunt Barbara. I sat the package down on the table beside the pillow under her head. I untied the red bow covering the card and the wrapping with snowmen dancing in the snow. I opened the card and sat down beside the rest of the Christmas cards. She turned her head in anticipation to see what I had for her. I looked over. The first thing I noticed were her eyes. That is the one thing I will remember. I stared at her for about two minutes. The color of her eyes of which were normally a baby blue, always comforting and understanding, were now an icy, cold and distant type of gray. They were glazed over with her tears and red around the grayish part of her eye. The pupil was dilated at first then it zoomed in no bigger than the size of a small ant. I hated to see her like that. It pained me in a way I had never experienced before. My heart sank, my stomach ached and I felt light-headed. I pulled it out. The entire time I was watching her. Her mouth opened and an expression came across her face of which nobody thought she was capable of making. Oh, Melinda...,” I heard faintly coming from my Granny’s broken speech, “she’s b-b-beautiful.” She couldn’t speak that well but I could understand what she was saying. I couldn’t help but to let my pain and happiness roll down my cheek. I brushed my tears away and kneeled beside her. “I love you Granny.” I love you too, baby.” Her words were like knives stabbing at my heart due to the fact I knew speaking was causing her pain. I’m going to be okay Granny.” I told her in an unsure voice. She nodded her head and went back to sleep. I stood. Not saying a word, I walked with my head held high, out to my car. I sat in my seat behind the wheel. “ Granny, can we go to Denny’s after church today?” “Sure baby. You know you’re my favorite, right?” “Always and forever. Isn’t that right Granny?” “That’s right, baby.” That memory played over and over in my head as I cried myself to sleep that night. Christmas day came and it was horrible. People were crying and it wasn’t the same. My granny was moved to a hospice bed into her room in my nanny’s house. Of course, like every year that is where we were celebrating the day. I walked in. About ten of the women of my family, including my nanny were in there. I saw her lying on the bed. I walked by her side and she said,”Can you see him?” “Who Mother?” said my nanny looking confused. “Him. He’s come to take me home.” I left. I couldn’t take it. I ran home and sat on my chair Christmas day and listened to my CD collection for the rest of the night.. She died two days later. I never went back to church, and I never became anyone else’s favorite. I was my Nanny’s favorite, but Granny loved me more. My Nanny says that she wouldn’t leave unless my Nanny told my Granny she would look after me and make sure I got an education. My Granny also told my Nanny that she would be my guardian angel and look over me. Every night I lie awake and listen to the beautiful globe I got her. I just hope she is sitting next to me with her legs crossed, rings on hands, saying, “Always and forever, baby, always and forever. Melinda Lindsey "Granny's Angels"