2.

Sketches

When Larry, Lisa and Charlie arrived at Grandpa’s house, Grandpa greeted them, “How are my little friends, today?”
Lisa said, “Thanks for letting us come over.”

Grandpa responded, “You know I love when my kids come to visit. I don’t have another story to tell you today, but I think there was another reason why you stopped by.”

Lisa said, “Yes, Grandpa, I have a favor to ask.”

Grandpa said, “Come in and we can talk.”

Lisa said, “I need to brush up on my drawing skills, and we remembered that you have interesting pictures in your living room. Can we take a look at them?”

Grandpa answered, “Sure. Come to the living room. When my wife was still alive, we took a lot of pictures. I haven’t kept up with that recently.”

Larry studied one of the pictures and asked, “Grandpa, was this your dog?”

Grandpa answered, “Yes, my dog, well, our dog, died about five years ago. That was before I moved here.”

Charlie asked, “What was your dog’s name?”

Grandpa responded, “That is an interesting story that I haven’t told you. I wanted to name the dog ‘Charlie’. My wife wanted to call our dog ‘Happy’, because he was always so happy.”

Larry said, “Yeah, Charlie, the dog does look a little bit like you!”

Charlie ignored Larry like he usually does whenever he says something obnoxious.

Lisa looked at another picture and said, “Was this your wife? She has a beautiful face. It’s like she’s ready to talk to you out of the picture.”

Grandpa said, “This is my favorite picture of her. I, I really do miss her, a lot. Actually, it’ll be about 10 years since she died. No. Exactly 10 years, ah, next Thursday.”

Grandpa continued, “Lisa, which pictures do you want to borrow?”

Lisa answered, “Grandpa, do you have a picture with you, your wife, and Happy?

Grandpa said, “No. I wish I did. It was hard to get somebody to take a picture of the three of us. Our dog would not sit still.”

Lisa asked, “Could I borrow these three pictures, and those two over there?”

Grandpa answered, “Sure, you can borrow those pictures for as long as you like. I know you’ll bring them back when you’re finished.”

Charlie said, “Lisa, when you sketch the dog, please write the name ‘Happy’ on it instead of ‘Charlie’.”

Larry said, “Maybe she should label it, ‘Happy, a.k.a. Charlie’.”

Larry laughed, but Charlie just ignored him, again.

Grandpa said, “It’s a good thing that the two of you are best friends, otherwise, you might be whacking each other on the head all the time.”

Lisa commented, “I’m not sure that being best friends will keep that from happening. I guess we better leave now. Thanks for letting us stop by, and thanks for allowing me to borrow these pictures.”

After the kids left, Grandpa started thinking about the fun times he, his wife and Happy had together. He was glad the kids left when they did, because he didn’t want them to see him crying. Having the kids stop by helped him from being lonely, but he still missed his dear wife very much, and his precious companion that followed him everywhere.