Never Will

Katherine is coming to visit. Dress up!

Charles smiled at the page and set the little black book back down on the nightstand. He glanced at himself once more in the mirror and smirked as he admired his outfit: black slacks with a purple shirt tucked in and a grey blazer over it. Topping it off was his favorite grey trilby with a purple floral bandanna wrapped around it.

“She’s going to go crazy when she lays eyes on me.” Charles wiggled his eyebrows. “We may just skip dinner and go straight to dessert.”

Putting on his watch and picking up his crossword book, Charles left his apartment and took an elevator down to the first floor. On his way to the dining hall, he noticed a young woman with long curly red hair sitting behind the front desk and took a detour towards her. The woman heard him approaching and lifted her bright blue eyes from her laptop.

“Good evening, Charles,” she greeted with a small smile. “What brings you down here today?”

Charles spun around in several circles. “I wanted to ask you how I looked before meeting my wife for dinner. So, what do you think, Kendra?”

Kendra squinted and then rested a finger on her chin. “Hmmm. Well…”

“Well, what? Don’t leave a poor old man waiting.” Charles stopped spinning and faked on an upset expression.

Kendra giggled. “I’m just messing with you. You look great! Your wife is going to think the same.”

“I sure hope so. She’s told me before she loves when I wear this.” He winked. “Maybe it’ll be my good luck charm for-.”

“Oh, stop!” Kendra replied, her face growing red and playfully tossed a pen at him. “Go in there and get situated.”

Charles thanked her and went in to sit down. A waiter came out and took his order- two pulled pork sandwiches with a side of potato and fruit salad- and went back to the kitchen to make it. While waiting for his wife to arrive, he decided to relax by setting his hat on his lap and worked on his crossword puzzle.

“Let’s see if I can complete this before she gets here.”

****************************

Charles continued his puzzle, eyes darting over to the windows every so often. Eventually, sun rays dissolved to moonlight and the plate of food grew cold behind the completed crossword book. He stood up and draped his jacket over slumped shoulders. His fingers slightly trembled as he fastened the buttons, then he placed the trilby on his head.

“Are you leaving?” Kendra called out.

Charles sighed. “I suppose so. Katherine never showed up. She must’ve lost track of time again.” He tapped his wristwatch. “I swear sometimes I think she should be here over me.”

“Oh, don’t be too hard on her.” Kendra walked into the kitchen and came back out with a plastic carry out container. “I bet she just had a busy day taking care of the house or running errands. She’ll come by tomorrow.”

Charles' expression brightened up after hearing that. “I sure hope so. I don’t want to eat cold food alone again tomorrow night.” He extends his arm out to show the receptionist his copper watch. “Look at her. Ain’t she beautiful?”

Kendra leaned over and saw a bright blue eyed woman staring back at her. Long wild red curls tumbled well past her shoulders, and underneath the mane laid not only those captivating eyes but a glistening grin. Wrapped around the woman’s head was a purple floral bandanna.

“Yes she is. I bet she loves the fact you have such a gorgeous photo of her that you can see multiple times a day.”

“She doesn’t know, at least not yet. I had my watch made yesterday and was wanting to surprise her today with it.” He winked. “This was taken on her 50th birthday. She hates getting her picture taken, but I forced her to take one that day. She only has her 50th birthday once in life so why not capture her in the moment where she’s already lived half of it?”

Tears suddenly sprang into Kendra’s eyes and she quickly blinked them away. “Well, like I said, I’m sure she’ll love it.”

“I probably shouldn’t have had her picture forcibly taken, but I just love to bug her. Her reaction after I snapped that photo was hilarious: annoyed as hell, giving me an earful. Heh heh.” Charles chuckled and rotated his arm so he could stare at his wife now. “But, she’s all bite and no talk. She just likes to make others believe her attitude is just as fiery as her hair and always I play along, enjoying every bit of it.”

Kendra swallowed the small lump in her throat and turned around to put the food in the plastic container. “O-oh, I bet you are always teasing her. You need to give her a break every now and then.”

“I know, know. That’s why I decided to move here so I can only bother her half the time.”

Kendra snapped the lid tight and handed the container to Charles. “Well, I enjoyed talking with you Mr. Charles, and I can’t wait to meet your wife tomorrow.”

“You have a good night, missy,” Charles said.

He tipped his hat and walked off. Kendra waited until he left the dining hall before taking a seat. She buried her face in her hands and sighed.

I don’t know how much longer I can do this.

She dropped her hands and pulled out her phone. She glanced at the background photo of Charles, his wife and a slightly younger version of herself smiling towards the camera.

“Nana, I hope you’re enjoying your time in Heaven,” she whispered. “I hope you are looking down on me right now because I need you. I don’t know if I can keep lying to Grandpa everyday. It’s been hard pretending you're alive these past two years.”

Kendra focused her attention to the time and groaned. “It’s getting late. I guess I should head home to get ready for work again tomorrow. Yayyyyy… another year working my ass off on my birthday. I’m never going to afford college at this rate.”

*********************

Kendra yawned and rubbed her face.

Stupid dream. I couldn’t sleep at all last night after waking up from it.

She went back to blankly staring at the computer screen and reread all the messages and emails from her friends and coworkers wishing her a Happy Birthday.

“Mom didn’t wish me Happy Birthday again,” she mumbled. “I don’t even care.”

Kendra would’ve allowed herself to believe that lie if she hadn’t dreamed last night her mother was raising her instead of her grandparents and acting like the loving parent she could only have in a dream.

Shaking her head, Kendra pushed the dream to the back of her head and exited out of her work email. Emerging on the screen was her work laptop’s background picture: a photo of the luxury retirement home that she worked at. This place has become a second home to her, mainly because she only started working here to keep an eye on her grandfather since he has Alzheimer’s. Some days, he lives like any other resident in the and actually remembers she’s his grandfather. Some days, he gets stuck in the mindset that his wife is still alive and is planning to “visit” him for dinner in the late evening. On those days, Kendra has to play along and not only pretend Nana is still alive but that she has no relation to Grandpa since he also forgets that’s his granddaughter attending the front desk.

“Good evening,” the man said with a nod. “May I speak with Kendra Richardson?”

Kendra broke out of her deep thoughts and raised an eyebrow. “I’m her.”

Wow, I was so spaced out that I didn’t even notice him walking in.

“Ah, nice to meet you. Do you have any identity on you to prove that you are Kendra Richardson?”

Many thoughts rushed through Kendra’s mind. Shit, is this a cop? A detective? I haven’t done anything illegal lately… crap I ran that stop sign the other day!

The stranger noticed the worried expression etched on Kendra’s face and chuckled. “Don’t worry, you are not in trouble. I am only an attorney.”

“Only? Attorneys have very close ties with the law.”

Damn, Kendra! Stop stalling and just give him your ID.

She pulled out her driver’s license and presented it to the man, who thoroughly checked it over. “You are correct about attorneys having close ties with the law. But, I am here to give you only good news today after seeing you are, indeed, Kendra Richardson.” He handed her the ID back and then pulled out an envelope from his inner coat pocket. “Happy Birthday.”

Kendra knitted her eyebrows together as she tore it open and pulled out a silver bank card with her name on it. “What… what is this?”

“Your inheritance. $20,000 is on that card.” Kendra stared wide eyed as the attorney extended out his hand. “Hello, I am David Baker, your probate attorney”

“$20,000… $20,000?” Kendra repeated and gulped. “A-are you serious? How? Who left this for me?”

“Your grandparents did,” David replied. “Years before your grandmother passed away, they set up an account for you that you can access on your 21st birthday. With the conflicts between you and your mother, I was hired to take on his case to make sure you and your inheritance stays protected from her should she hear about it. If she doesn’t take any action then you won’t have to worry about anything.”

Tears began streaming down Kendra’s face without warning and Nana's sweet face briefly flickered across her mind. “H-how did they come up with t-this much money?” She sniffed and wiped her eyes. “They barely m-made ends meet while they were raising me.”

“They set aside money little by little over the years. Ideally, they wanted you to have access to the account when you turned 18, but they pushed it to 21 once they realized that wasn’t going to happen.”

Kendra hesitated, shifting her gaze between the card and her new attorney. Finally, she sighed and broke out into a smile. “Thank you so much for this. I will finally be able to attend college.”

David smiled back and handed her his business card. “I will contact you later. Have a great day, Miss. Richardson.”

********************************

“Good evening, Kendra.”

Kendra finished typing out a sentence in her document titled “How I’m Going to Use the $20,000” and grinned at her grandfather. “Good evening, Charles. What brings you down here today?”

Charles furrowed his eyebrows together. “Why are you calling me by my first name? Call me Grandpa, weirdo.”

Kendra finally noticed her grandfather wasn’t wearing his typical outfit and a weight lifted off her shoulders. “Sorry, Grandpa. What was I thinking? Silly me.”

“Strange, just like your grandmother.” He playfully poked her shoulder and then leaned forward to speak in a lower tone. “Happy Birthday. What did you think of your birthday gift?”

Kendra’s face grew red. She stood up and threw her arms around his neck. “Thank you so much. So so so sooooo much!” She pulled back and lightly smacked his arm. “However, that was a lot of money! Are you sure-”

“Oh, quit your nagging and just enjoy it,” Charles interrupts, waving a hand. “Go to college, buy yourself a new car, finally go on a date with a man… just do something with it!”

Kendra rolled her eyes and closed down her laptop. “I think I’ll choose to grab dinner with a man I love as my first purchase.”

She walked around the front desk and grabbed her grandfather’s hand. He just stared into her eyes before nodding and walking out the door.

While he may forget this day tomorrow, Kendra never will.