Briefly her mind wandered, and she imagined some evil rich man cackling gleefully as he made a fortune selling a special hospital perfume....
She peered around the corner again. With luck, her grandmother would have her eyes closed, and she could go straight back outside and tell her stinking mother that the old bag was asleep. Her mother! Steph almost growled in frustration; because her own car was in for repairs -- heap of shit that it was -- she had to let her mother pick her up after work, and instead of taking her home, her mother had brought her to this place and insisted that she go visit her grandmother for once.
Steph had sighed and decided just going and visiting would be less bothersome than refusing to humour her mother. But with each step she'd somehow felt as if she was moving closer and closer to her doom. Stupid, but she couldn't shake the feeling, and the silent gawking she got from everyone wasn't helping. Of course, she should be used to that now. That was, after all, why her hair was the colour that it was.
Her grandmother's eyes were closed! Relieved, she turned away, but found herself face to face with a young nursing aide, who somehow swept her into Grandmother's room. "Edna, dear, look, Steph has come," she called out.
Steph watched her grandmother jerk herself awake, and saw that famous iron will slam down over the face like a curtain. Grandma might be old, her body might be failing her, but there was no question that the old battle-axe retained her full mental faculties, and still ruled over her family with an iron fist, even from this little room.
Dutifully, she leant over her grandmother and kissed her forehead. Her grandmother's hand reached out and grabbed her own with surprising strength, pulling her close.
"Steph, dear, I'm glad you've come. I've been waiting for you."
"Hello, Grandma. I know it's been too long, but I'm just so busy these days."
Her grandmother smiled pronounced, "It's all these labour-saving devices -- no wonder you don't have any time, dear," she pronounced.
Steph tittered gently to placate the old woman and looked again at her. She really wasn't in good shape. Since falling and breaking her hip -- was it a fortnight ago now? -- she'd been in a lot of pain. They'd operated, and then sent her back to the hospice, but her mum had told her that the doctor said it was only a matter of weeks, and Steph could see why. Her skin was feathery and cracked, she was only a faint shadow of her past self, and the internal bleeding in her right arm was painfully evident -- it was nearly bright purple, though the arm was still functioning, judging the strength with which it was holding her hand.
Steph shivered; it looked like a purple claw holding onto her. Hopefully this would be just a short visit. Her mum had said it would be her last, and she could only hope that indeed, it would be so. The quicker this was over, the better; since her fourteenth birthday she'd avoided her grandma as much as she could.
"Sit down, dear, we have a lot to talk about."
Reluctantly, Steph dragged the chair closer, and sat down. Impatiently, her grandmother gestured at her to bring the seat closer -- real close -- close enough that they could just whisper.
"So, dear, what's up with the latest boy of yours -- what's his name?"
For a few minutes, Steph struggled to give a suitably guarded account of her doings to her grandmother. This was exactly the problem, the old crone ruled over the family with that fist of iron, and everything had to be done to maintain a façade of correctness, a patina of decency. It didn't really matter what you did, as long as the proper look was maintained, as long as the family behaved like it had money, because money talks. This was what had caused her and her Grandma to fall out in the first place; Steph really couldn't be having with all that pretentious bullshit, and her grandma hadn't liked being challenged.
Actually, Steph was pretty mainstream. Okay, she had a couple of tattoos, and a few piercings in her ears and one in her nose and belly button -- nothing much. But still way off the tree for the rest of her overly conservative family, and they'd largely snubbed her wherever possible. Not that it was was really possible to snub her: they all lived crammed into the one little country town, and Steph worked in the café, a little visual candy for the customers as Sheila, her boss, put it. Since it was the only café in town, her family ran into her constantly. Steph just ignored it all; as soon as she had the money, she'd be gone, never to see the place again.
She'd actually been surprised to get a summons to visit grandmother. All right, she'd ignored it until her mother had manipulated her into coming, and now she was regretting it. Her nosy grandma could just butt out of her life, thank you very much!
Just as she was starting to get really irritated, her grandma moved on, talking about her cousins, and Steph got caught up on the various comings and goings of her many relatives. What had prompted her grandmother to have eleven children was beyond Steph's imagination, but she'd done it, and now there seemed to be countless numbers of descendants -- grandchildren in abundance -- and now a growing crop of great-grandchildren. In fact, it had looked rather as if one of Steph's disrespectable unmarried teenage relatives was going to present her grandmother with her first great-great-grandchild. Steph was pleased that she was no longer the worst disgrace in the family, but was rather surprised to hear her grandmother dismiss the idea.
"Dear, I won't see it. I'm about to die."
"No, Grandma, don't say that. I'm sure you'll be fine!" But really, she just said this for form; it was obvious that she wasn't fine.
"Don't give me that, young girl. You know better than that. I know I'm going to die. In fact, that's why I wanted to talk to you."
Steph looked at her grandma, surprised. "Umm, what?"
Her grandmother took a deep breath, and then stared into Steph's eyes. "I am going to die. After I die, I want you to do something for me."
There was something about the way she said this. It reminded Steph of that feeling of doom she'd had as she walked in. Whatever her grandmother wanted her to do, it was going to be big, she could tell that much. But the next thing her grandma said left her completely shocked.
"Dear, you're not a virgin are you?"
Steph was so stunned with this question that she didn't even think about her reply, and just told the truth. "Of course not, Grandma, not for years." Immediately, she regretted it.
But her grandma just nodded. "I didn't think so, dear, but I thought I should check. I couldn't talk to you about this if you hadn't spread your legs under a man."
Steph shook her head. Had her grandma really said that? Surely she'd misheard. "What?" But then she realised how impolite that had sounded. "Umm, Grandma, what is this about?"
Her grandma sighed. "Dear, of all my offspring, you're the only one with real spine. The only one who's really stood up to me."
"No, Grandma, what about Bess? She's always arguing with you. And what about Jim? He's never even spoken to you for years!"
Her grandma dismissed the two of them with a casual wave of her hand. "Ha! Bess always does what I say, in the end. She even named her children the way I told her to. And Jim ran away rather than face me after getting that girl pregnant. Coward and scum! Dear, it's only you. You're the only one who's showed real spine."
Steph didn't know what to say. She thought she'd been at the top of Grandma's most-hated list for years. In fact, she was sure of it.
"So, what do you want?"
"Dear, do you remember when we argued back on your fourteenth birthday?"
Steph nodded. Oh yes, she remembered it well.
"You told me that I was wrong to worry so much about what other people thought, about appearances, and about money, and that I should worry about what my own family really wanted."
Steph grunted. That was a reasonable summary of what she'd said. Money -- people would do anything for money, whatever the consequences.
"I knew you were wrong, just another young hothead, another blowhard who didn't understand society, how money does talk. Just like all the other grandchildren before you. But unlike them, you've put your money where your mouth is. You've done what you wanted, whatever other people said. And even more important, you've helped other family members out, even when everyone else did their best to punish you for that."
And even when you orchestrated the punishment, Steph thought to herself venomously, but didn't say.
"Well, I've been thinking. A lot. About my life, and my family, and you've made me change my mind."
Her grandmother paused portentously. Steph desperately tried to make sense of all this in her mind. Her grandmother had changed her mind? How?
"I nearly died a couple of weeks ago, and I realised that I wasn't happy with what I'll leave behind. I'm going to change it. This family is going to be forced to change. And you're going to do it for me."