“Fine,” Hailey agreed, “but one of you will have to ride in the back. There is only room for three in the cab.”
Jessica put her hand on her hip and pointed toward the Pop-Tarts in her sister’s hand. “Grant probably doesn’t want that,” she shook her head, “and he’s not going to school. He’s sick this morning; Nora thinks he has the flu or something… whatever’s going around,” Jessica nodded.
“I’m sure it’s just that bug we all had,” Hailey agreed, feeling awkward being so out of the loop.
She walked back to Grant’s room and poked her head inside the door. He looked exhausted, like he hadn’t slept much during the night, but his eyes were open, and she knew he was awake. “You okay?” she asked softly.
Grant’s eyes moved to her. “I feel awful,” he groaned, “but I’m fine.”
“Okay,” Hailey nodded, “well, get some rest. I’ll pray for you to feel better, okay?” Grant didn’t say anything, so she started to slip the door closed.
“Hailey,” Grant called to stop her, sounding as though he had to muster up the strength to do so. When Hailey’s eyes met his, he nodded. “Thank you.”
Grant was on the couch, wearing his glasses, his hair disheveled, and a thick book laying open across his chest to mark his page. Hailey glanced at him as she walked in from practice. She started to say hello, but, instead, she sniffed the air and was stunned by the smell wafting from the kitchen. “Please tell me that’s not supper?” she grumbled.
“I’m telling you, Sugar,” Granny Miller insisted boldly, “quit messing around with Nyquil and Theraflu and all that over-the-counter malarkey. This here will do the trick every single time.”
“Okay, Mama,” Nora conceded as she watched an apron-clad Granny take over Jack’s kitchen. “We’ll try it.” She walked off, carrying a pile of folded laundry and looking defeated.
“What’s in there?” Hailey stared into the pot on the stove, almost scared to hear the answer.
“It looks like witch’s brew she’s stirring in her cauldron,” Emily whispered.
“Shhh,” Jessica giggled.
“It’s garlic, lemon, mustard plaster and honey mixed with a few of Granny’s special ingredients,” Granny said proudly.
“That doesn’t sound too good,” Hailey gulped.
“Well, it ain’t supposed to taste like Granny’s homemade apple pie, Sugar,” Granny declared, “but it’ll sure cure what ails you. Now holler for Grant, and let’s give this stuff a good old fashioned try.”
“Oh, Grant,” Jessica called chipperly.
“Grant, time for some more medicine,” Emily called, laughing with delight.
“Y’all,” Hailey scolded, “he’s sick…try to be a little sympathetic.”
“Grant, come-on,” Nora insisted as she walked back down the hall and urged Grant off the couch. “Granny has been working hard on a home remedy that is supposed to get rid of your cold.”
“No thanks,” Grant rolled his eyes. “The smell alone is about to make me gag!”
“Get up,” Nora pled. “You have missed two days of school and basketball practice; we need to try anything that may work, and Granny swears by this stuff.”
Grant staggered into the kitchen, following his mother, his hair matted to one side from sleeping all day.
“Babe, you look rough,” Hailey sighed.
“Bless your little pea pickin’ heart,” Granny said, filling a glass with her surefire cure.
“What’s in that?” Grant scoffed, eyeing the glass suspiciously.
“I declare, you are so hard headed,” Granny shook her head. “Just drink it,” she insisted as she forced the glass into Grant’s hand. “Don’t you want to feel better? You have been moping around long enough.”
Grant gamely turned the glass up, took a sip and then took a step back, feeling the kick. He smiled widely at Granny. “Why, Granny, you sly little devil you…”
“It’s got garlic and lemon and some sort of mustard something,” Hailey winced.
Grant took another gulp, and his face contorted. “And a secret ingredient that your church friends don’t know about, right, Granny?” Grant winked.
“Whatever are you talkin’ about?” Granny exclaimed with indignation. “Give me that; you’ve had enough.” She reached for the glass, but Grant turned away.
“I don’t think so,” Grant called over his shoulder as he strolled back into the living room. “It’s not everyday you get a hot toddy from your Granny…”
“A what?” Hailey asked.
Emily shrugged.
Nora reluctantly shrugged herself.
Jessica stood on her tiptoes to peek into the pot; she glanced toward the living room, and then her eyes moved back to Granny’s home remedy on the stove. “Can I try some?” she asked curiously.
The other girls laughed as Granny popped her hand away from the ladle.
Austin Harper, Billy Wayne’s first cousin, had once been a star shooting guard on one of Jack’s most successful basketball teams at Hope Hull High School. He led the team in scoring, until he gave up basketball due, in large part, to Jack’s restriction on his partying. Austin was known to throw memorable parties at his parents’ barn while he was in high school. Several years earlier he had moved to Memphis to attend junior college, and, even then, he would come back frequently, with new friends from Memphis in tow, and host parties at his parents’ barn that the kids from the high school would talk about for days at a time.
