“Hi momma Mary” I spoke to the woman on the other end of the phone.
      ”You feeling better? Do you want Michael back?” She spoke with a demand in her voice even though it was a question.
      “I’m at Grandma Norris’s. She is gone to do her monthly grocery shopping.” I returned.
      ”Okay, I will be there in a little bit.” I hung the phone back on the receiver on the wall. It was unusually cold outside today so the warmth of grannies kitchen was very inviting. I went back over to the red vinyl cushion covering the booth she had in her kitchen.  I wasn’t there when she and grandpa installed the restaurant style booth. I wasn’t there when grandpa built the back porch that doubled as the dogs house connected to the kitchen either but I loved to be here even with the barking dogs all night long. A little metal natural gas heater between the door leading to the hall and the bathroom door made the kitchen nice and cozy in the harshest winters. The door stayed shut because the rest of the house wasn’t heated. We would sometimes stay in one of her bedrooms with ton’s of heavy homemade quilts. She had no electricity in the bedrooms that Grandpa converted from the horse stables his daddy built in the 1800’s. Every time I came, grandma always had a big pot on the stove full of some sort of soup. Deer killed last year always made it into the pot or some ham from the pigs in the pasture outback would make a good pot of beans. Today, she had left for us a big pot of oatmeal loaded with raisins, pecans from her trees out back, brown sugar, milk and chocolate chips. Sundays newspaper lay disarrayed on the table; coupons clipped out with the leftovers on the floor. I reached down to pick them up as I sat down. My knee didn’t hurt quit as bad as it did a couple of days ago but to coddle it when I bent was a reaction I did unintentionally. I got comfortable with my bad knee resting on the bench with my jacket underneath while I leaned against the wall and bay windowsill reflecting over the event this past week that caused such distress for me.