Driving His Grandma

Stephen Wallace was surprised and really excited when his mother suddenly told him she was willing to get him a car.  The next thing he felt, however, was suspicion.  Mom looked nervous, and it was not the kind of nervous that said she was afraid of him getting a ticket or staying out too late.  This was the look that she got when she was going to tell him something that he would not like.  He knew he would regret it, but he asked what the catch was anyway.  The answer proved that he was right; she had not wanted to tell him.  She should have been afraid to tell him.  What teenager, even if he did only have one year left to be one, wanted to drive around in his grandmother's car?  He would be laughed off the campus for sure.  That was not the worst of the news either.  He had to drive his grandmother around in the car, since she wasn't allowed to drive anymore.  Stephen considered his life over.  He understood that he and his mom had to take care of Granny because his uncle lived in Dubai, and his aunt lived in Seattle.  The absolute worst thing about the situation was that given the way that his mother's own parents had reacted to their daughter's divorce, Stephen was sure that his paternal grandmother would not want to know about him any more than the other side of his family had appreciated his truthfulness with them.  His mother's parents had threatened their daughter that they would not forgive her for getting a divorce, but had started to accept it... until it was revealed that she filed for divorce because Stephen's step-father had threatened to beat the gay out of him.  Apparently, his flesh and blood grandparents had agreed with their son-in-law on how to handle homosexuality in the family.   He and his mother turned their backs on all of them and had not regretted it.  All of that had convinced Stephen that he and his grandmother would have nothing in common, and it would all be a nightmare, Stephen just knew it.

 Barbara Howard expected the blow up from her eighteen-year-old son when she told him the whole story about how she was going to get him a car.  While she was not poor, money was too tight to pay for Stephen's tuition and a car.  When her first husband's mother was told that she couldn't drive anymore, it naturally fell to her and Stephen to care for the old lady.  It was their duty as the nearest family the woman had.   It didn't matter that Barbara's first husband had died in a car accident when Stephen was twelve.  Mable Wallace was family and they would stand by her and help her all they could.  She and Mable had always gotten along well, even if they had not been that close in the last few years after Barbara started dating and then remarried.  It would be nice to have a mother figure in her life again, after her own mother disowned her for getting a divorce from a man who was cheating on her.  The only thing left for Barbara to worry about was how Mable would react when she found out about Stephen.

 Mable Wallace pouted like a six-year-old when she was told she couldn't drive anymore.  She had been driving when that little girl at the counter's mother had been in diapers.  She knew perfectly well how to drive.  What difference did seeing a bunch of letters in a little machine make?  Now she had to give up her car that her big shot youngest son bought her last year.  He couldn't home for his father's funeral, but he could send a check to a total stranger to buy his mother a car.  Well, at least he was not all bad.   She was not sure about calling Barbara for help, but there really was no one else around to help her.  She had not considered the fact that Barbara worked so much.  Mable was more than a little worried about getting driven around by her eighteen-year-old grandson.  Teenage boys and cars weren't exactly a good mix most of the time.  Throw their grandmother into the deal and all bets were off.  Mable did have to admit, however, that she was looking forward to seeing Clara Higgins face when Stephen escorted Mable into the Senior Center Rec Room for Ladies Night Bingo.

 A month went by and Stephen and Mable learned that they could actually enjoy each other's company.  There were, of course, a few moments of stress.  Mable was amazed to discover that instead of telling Stephen to slow down his driving, she instead had to tell him to speed up a bit, as she was not getting any younger and still had a couple of things to do before she died.  Stephen had blushed intensely when they went to the mall together that first time and his grandmother had kissed him on the cheek for being such a sweet boy.  The sales clerk that saw them came up and told Stephen how lucky he was to still have his grandmother around so that she could embarrass him.  Mable had then hugged the sales clerk and made him blush as well.  What really embarrassed the two young men, however, was when Mable asked the clerk if he was dating anyone and then proceeded to play matchmaker for the pair of nervously stammering guys.  She told them there was no need to deny it because she had already seen them looking each other over like a dog at a butcher shop window.  When Stephen asked her if she was really alright with him being gay, Mable laughed at him.  Of course she wanted her grandson to be gay as that meant he was happy, she answered.  If that meant he was homosexual, then it was no business of hers, unless someone tried to hurt him.  She got a fearsomely fierce look in her eye and told them both that anyone that thought mother bears were protective had obviously never met a grandmother bear.  The old woman then grinned and teased the teens a bit more by pointing out how jealous the other ladies at bingo would be of her, when she had two gorgeous young gay men helping her look fabulous.