Grandma On The Loose

• Jacob Rose, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2013

I gripped silently onto the window’s ledge, holding on tightly with shaking hands. Digging deep to find the courage for what I was about to achieve- Granny snatching. Now I hang three stories above the ground. My eyes squinting with constant sweat leaking liquid into my eyes. I wiped my eyes and saw her- the reason why I was here- the reason why I was risking my life to save hers. I stared intently through the smudge of my eyeballs and focussed on her sad, depressed face. I remembered only last year on her birthday the events that brought her here- the episode that changed her life. The actions that made her a prisoner, where her spirit was contained by the locked doors and medication shoved down her throat. Grandma was always a wild old woman filled with many different personalities- not from her own choosing but because her mind had lost the identity she was born with. Her body may have aged to a fragile thin woman but her mind was still young and agile. Her action of jumping off a roof breaking four bones all because she was believed that she was Charles Kingsford Smith was too much for Mum and Dad. Now she is all alone, medicated and miserable and I had to do something. I had to be her knight in shining armour.
The minutes soon turned into hours and as the last of lights turned out I knew now was my chance. I crept through the opening of the thick bars and tip toed silently through to Grandma’s room. “Grandma lets go” I softly whispered. She had a tone of excitement- the attitude I had missed for so long -the quality that this place stole from her.
“Let’s fly Mr Clark Kent” she shouted laughing.
I decided that the only way was to play along. I took her wrinkled old hand in mine and made a dash for the front door-there was no way I was taking Granny the way I came in- I knew she thought I could fly. The alarm sounded. “Come on Lois Lane” I begged whisking Grandma to the last opening of freedom- the main entrance door was closing on lockdown. I could hear her laughing and screaming with such joy-she was having the time of her life.
We slid our bodies just in time through the opening and at last freedom. Granny stopped to kiss me-something I wasn’t having a bar of because she thought I was, well a little more than her thirteen year old Grandson. I knew that I had so much more to do. We had to make it to train station and then explain to Mum and Dad. Somehow explain the words that I broke the law to save Granny. I was willing to help take care of her and beg that she can come home with us.
“Thank God you’re both alright” I heard my Mum call. Now was the time to start explaining.