I didn’t know it could be like this. By Symphony Simms
I didn’t know it could be like this. Chapter 11.

Mitch and Sue visit Grandpa.

“I talked to Miranda and thanked her already,” my Mother said. “She didn’t understand what I was talking about at first, till I reminded her that you came home with these clothes for me.”

“At first I couldn’t figure out why the clothes were there at all, till I remembered our conversation when you said you would talk to Miranda about me needing a little updating. I never actually believed you would say anything, but you did. You are such a thoughtful boy. See!”

She said doing a twirl in the middle of the hallway.

“It fits me perfect. They all do. Everything! I’m going to show them all to your Dad tonight. He will be delighted.”

I couldn’t think of anything to say. Last night I was on top of the world thinking I had my own set of beautiful girl’s cloths to wear whenever I wanted, but now I suddenly I have nothing again. There they were tantalizingly out of reach, being modeled for me by my Mother and I couldn’t say anything.

I felt gutted in one way, but I also felt kind of happy for my Mother. She was as happy as I had seen her for a long time, but she also looked more feminine that I had ever seen her. She had some shape. She was obviously wearing a bra and she had a waist. She also had legs and was wearing stockings or tights.

She had put a little make-up on, blush and lipstick, and she wore earrings. Clip on I would say because I know she did not have pierced ears.

“You must be impressed. You haven’t said a word.”

“Very nice Mom! You look very different, but how come you chose today to start wearing modern and may I say sexy clothes?”

“I will tell you a story when you come down for breakfast, but sexy! Do you think your mother looks sexy?”

“Mother I said you were wearing sexy clothes.”

“Well that sounds like part of a complement. Is there any more to it or are you just going to leave me hanging.”

“Yes Mom you look as pretty as I have ever seen you. The dress is perfect for you and that little bit of make-up does you good. Now can I get a shower and get dressed please.”

“Of course darling,” my Mother said. “Can I make you some breakfast Mitch? Sausage burrito?”

“Yes Please Mom,” I said and headed for the bathroom.

It wasn’t Moms fault. The way she had interpreted the situation was better for me than if she had thought that the clothes were mine and I wanted to wear them, but jeez I felt like I was back at square one and I had no place to go and no plan to go forward, except that I was going over to Lauren’s later to get those pills.

Minor set back I told myself. I may be disappointed now but I would find a way around it. I headed for the bathroom.

I have fine flyaway hair, but for the last couple of years now my normal hairstyle has been to mat my hair down with conditioner or hair gel to ensure that it stays down flat to my head and over my eyes. I also liked it to appear wet and dirty although I wash it every day.

I knew that if I comb or blow-dry my hair it looks really nice, or even a little feminine, but until this weekend those were not qualities I desired to project. Today I blow-dried my hair, brushed it backwards for a change and headed downstairs wearing a white short sleeved dress shirt and cargo pocket shorts, but I was wearing my bikini bottoms that I had taken from Miranda’s and tuck myself back, just to make myself feel a little bit lady like.

I started into my breakfast and Mom kept asking me questions about Miranda’s. I told her all about the house and little April. I described the great room, Roberts’s office and the bedrooms and bathrooms I had seen, and then I described the changes that they were going to make to the house.

“I really do appreciate the fact that you talked to Miranda about me and brought home all of those beautiful clothes for me. I can’t imagine how you brought it up in conversation. What happened?”

“Well actually I was talking to Lauren and her mother yesterday morning about our conversation together, and they said I should take you to ‘The Parasol’ which is the high class ladies store in the Mission Viejo Mall.”

“I said I would take you there on Tuesday after school if you were free. That is the next time Lauren will be their, and I think Mrs. Martini would like to come too if you don’t mind. Do you want to go?”

“Yes of course I will and I will very much look forward to it, but please carry on with your story.”

“So later in the day while at Miranda’s, she told us about her work, she is going back next week, and about how the companies she works for all give her nice clothes. She has dozens of dresses that she has never worn and is not likely to, and wants to give many of them away, so when Lauren and I were sorting through them, I thought I would bring some home.”

“For me you mean?”

“Of course for you Mommy. Who else would I bring ladies dresses, shoes and clothes to our house for?”

“That’s very considerate of you dear to think of me. My opinion of you is changing quickly. I had no idea you could be so thoughtful Mitch.”

“I always like to be thoughtful, but it goes against the masculine thing that most boys like to project, but I am not like most other boys you know.”

“I can see that now Mitch. There are not many boys I know who would ever think about bringing home dresses and clothes for their mother, but I understand this was a special situation.”

“I know Mom, we just couldn’t let the opportunity go by. I hope you wear them a lot because you look very pretty in that dress.”

“Oh thank you darling Mitch. It’s been a long time since anybody called me pretty, but that’s my fault I guess.”

“So that also means that it is in your hands to stay looking pretty and keep on wearing dresses and makeup. I don’t understand why you never wore them before.”

“There is a reason for that,” she said. “It is not a good reason, and in fact it may be only a silly excuse but it’s all I have, and that is what brings me to the story Mitch. This is not going to be easy for me so please be patient.”

After she said that the room went quiet. Mom was carefully considering what she was going to say so I did not interrupt her. She looked at me lovingly then she reached across the table and held my hand.

“You know that sometimes you look a lot like my mother did when she was young, when you don’t have your hair matted down over your eyes that is.”

“I didn’t know that, but I don’t remember your mother.”

“You wouldn’t Mitch, but that is part of the story I am going to tell you. My mother was always disappointed with me when I told her I didn’t want to wear nice dresses or wear makeup. I was so silly. Maybe I could have looked as pretty as her, but I was so stubborn.”

“My mother took me and left my father when I was fifteen. I don’t really know why, but I remember my father calling her a painted faced harlot from outside our apartment window when she would not go back to live with him. For those few years we lived on our own with very little contact from my father.”

“He would call often but my Mom wouldn’t answer. I don’t know why she wouldn’t talk to him. She died of breast cancer when I was nineteen. It seems that she had been hiding it from everyone and when we did find out it was too late to do anything. Looking back it feels to me that she got sick and passed on in the blink of an eye.”

“It was a very sad time for me. I went back to live with my father when she went into hospital before she died. I told him that I couldn’t dress like my mother or wear makeup after what he called her and he said he was sorry and didn’t mean it, but I just carried on being a martyr.”

“I haven’t seen my grandpa for such a long time. Is that why we don’t see him much”? I asked.

“I guess it is,” she said. “A few weeks ago your father and I started talking about my mother and he remembers her when he was a boy living down the street. He said she was the prettiest woman in town and always marveled at how beautiful she looked in all her pretty clothes and makeup and he thought I would look like her with makeup on.”

“I always dressed like a tomboy when we were dating but he seemed to like it. I asked him why he hadn’t ever told me that before and he just said he always loved me the way I was but he always hoped to see me in dresses and makeup. I cried all night after he said that, that’s when I decided to change, but I didn’t know how to change until till you helped me.”

“What did I do?” I said.

“You brought me these clothes. I had been thinking for the last couple of weeks that I needed to do something but I didn’t know what, but putting these clothes on did the trick. I made me feel different about myself. Now that I have seen myself in a pretty dress I now feel that I can change and be a better woman.”

“Which brings me to another thing that you can help me with? I want to go to see my father and take you with me today.”

“You want us to go see my Grandfather today?”

“Yes. You don’t mind do you? It’s only an hour’s drive and it will give us some much needed time together.”

“Of course I can come with you. I was going to see Warren and Carter play football today but they will never notice that I wasn’t there.”

“Good,” my Mother said. “We can go as soon as you are ready. You don’t need anything with you. Your Dad is at the store till about 4 or 5 so we can take our time and have a nice day out.”

“Can you put the top down on the bimmer?” I said.

“It’s called a BMW Mitch and of course we can, but you had better wear some strong sunscreen and bring your sunglasses. Go get yourself ready and we will leave in 20 minutes.”

We were ready in no time. We drove up the Canyon Road and onto Highway 5 and north to Downey were Mom’s father lives. It was a pleasant autumn day of bright sunshine with hardly a cloud in the sky.

I loved my Mom’s black BMW 325 convertible but she never let me drive it. Maybe it’s because I don’t have a license yet. At highway speeds the wind blew my hair all over the place but my Mother’s hair didn’t move at all. It was too short. With the top down it was a little too noisy to have a meaningful conversation so we just turned the music up and enjoyed being out in the sunshine.

We reached Downey in less than an hour and Mom filtered off the highway at a place I had never seen her get off before and did a fast maneuver across another road like she had done it a thousand times, then two left turns and we were cruising down a pleasant avenue of mostly large older bungalows and ranch type houses with double garages and wide driveways and big trees.

My mother pulled into one of the driveways beside a car with a car cover over it so I couldn’t see what it was. A slightly familiar grey haired guy in his fifties or sixties came out of the door smiling. Mom got out and gave him a long tight hug. When they were finished he looked at me.

“Are you too old to hug your grandpa?”

I said no and gave him a hug. He held on to me for some time too. I got the feeling he was getting a little emotional. He took us inside the house which was beautifully decorated, then straight through to the back of the house were we sat in a pleasant arbor with a water feature and Japanese rock garden overlooking his flower garden made mostly of flowering shrubs and grass. Sitting in that arbor we couldn’t see anything of the other houses around only the tops of some roofs.

My grandfather was a slim clean shaven handsome man going thin on top with a kind and gentle face. He was nicely dressed wearing a silk brightly colored Hawaiian shirt and pale kaki pants with a nice straight crease in them.

“I am really glad to see you Sue and I don’t want to bring up old wounds but what made you pick today to come and visit me now?” Grandpa said.

“I had an epiphany,” said my Mom. “I realized that I just couldn’t carry that burden around with me any more. I was very hurt when my Mom died and I was upset that I had been made so miserable during a times when I should have been so happy.”

“I don’t know what was between you and Mom and I don’t want to know. I was angry at her for leaving you and just plain angry when she died, but I do not know and don’t care anymore if it was your fault or not, and I was angry far too long. Then just recently I realized recently that I just wasn’t angry anymore and I needed to apologize to my Dad. Do you still love me?”

“I have always loved you even if you were angry with me. I kind of knew you couldn’t be angry forever, but I am sad that so much time slipped by while we were waiting.”

He turned to look at me. “Mitchell,” he said. “Do you remember the last time we met?”

“Of course I do Grandpa. We met at that nice harbor front restaurant in San Diego a couple of years ago.”

“Well I hope we can all see each other a lot more now that I have come to me senses,” said my Mom. “We want you to come and visit us please Dad so we can get to know you again.”

We had a pleasant couple of hours talking to my Grandpa and he showed us some photographs of my Grandma with my Mom. They did look alike, especially as my Mom had now started wearing makeup. My grandma looked very young and attractive on every picture he showed us, but what also surprised me was how much I looked like both my mother and Grandma. My Grandpa even remarked on it, but he said handsome when he referred to me, but he did note that we had the same facial features.

“What do you do Grandpa,” I asked, “other than live in this house?”

“I have a couple of businesses that I own or have shares in Leslie, mostly to do with clothing of one sort or another. They are spread around southern and central California. I still have a keen interest in them and drive to them often.”

“So you drive all over California?” I asked.

“I love driving my cars,” he said. “If I couldn’t drive my beautiful cars it wouldn’t make this work I half so interesting.”

“Why? What cars do you have?” I asked.

“I guess we had better take a look!” he replied.

We walked back through the house and out onto the driveway.

“I like to take good care of my cars,” he said. “They are the only toys I ever wanted and owning them makes me feel special.”

Between us we grabbed the car cover from the front and lifted it over the car and he collected the cover in his arms. The car was a new looking Jaguar XKR convertible in red with a tan leather top. He reached into his pocket for the remote and the top started to fold itself back.

“It’s beautiful,” I said.

“If you like this you should see the others!” he said, so from his remote he opened up the garage door.

Inside there was a massive old grey Lincoln convertible. It looked just like the one that President Kennedy got shot in, suicide doors and all. It too was absolutely spotless. The one next to it was equally impressive but a little bit smaller. It was a white AMG C class Coupe. It looked brand new to me.

“Want to go for a ride in the Lincoln?” he asked.

“You bet I do,” I replied. Grandpa went inside to ask Mom if she wanted to come. She quickly came out to join us. We waited till Grandpa drove the Lincoln out of the garage before we got in because there was no room in the garage to open the doors.

We drove around the development then out onto the highway. The Lincoln was impressive because it was by far the biggest car we saw on the road while we were out there. The engine was nearly silent except when Grandpa really put his foot down and the ride was just like floating on air.

I noticed driving around his area that there were some really nice houses around and really nice cars parked in the driveways too, but that was similar to where we lived. Grandpa said that when I get my full license he will let me drive any of his cars, provided I keep them clean. I told him I would start working on my license right away. I was only a month off my birthday and I could start lessons now.

When we got back Grandpa made some food and we drank some herbal tea. Grandpa also gave us a tour of the house. It was huge. It had 3 big bedrooms each with their own bathroom and a huge entertaining room with 3 big leather couches and a big screen TV over the fireplace. The single level house was about 30 years old but Grandpa had bought it a year after Mom Grandma died so Mom lived there for a couple of years before Mom and Dad got married.

I asked my Grandpa how come he could afford all this, he said that his Dad was a haberdasher and his Mom and Dad came over from England in the late 40s when he and his older sisters were small. The business did quite well and so that Mom could have a share in the business they changed it to a Men’s and Women’s store, then it expanded again to become a family clothing store, then a big department store from out east came along and bought them out for a large sum of money.

“After the buyout my Dad started another similar business in the next town over,” said Grandpa, “and because LA was expanding so fast it too quickly became a success. When my Dad died I took over the business, and then another big department store from out east came over and bought us out again. This time I had to sign a contract that I would not open a completing store in the US. So I bought other stores.”

“What type of stores do you own now Grandpa?” I asked.

“I own specialty clothing stores and a couple of garden centers. I am not allowed by contract to own or have a share in any store with multiple departments like ‘men’s and ladies’ etc. I also have a part ownership in your Mom and Dad’s garden center.”

“The one my Mom and Dad work in?” I asked.

“The one your Mom and Dad own Mitch,” he said. “I still have a small cut but I think they are going to buy me out soon.”

“End of the year,” said my Mom. “Right after Mitch’s birthday.”

“I didn’t think you two had anything to do with each other.”

“Your Dad and I have always been friends,” said Grandpa. “I see him every couple of months and we have a beer together. He tells me what’s going on in the family and gives me photographs etc.”

“I didn’t know you owned the Garden center Mom. How come you never told me?”

“I don’t know Mitch. I guess it just never came up.”

“Does that mean we have bags of money Mom?”

“Not at all Mitch. All our money is tied up in the Garden Center.”

“Believe me Mitch,” said Grandpa, “on paper you Mom and Dad are worth a lot of money. They own the 17 acres of land that the garden center is on and the land alone is worth a couple of million per acre. Don’t let them sell you short.”

“Wow,” I said. “Now I am really looking forward to my 16th birthday present.”

“We were going to get you a new bicycle Mitch!” said my Mom.

“You must be kidding,” I said. “I should be expecting a car now!”

“We will see,” she said.

We stayed for a while longer then made our excuses and left after making arrangements for Grandpa to come visit us in a couple of weeks. It was a really pleasant couple of hours. We got back in the car and headed towards the highway.

“Well Mitchell.” Said my Mom. “What do you think we should do now?”

“I was thinking Mom, now that you have decided to become a pretty woman, maybe we should go find a nice shopping mall and find some more things to make you even prettier.”

“That doesn’t sound like a difficult decision to make,” she said. “Let’s go for it!”