Leaving Rhode Island: Rose

I came back for my grandma

Nothing else could get me back

I really don’t mind it here

But I got a girl now in Lowell

And, you know, a life there and shit

So I just wasn’t thinking too much

About coming back here

Not even when I got the letter saying I could

But my grandma Rose was sick

So I gave my girl a kiss on the forehead

And I said ‘I’ll be back when I’m back’

She nodded

She understood

She’s a good girlfriend, the best

I’m going to marry this girl

Just don’t tell her

I’m still saving up for the ring

Anyway, I get home on a Saturday afternoon

Pretty hot out

The kind of weather where it feels wrong to be inside

Where you get depressed if you’re not at a cookout or the beach

Bad dying weather

People should only die in the winter

Last thing they see is snow

It’s nice

It’s moving

I walk into my grandma’s bedroom

And she’s lying there

My mother sitting next to her

‘She’s been waiting for you,’ my mom says

‘Hanging on until you got here’

My mom gets up

I sit down

I put my hand in my grandma’s hand

She’s opening her eyes, closing ‘em

I don’t even know if she knows I’m there

I say, ‘Rose?  Rose, it’s okay.  You can let go.’

She opens her eyes

Sees me

And says—

‘What are you kidding me?  I’m not going to die in the summer.’

Then she gets up

Takes a bath

And asks when we’re going for doughboys

At Oakland Beach

I know it’s probably not the story you were expecting

But I don’t know

I don’t think it gets any more Rhode Island than that