SMALL AND FULL

I always used to hear Mom say Grandma Dotty was a big pack rat. And to be honest, I never really thought about what that meant. I just thought:

But as soon as we walked into her house, I knew exactly what it meant. If there were two words to describe Grandma’s place, they would be small and full.

“Come in, come in, come in!” she said, hugging us all like crazy. “Do you have much more to bring in from the car?” Grandma asked Mom.

“Not much,” Mom said. Most of our stuff was in a big storage locker back in Hills Village.

“That’s good. I’m a little short on closet space at the moment,” Grandma said, but it looked to me like she was a little short on Rafe-Mom-and-Georgia space too.

“What’s with the long faces, kiddos?” Grandma asked me and Georgia. “You two look like someone’s dog just died.”

“They’re just tired,” Mom told her. “It’s been a big day.”

“This little one’s ready to drop,” Grandma said, looking at Georgia. “And Ralph, I’ll bet you could eat a horse and a half by now.”

“Um…” I said, but I was thinking—

All of a sudden, I felt even weirder about being here.

“It’s Rafe, Mom,” my mom said. “Not Ralph.”

“Well, of course it is,” Grandma said. “I’m sorry, Rafe. Just a slip of the tongue. Now, come on—who’s hungry?”

I looked at Mom, and she nodded like everything was going to be fine. And in fact, whatever Grandma was cooking smelled amazing, just like Mom’s lasagna from home.

Then, when we came into the kitchen, I saw something else familiar.

“Isn’t that one of yours?” I asked Mom.

“Sure is,” she said.

The last time I’d seen any of her paintings on a wall was at Swifty’s Diner, but those had gone up in smoke, along with everything else.

“In this house, your mother is a famous artist,” Grandma said. Then she turned around and bowed right down in front of Mom.

Mom laughed. Georgia did too, for the first time in about a week.

“That’s the ticket!” Grandma said. “Much better.”

She reached over and tickled Georgia under the chin, and pretty soon everyone was laughing.

“Now these are the Khatchadorians I remember,” Grandma said, and hugged me all over again. “We’re going to have a great time together. Isn’t that right, Ralph?”