The Yellow Envelope

The gentle spring breeze filtered through the windows and caressed Anna's face. She was grateful for the warmth since the winter months had been particularly harsh that year. She gazed out to see the shadows of the oak leaves dance upon her plastic patio furniture. Doves and whippoorwills could be heard in the distance as they played their seasonal mating songs. It was a calm and enjoyable day.

So much so, that the idea of going to check in on her grandfather did not hold much appeal. The elderly gentleman only lived next door but he was such a cantankerous old cuss that she cringed at the thought. Anna had come to accept his rantings about how the world had gone to 'hell in a hand basket' and that it was nothing like 'the old country'. She was used to his cursing in his native German about everything from the electric bill to how disrespectful the family was to him. She was even assured that somehow including herself, his only caretaker.

But Wilhelm Nogerie was not a kind man and never seemed to have a kind word for anyone. As Anna begrudgingly pulled herself away from the kitchen table, she often thought how her grandmother had put up with the grouchy centenarian.

Nana Marie had been such a sweet and soft spoken soul. She had never uttered a severe word to anyone in all the time Anna had known her. The pairing of the two had always seemed so foreign to Anna and most of her family. Her grandmother seemed to be the only one that could make 'Willie', as he was often called , happy. He grumbled a lot back then but not half as much as he did now. The majority of the family ran in the other direction when it meant dealing with Papa Willie in any way.

Now it fell all on the slender shoulders of Anna. Anna Powell was the only child of Beatrice Nogerie Powell. She had never known her father since he died in the Vietnam War. But that never stopped her maternal grandfather from running his memory into the ground. Papa Willie was never fond of Cliff Powell, especially due to the fact that he was an Irishman. As a child, she had listened to her mother's stories of how he had swept her off of her feet when she was just 16.