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The snow was crunchier under her feet than Ali expected. The 2” coating Gloucester got last night didn’t seem like a real snowfall, and the brunette thought it would be gone by the time she took a 12:30pm stroll across the backyard of the big old house. It was Tuesday, December 29th, 2048 in the wondrous week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The older Ali got, the more she appreciated the special, timeless span of days between the two big, year-end holidays. Time just stood still and the days were long and full of Christmas magic and visits from grown-ass children who never seemed to change despite all of them being in their mid to late 20’s now. And Meg, somehow sweet Meg was already 36 years old, retired from the NWSL, and inside the house right now, nursing her 7-week old baby boy.
“Birdie” the adorable 20-month old girl in Ali’s arms pointed at a red-breasted nuthatch enjoying the suet from the birdfeeder near the big boulder that separated the backyard from what used to be the empty lot next door.
“What a pretty birdie” Ali responded with a smile as she studied the colors and markings of the bird. “Red-breasted nuthatch, I think” she chuckled. “But don’t quote me on that because I’m not sure. There are too many different kinds of birds for your Mimi to keep up with” she laughed again.
“Birdie” the girl said again, this time pointing entirely the other direction so Ali had to stop walking and turn around to see where she was pointing.
“That one I know, that’s a crow” Ali spoke with the confidence of a woman who had decided to learn more about birds after one too many freak encounters with a certain cardinal on Hannah’s island up in Maine.
“Twee” the 20-month old arm swung back again and Ali continued crunching through the snow towards the big boulder which was their destination.
“There are lots of trees, aren’t there little miss Sophie? So many” the brunette said as she beamed at her granddaughter, her very first grandchild. She booped her on her tiny little nose and then adjusted the warm winter hat that had gotten twisted with all the wild pointing in every direction. “There we go, gotta keep you warm out here in this cold now, don’t we? Yes we do” Ali cooed.
“Twee” Sophie said again, this time with more urgency and a strong body lean that made her grandmother shift weight to support it.
“Whoa, where do you think you’re going” she laughed and moved in the general direction of the point – towards the gate that led to the sledding hill that wasn’t nearly ready to be used yet, and the guest house, or ‘summer house’ as the family called it, in what used to be the empty lot.
Ali and Ashlyn had often thought about building a guest house there but had never had a good reason to do so, until Deb had gotten sick 9 years earlier. But once that happened, the plans had been moved to the front burner and the summer house had been finished the following year. It was a modest house to fit in with all of the other houses on Beach Rd. The big old house was one of the biggest, but this guest house fit right in. It was a 3-bedroom, split-level ranch style house that had access to the ground level on both floors because of the hill. It looked like 2 rectangular boxes that were connected on one end, and tucked into the woods in the back.
“Twee! Twee!” Sophie pointed emphatically and lurched again in the direction she wanted to go.
“Ok, ok” Ali laughed again, “we’ll go this way, but quit doing that or you’ll end up on your head you big silly.”
“Head” Sophie grinned and patted her own head, her teeth looking extra white against the rich mocha color of her skin. “Head” she repeated with a giggle as she patted her grandmother’s head too.
“Such a smart girl” Ali pressed a kiss into her chubby, chilly cheek. “That’s right, head.”
“Twee!!” Sophie yelled this time, frustrated at the time it had taken Ali to get the gate to open after kicking the snow out of the way.
“Well if you’d like to clear the snow out of the way be my guest” she chuckled and shook her head.
Ali wondered if there was anything the little girl could ever possibly do that would annoy her. She was pretty sure it was impossible. Becoming a grandmother had truly been a revelation to the brunette. It made her think back to when she and Ashlyn were expecting Drew and were wondering how their love would change, how their hearts could possibly have room for more love than was already there. This grandmother thing was the same deal. Ali’s heart had been so full of love for her children that she couldn’t imagine loving anything more than she did those kids. But she was finding out that there was indeed a whole other level reserved just for grandchildren.
The path down the hill towards the guest house wasn’t officially slippery, but Ali took careful steps and made sure to dig the heels of her snow boots in deep so she wouldn’t end up on her ass or drop the baby.
“Twee!!” Sophie yelled again, pointing almost straight up in the air as they got to the bottom of the path. “Twee!!” she added once more, for good measure.
“There are lots of trees my girl” Ali turned in a slow circle, “why are you shouting” she laughed again when she saw the look of consternation on Sophie’s sweet little face. “What’s the matter? Are you pooping?”
They were in the middle of potty-training and Sophie was doing well, but she still pooped in her diaper from time to time.
“Twee...house” Sophie pointed and Ali was sure she saw her roll her eyes too.
“Yes, there’s the summer house, your house” the brunette walked closer and touched the corner of the house.
“TWEE HOUSE!!!” Sophie threw her whole body, and all 28 of her pounds, back towards the foot of the path, and the treehouse that Ashlyn and Niki Cross had built 19 years earlier.
“Ohhhh, you want to see the treehouse, gotcha” Ali let a sigh escape her lips, without even noticing it. “Here you go honey” she bent over and set the girl on her feet, tugging the bottom of her winter coat back down into place and making sure she was balanced before letting go.
As soon as her grandmother released her, Sophie did her best attempt at running the 20 feet back to the trunk of the tree house tree. It was her first truly ambulatory experience in the snow – last winter she had only been crawling.
“Up, up, up, up...” she chanted with a big grin on her face, bending her knees and patting the tree with each word as the excitement bubbled up and out of her like a fountain.
“Oh you don’t really wanna go up there, do you” Ali tried to convince the girl rather than actually ask her. “Let’s keep going on our walk, we can make it all the way around the house” she nodded over her shoulder at the summer house, “before nap time...”
“Nooooo!!” Sophie wailed, tears springing to her eyes at lightning speed. “Uuuuuuuuupppppppyyyyyyyyy...”
Ali knew her granddaughter was getting tired – that was the point of what was supposed to be a brisk walk around the two houses to get her ready for her nap, but she had to bite her tongue to keep from chastising the girl. The brunette paused and collected her thoughts and feelings, trying to filter through why she felt so against Sophie’s request. It wasn’t an unreasonable ask. Ashlyn had started taking their first grandchild up to play in the treehouse when Sophie had been very little and it was always an adorable expedition all the way around.
But Ali didn’t like that fucking treehouse. At all. In fact, she hadn’t set foot in it since delusional Emily Quindlen had corrupted it and used it as one of her spying hideouts. If Ali had had her druthers, the treehouse would have been torn down and destroyed as part of the cleansing of the big old house and the rest of their lives. She and Ashlyn had argued about it several times in the aftermath of the stalker. But the kids loved the treehouse, and so did Ashlyn so the brunette bit her tongue and did her best to ignore its existence.
Now here she was, 19 years later, stuck having to face her own demons or break the fragile, sleepy heart of her beloved granddaughter. Fuck this shit.
It was nearly 1:30pm when Ashlyn made her way to the gate near the big boulder that straddled the dividing line between the backyard of the big old house and what used to be the empty lot next door. She stopped and couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear at the sights and sounds coming from the treehouse. She observed for a few minutes before remembering why she had been sent out to search for the walking party to begin with.
“Hello the treehouse!” she shouted, cupping both hands to her mouth for the best projection. Sophie was singing loudly from inside the treehouse and Ali was laughing so hard it would be hard for either of them to hear the keeper’s call. “Hello the treehouse!!” she tried again, summoning her old goalkeeper booming voice from her playing days to make sure she was heard this time.
“Ohh, who’s that?” Ali’s knowing voice sounded, full of excitement, but Ashlyn still couldn’t see her.
Instead, Sophie stopped and scanned the area to find an answer to the question. The girl had been singing full voice through the open window like a diva on a balcony stage. Her cute, pink, monster hat with the pom-pom strings that hung down on both sides of her face was askew and one of her matching pink mittens was on the ground below the treehouse.
“Who?” Sophie turned back and looked at her grandmother, sitting on the floor of the treehouse with her own bright smile. The girl’s arms were up in an adorable questioning pose and she shrugged to make it all even cuter.
“I’m so sorry I missed the show” Ashlyn called out again as she descended the path halfway so Sophie could see her better. “It sounded really good...”
“Grammy!” the girl beamed down at Ashlyn and clapped her hands in excitement.
“Hi munchkin!” the keeper waved with both hands and then blew kisses like the adoring fan that she was.
Ali got on her knees next to Sophie and waved at her wife, loving the wink she received that she knew was just for her.
“Gram” Sophie helpfully explained to Ali and pointed at Ashlyn with a giggle.
“It’s time to come inside you two. I’m the search party...”
“Oh shoot” Ali looked at her watch and groaned at the time. “Ugh, I completely lost track of time. Let’s go honey, we’re late for naptime and your mommy is going to be upset with me.”
It took a fair bit of negotiating to get the tired girl into the bucket seat and down the pulley rope into Ashlyn’s waiting arms, but the two grandmothers managed it. It took a promise to go right back for Act 2 of the performance as soon as naptime was over, but that was a promise they both knew they would keep.
As they walked back up the path to the big old house, Ashlyn carried Sophie on her left hip. Napping at Gram and Mimi’s house was always better than napping at home. Once they made it to the backyard, the keeper pulled her wife in tight and wrapped her other arm around her waist, pressing a kiss to her temple.
“I love you so much” she mumbled before pulling back and giving Ali an extra squeeze to emphasize the point.
Sophie was losing steam fast and rested her head on Ashlyn’s shoulder with an exhausted sigh.
“Me too you” Ali responded with her own squeeze.
They took a few more steps in silence, listening to the crunching snow beneath their feet and the faint sound of the dogs barking from inside the house.
“I’m really proud of you” Ashlyn added, dropping her voice on the off chance that the little munchkin might still be paying attention.
“Me?” Ali asked, giving her sweet keeper a bewildered look. “Why?”
“I know you hate that thing” Ashlyn nodded vaguely back over her shoulder.
“God, do I hate that f-ing thing” the brunette agreed with an edited but still emphatic curse word. It had taken almost the whole 45 minutes she and Sophie had spent up there to get her skin to stop crawling. But the last 10 minutes had been really fun. “You have no idea.”
“Yes I do, and that’s why I’m saying this to you” Ashlyn blinked down softly at her beautiful brunette who was a lot more grey now at 64 years old. They both were. But they were still in good shape and could navigate climbing ladders into treehouses as well as hikes of several lengths and different terrains. Staying in shape for themselves had always been a priority, but now that grandchildren were happening they had even more inspiration to stay healthy and active. “Thank you for not giving up on it. Thank you for keeping an open mind about it...”
“I did give up on it and my mind was definitely closed about it” Ali sighed heavily but then a smile graced her lips as soon as she thought about Sophie up there. “But I just...I couldn’t say no to her” she shrugged as her smile grew bigger.
“And it wasn’t so bad, was it?” Ashlyn asked, genuinely concerned for her wife’s well-being, as always.
Ali considered the question and moved her arm up from Ashlyn’s waist to Sophie’s leg and gave the girl a gentle, soothing rub. The whole world was different now that there were two grandchildren to love. It was impossible to explain to anybody who hadn’t been blessed with grandchildren, but the world felt new and full of possibilities. Maybe it would be possible for Ali to tolerate the treehouse now, maybe even...love it eventually, the way her grandchildren would love it. That seemed like a tall order, but, for the first time in 19 long years, Ali was open to it.
She smiled and looked up at Ashlyn again as she replied, “Nope, not so bad at all.”