WP 02: The Grady Connect

“I am going to grandparents today” Ron said as he was talking to the cars Bluetooth. He was driving towards his grandparent house as part of his weekend visit to his old town one hour away. “And I am hoping I don’t have to do a lot of chores for them.”

“Honey, I did pack the VHS converter. Your grandmother wants for you to convert some old tapes she has laying in the house.” His wife answered as she was folding her cloths in the house.

“Oh yeah, the videos my grandmother shot when I was a kid. She told me about them and I totally forgot.”

“I know but as soon you convert them. You have to delete all of the footage of your grandfather gibberish. I know your aunt used to love recording him to talking all of the time.”

“Well, you don’t understand. Those videos are part of my childhood. I remember standing next to my grandfather in those videos while he spoke. I thought that he was doing those recording because he was trying to improve his speech… Well, he made the decision to leave us.”

“Don’t worry hon, your grandmother doesn’t blame him. Its not his fault.”

“We didn’t ask a lot of him. I still can’t believe that she still cares about him. Anyway, I am going to convert only the videos that I was in them anyway. My aunt labeled everything and put more information than needed.”

Ron arrived to the street where his grandmother lives. He found a parking for the car a block away. He put his rain jacket on because he heard that it was going to rain later. He never believed in umbrellas. He knew that if he bought one that he would lose it. He got his bag from the back. He opened and saw the VHS converter and his laptop. His wife left him a ginger cookie inside a small container. He began to eat the cookie as he walked toward his grandmothers house.

After the hugs and the cup of tea, he plug the VHS converter to both his laptop and the VHS player. The VHS converter that he bought has a screen on it so that shows the video as he is converting. He could watch it as it was converting. The way that the device works is that he needs to play the VHS tape and it will record as it goes. The converter screen show how far the video is.

As the first video began, Ron saw himself playing in the backyard. Ron remembered the backyard and how it made him feel. Still he did not remember that day, but he remembered the feeling of the place. It was familiar to him. He just knew that he can't remember anything in particular from his childhood, This is the way it was always. He never was the person that remembers anything. That is why he married Arte he thought to himself.

In the video, his parents were talking to the neighbors whom usually came over whenever he was there. He remembers his mother telling him that they were very close friends when she was younger. The neighbors in the video that he is watching still had no children. He remembers that after years he was the oldest one from the this neighbors kids. 

He saw his grandfather waving to the person holding the camera. The person answered him in kind voice. It was most likely his young aunt Pace who was holding the camera. He remembered how she always was recording everyone and everything. The tape that he is viewing is from her collection. They say that she was the closes person to his grandfather. They say that she is the only that knows what happened to him.

Ron was going to get up and leave for a few minute to get him something to drink. He knew that his grandfather would be mumbling for a few minutes as it customary in his aunts recording. He has not watched any of these video since he got married four years ago, but he still remembered the way the customary mumbling occurred. 

 "Ronny..." Ron heard his name being called. The caller sounded unfamiliar to him. It sounded from the video. He looked at the video screen again. "Yeah, Ron I am talking to you." This is weird he thought to himself. Maybe something was wrong. His grandfather was talking to screen. He was speaking to him. He knew that this was unnatural for him to hear the words of his grandfather. Maybe he is daydreaming. He wanted to stop to video to get up and get coffee. "Ron, don't stop the video. Listen to me for second." Ron froze and felt the disbelief of what is happening. This can't be happening he told himself. "Ron, tell your wife to leave the house right now. Don't think about it and do it."

Ron without hesitation got up called his wife. She answered. He knew that he had to get her out without sounding crazy. "Arta can you come outside right now. Please, I need you to pick something for me. I am outside." For Ron, this is the first time that he lied straight to his wife. He felt that if he told her the truth of the matter, it would sound crazy to her and it would require a lot of explaining. He knew that he has to get his wife outside the house right away. 

"Ok, give me a minute." Replied his wife as she kept checking the stew. She did not wanted to ruining her stew. One minute would not hurt she thought. 

"If you don't come out I am going to leave right now. I really have to go." This tone was also new to him. He felt the pressure of his grandfather and he had to get her outside. "I am sorry, please hon."

He had called her hon before. That was something in his voice that she felt that it was urgent. She came out of the house in hurry. She had her phone to her side. She left from the front door and she did not see his car. She went to the curb and to look if he was standing somewhere. A car come out of nowhere and hit her. She dropped her cellphone and Ron heard from his line her scream. "Arte." He called out. She was laying down on the ground. Screaming from the pain. "Arte, what happened?" Ron started running to his car. "No, no please, Arte what happened?" He started to tear up. "Please Arte answer me." In his mind he was confused. He does not know what he has done.