Within

Emotions are carefully concealed in the Gilbert family. We are suspicious of those who discuss personal problems, of people who hug too freely. Grandma, born a Hawk, was not prone to these suspicions. Bringing cookies (milk bones for Frolic), reading stories, waiting at the bus stop, and attending school events, Grandma played the perfect grandmother. Granddad, though still a dutiful grandfather, would watch us play outside from within his car. Once, though, at Thanksgiving dinner, the table busy with conversation, he walked two fingers across the table, nabbing a pea from my plate. Rejoining the conversation, he pretended nothing happened.