Selma’s Story Time – 7/22/14

On Thursday morning, Mrs. Stockton poured the hot water over her mint tea bag and went to the computer desk on the three-season porch. That was the spot she went to every morning; it gave her a nice view of the Tinkers’ backyard and their dog Oxford. Oxford was a Foxhound, who was bred as hunting dog and ultimately wound up trained as a family pet. Has a pretty big bark but wouldn’t hurt a thing. Mrs. Tinker let him out about a half hour ago when she went for her daily run. She was usually gone about an hour.

Mrs. Stockton watched Oxford sniff around the yard as she took in the smell of freshly mowed grass from her neighbor’s yard behind her. Then she saw the squirrel making his way through the yard with a peanut in his mouth. She named him Monte. He was going to the tree in the middle of the yard, where the nest was, because that is what he does every day. Oxford had made his way up by the back of the house, waiting for Mrs. Tinker to come home and open the door.

She watched the squirrel just hop around calmly towards the tree and climbed right on up when it got there. Mrs. Stockton would have to watch tomorrow to see if Oxford could make things more interesting.

Shaking her head at what just happened, she turned the computer on to see if she got a message from Shelby. As her email opened up on the screen, she saw the mailbox flag up, indicating that she had mail. She clicked on the mailbox on the screen and saw a message from her Granddaughter. She read it and responded…

My dearest Shelby,

Yes, Monday would work fine for me. Let’s plan on 5:30 PM. I’ll make the baked Mac and Cheese, your favorite. Looking forward to seeing you honey.

Love you very much,

Grandma

She knew it would be so hard to have to wait until then, but she didn’t want to put any additional pressure on Shelby. She had worked very hard to get a scholarship to go to Columbia University, which was her first choice. Mrs. Stockton felt very lucky that the school was near her house so Shelby could stop over. As she clicked on the icon to take her to the morning news, Mrs. Stockton knew would have to find something to keep herself busy until Monday.