Logs:Grandma Medicine

Grandma Medicine
RL Date: 10 September, 2015
Who: Dorina, T'mic
Involves: High Reaches Weyr, Benden Hold
Type: Vignette
What: T'mic feels awful, and deals with it the way any adult would: going and sitting in his grandmother's kitchen.
Where: Dorina's Cottage, Benden Hold
When: Day 1, Month 10, Turn 38 (Interval 10)
Mentions: Edyis/Mentions, Faryn/Mentions
"Tomic." It wasn't the warm, welcoming greeting he'd wanted. She'd opened the door, and was scowling at him. T'mic had a hand braced on the door frame. His head was pounding and spinning. His tongue felt all dry and gross. And the ache that had been chased away for a while the night before was right back again in his chest and guts, and then he thought of the drinks that had chased it, and it was worse. His grandmother took a sniff, and scowled deeper. "It's coming out of your skin." It wasn't warm or welcoming. It was disappointed. A little disgusted. And Jorrth wasn't there, and Faryn had been with someone else, and he thought he was going to throw up, and he was going to cry, so he hung his head and closed his mouth and his eyes tight. She didn't invite him in. She poked him in the shoulder, and when he looked up at her, all blurry, she said, "You remember your grandfather?" T'mic closed his eyes more and nodded, and when he tried to get a breath he made a choked sobbing sound like one of the weyrbrats instead. That's when he felt her hands, strong and bony, on his shoulders, and then her shoulder digging into his ribs as she slipped under his arm, taking the place of the doorframe and bringing him inside. T'mic sat at her table, his elbows propped on it, and his head clasped between his hands. He counted each pound, not them all together, but every time. He counted them to Jorrth, and wished the blue weren't so far away. "This," said his grandmother, opening a jar and tapping a little bit of powder into the tea pot, "is for your head." "Thank Faranth," said T'mic, and closed his eyes. His grandmother made a sucking sound against her cheek at him, and turned back to her shelves. "This one," he cracked an eyelid, and she stood facing him with a green sprig of something in between her thumb and finger, "is for the nausea." T'mic nodded, and closed his eyes again. Pound, pound, pound. Are you okay still? « I'm on Akluseth's ledge. I think I like ours better, but this one is nice. » He smiled and again wished Jorrth was here instead. When T'mic opened both eyes, his grandmother was putting away a vial. "To balance you out," she said, and he nodded a little, although he didn't really understand. She went to the pot that had been warming, and poured boiling water into the tea pot. She pulled out a chair for herself, then stopped, and returned to her shelves. He closed his eye again and listened to her shaking the jars and bottles around, until she found what she was wanting. "And this," she said, firmly enough that T'mic opened his eyes again, "is for being stupid." She dropped it in the top, put the teapot's lid on, and looked very satisfied when she sat down and crossed her arms in front of her. "So are you going to tell me what happened?" T'mic nodded glumly. "The Weyr isn't like the Hold, though, Grandma..." "Don't speak to me like I'm your father, Tomic." So he started off telling her about that night. Everything. And she poured the tea, and it was so bitter he almost gagged, and she smiled at him like a wher. But he finished it all, while answering her questions, and telling her about everything before it, too, about a home with children and a wife, and about playing poker in the stables, and about Jorrth - so much about Jorrth, which made him miss the blue even more. Mostly, she just listened. But she did say, "Tomic, a rooted tree won't go wherever the wind blows." He nodded a little, and didn't understand. And then, also,"You love easily, Tomic." "That's what Mirna says," said T'mic. "She's a smart one, that one. She's lived longer than anyone thinks." T'mic squinted. "If you were a girl," said his grandmother, "they'd have told you to be careful. Not to let people take advantage of you. They all forget that men have hearts, too." T'mic looked at his mug. "The good ones, anyway," she said, and filled it again. "Drink it all." It was even more bitter than before, but his head had quietened down, and he was already starting to feel a bit better. After, when all those plants she'd put in the teapot were really doing their job and he could open his eyes normally, they played a few hands of whist, and his grandmother would ask him a question here and there, and then would suck at her cheek or click her teeth or just say, "Hm." He cleared up the mugs (she'd never used hers) and teapot before he got ready to go find Edyis. When he was getting ready to go, she took his jacket and held it hostage. "Grandma." "It's hard to hear the whispers of the wind when your head is under the water, Tomic." He nodded, but didn't understand this one, either. "You need a bath," she told him. "Yeah," he agreed. He started to reach for his jacket, and then dropped his hand when she looked at him in that way of hers. "If you drink like this again, you aren't coming into my house." T'mic hung his head. "Okay." She gave him his jacket. He put it on, then hugged her, and left.

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Squishy (07:32, 10 September 2015 (PDT)) said...

"If you were a girl," said his grandmother, "they'd have told you to be careful. Not to let people take advantage of you. They all forget that men have hearts, too."

I cannot express how much I love this line. This whole Vignette.

Faryn (07:40, 10 September 2015 (PDT)) said...

"The good ones, anyway."

Grandma knows. Grandma always knows. Faryn will not be visiting grandma.

T'mic (08:07, 10 September 2015 (PDT)) said...

But if Faryn doesn't visit Grandma, how can Grandma sniff her decide if she likes her or not?

(She does that. I couldn't fit it into this vignette, but she does.)

Squishy (15:36, 10 September 2015 (PDT)) said...

Ed wants front row tickets to Faryn meeting Grandma. Grandma is awesome.

Faryn (19:55, 10 September 2015 (PDT)) said...

Faryn's not going into orbit of Grandma. She doesn't need people reading her right now.

Alida (22:45, 11 September 2015 (PDT)) said...

Even dirty men have hearts. ;) <3

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