Saving the World

de Sharon Mehdi

On a buffety, blustery early summer day, when the news was bad and the sky turned yellow, a strange thing happened in the town where I live. That morning, two grandmothers who had never met, not even by accident, put on their summer Sunday clothes, their most comfortable shoes, their favorite sun hats, and walked to the park in the center of town. Now that, of course, wasn’t the strange part because lots of people walk to the park, especially in summer. It’s what the grandmothers did after they got there that set the whole town on its collective ear. What, you ask, could two grandmothers do that would cause such a buzz on a buffety, blustery early summer day? Well, just wait till you hear.

The grandmothers who had never met, not even by accident, walked past the river and past the rose garden and past the playground to the center of the big grassy area that faces the town square. And there they stood. Not speaking. Not looking at squirrels. Not munching on coconut candy. In actual point of fact, not anything at all.

Ryan Reilly was the first to notice. He’s the busboy at Beever Brothers Café that overlooks the park. Every time he cleared coffee cups and water glasses from the table by the window, he saw the grandmothers. “What do you think they’re doing?” he asked Willie and Erma Beans, who always sit at the table by the window. “Dunno,” said Willie. “Maybe they’re waiting for someone,” Erma offered. “Mighty long wait,” said Ryan. Robin the waitress bustled by with a coffeepot. “Maybe they’re pretending to be statues,” she said. “People do that, you know.” Sue Ann Renfrew got up and looked out the window. “Maybe it’s a meditation exercise.” “Well, if that’s exercise, it’s the kind I could get into,” said Leslie Plunkett, who, with her five-year-old daughter, Polly, joined Sue Ann at the window.

For several minutes everyone in Beever Brothers Café watched the grandmothers stand in the center of the big grassy area facing the town square. No one could come up with a reasonable explanation for their behavior. No one, that is, until a very little voice said, “I know what they’re doing.” Leslie looked down at her topsy-haired daughter. “You do?” said Willie and Erma and Su Ann and Leslie and Ryan Reilly and Robin the waitress. “Yes,” she said, suddenly shy from all the attention. “Well then tell us,” said Ryan Reilly. Polly took a gulpy breath and announced quite matter-of-factly, “They’re saving the world.”

For exactly two-point-five seconds, no one said a word. Then they all laughed. Leslie scooped up her daughter and everyone went back to their tables, and that was that. Except it wasn’t. When Ryan Reilly got off work that afternoon, he cut through the park on his way home like he always does, and the grandmothers were still there. They had been standing in the middle of the big grassy area the whole day long. Ryan was puzzled, perplexed and more than a little perturbed. The world was already askew and getting askewer every day. If grandmothers started doing unpredictably curious things, there was no telling where it might end. At that very moment, more than anything, Ryan needed to know why the grandmothers were standing in the park. So he did the only thing he could think of—he asked. The two grandmothers, whose glistening faces were as pink as watermelon flesh, smiled weary smiles.

And with just a hint of sadness, mixed with just a hint of hope, they said almost in unison: “We’re saving the world.”

De este maravilloso libro: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Silent-Grandmother-Gathering-Anyone/dp/0718148738