A. Blinken

Since I don=t drink anymore and I=ve lost twenty pounds I think about being old. When I think old, I think Granny Wise. I bought a big bag of cranberries and a bottle of CB brandy and headed up canyon to see Granny. It was cold in her yard, the sun is mostly behind the ridge these days. I knocked and shouted Arelative@ all at the same time. ACome in, A.B.@ I waved the brandy, and she gestured at the coffee steaming on the wood stove. I put the cranberries on the side board and she said, APut those in a pot@. Granny loves cranberries. I filled a pot with pure mountain water and set it on the stove, then tumbled in the brilliant red berries. AGranny, how long do you want to live?@ AWhy,@ she said, Awhat have you heard?@ ANothing, I just wondered, if you could live as long as you want, how long would you want?@ AWell, until tomorrow, then we=ll see.@ I stirred in sugar, but the water was cold, so it pooled into a translucent white cloud beneath the red. ANo, what if there was a medical breakthrough, like stem cells or something, and they could repair your joints and what not.@ Granny laughed a little, AI would take that, but I don=t think it would make me want to live longer. It isn=t just achy bones, boy, it=s the world. It=s gone twisted like a tomato vine with gnarl wilt. People do and say the stupidest things, I don=t know how much longer I could take this police state. If people stopped dying they=d crawl on the earth like ants on half an apple. The idiocracy would get worse. A thinking body can only take so much of this society.@ Little bubbles started to appear along the edge of the pot and beneath the sugar, which was melting before my eyes. I stuck a wooden spoon in and swirled and the red spheres bumped and pushed into each other madly for a second, and the sugar swirled into nothing. AO.K., Granny,@ I said, Awhat if they could come up with a way to not only preserve your life as it is, but to make you young, your muscles strong, your bones resilient, your eyes and ears and sense of smell clear and new, what then, if they could make you young again?@ AYoung again?@ She echoed it so oddly that I had to turn to see her. Her knotted fingers were around the enameled coffee cup, shoulders rounded, but her eyes were looking past me, and like a dope I turned and looked out the window; there was nothing but the rock canyon wall, and I turned back to her, which broke the spell. She lifted her cup. AYou spend too much time with your thoughts, A.B. Put the lid on and sit down here where I can reach you if I need to.@ I did sit and I poured a shot of brandy into my coffee, and we chatted and later ate steaming cranberries and canned whipped cream, but I felt like I=d been careless with Granny by asking her that, and resolved never to do such a thing again.