The Other Side of Tomorrow

I shake my head at him and slide my legs out of the Jeep. When my feet hit the ground, a small cloud of dust from the gravel and dirt billows up.

Five steps lead up to a porch with two rocking chairs by the front door.

Jasper doesn’t bother to knock, he doesn’t even pull out a key. He just puts his hand on the knob and twists and it opens right up.

“Granddaddy?” he calls out. “Grandma?”

“In here, sweetums,” a lady’s voice calls from the kitchen.

I snort. “Sweetums?” I question him.

He shrugs, clearly not bothered by the endearment. “My grandma grew up in the South,” he says like that explains it.

We enter the kitchen and the first thing I notice is the explosion of cupcake and brownie pans everywhere.nbsp;

Then I notice a tiny woman, barely five feet, standing on a stool at the island stirring yet another bowl of goodness. Her gray hair is clipped back, with several strands falling forward. An apron sits around her tiny waist.

“What are you up to today?” she asks him.

“Just swung by for a visit. This is Willa.”

“Willa?” Her head whips up. “A girl?” she questions as her brown eyes collide with mine.

Jasper and I laugh.

“Yeah, I’m a girl.”

“Wow,” she says. “Interesting,” she adds. She looks me over. “Can you bake?”

“Yes,” I reply.

“Good, you can help me. I need to make five hundred brownies and five hundred cupcakes for the local bake sale tomorrow. I didn’t realize it’d be this much work when I signed up. Honestly, I should know by now. I always do this to myself. Put that down, Jasper,” she scolds, and Jasper drops the brownie that was halfway to his mouth. “The sale of these is to benefit needy people, unless you’re paying up, keep your grubby paws off of them.”

Jasper raises his hands in surrender.

“Go help your granddaddy; he’s out back doing lord knows what that he’s not supposed to do. I don’t bother scolding him anymore. It’s a waste of breath. Stubborn old man.”

Jasper whispers, “Good luck with this one,” in my ear and disappears.

Suddenly, I feel unsure about being left alone with this lady I don’t know. But I don’t have time to dwell on it because she puts me to work making icing and then frosting the cupcakes while she makes more batter.

“How do you know Jasper?” she asks.

“It’s complicated,” I mumble, because it is.

“We have time, dear.”

I guess she’s right.nbsp;

“We just keep running into each other,” I explain. “He asked me to hang out today and here I am.”

“That doesn’t seem very complicated, but I’m guessing it’s more than that.” She gives me a knowing smile.

I instantly feel at ease with her. She’s very comfortable to be around and kind.nbsp;

“How’d you guys come to live here?” I ask her. “It seems so remote.”

She stirs the batter vigorously—despite the fact that I notice a state-of-the-art Kitchen Aid mixer on her counter.nbsp;