Sweetie's Diamonds Read Online Free PDF Page A

leave?”
    â€œIt’s an afternoon game, so I guess by lunchtime.”
    â€œWell, let’s do a little bit tonight and get up early and unpack some more.   If we’ve made a good dent in it by ten o’clock, I’ll let you go.”
    â€œSweet!”
    David grabbed a box and ripped the packing tape off, revealing sets of dishes.  
    â€œBe careful with those,” Diane said.   She got up, went into the kitchen, opened a cabinet, and made sure the shelf was clean.   “Put them in here, all right?”
    As he carried a stack into the kitchen, Diane surveyed the place and had to admit that it was a lovely two-bedroom apartment.   The complex was brand new and smelled like it.   It was nice to move into a sparkling clean home, even though it was drastically smaller than their house.   Besides the two bedrooms, there were two bathrooms, a living room with a fireplace, an eat-in kitchen, and a one-car garage.   There was a deck in the back with a bar-b-q grill, and a nice expanse of yard that they shared with other tenants.   Diane figured that she would save close to a thousand dollars a month in mortgage payments.   She had gotten a very good price.  
    David carried the dishes from the box to the kitchen and asked, “Mom, what were my grandparents like?”
    Diane sat on the floor to open another box.   “David, I’ve told you all about them.   What do you want to know?”
    â€œI don’t know,” he said.   “I just wish I had known them.   Grandpa and grandma Boston are okay, but I just wonder what grandpa and grandma Wilson were like.  
    Wilson .   The name sounded so foreign to Diane.   She hadn’t used it in such a long time.  
    â€œWell, you know your grandfather died young.   I was just a baby, so to tell you the truth, I didn’t know him either.   He was thirty-one.”
    â€œHe had Marfan syndrome, too?”
    â€œThat’s what we think.   He had a bad heart.   He was tall and skinny like you, and he had thick glasses.   Back then they didn’t really understand the, uhm, condition like they do today.   I imagine he probably exerted himself too much one day and just dropped dead.”
    David finished with the dishes.   “Which box should I do now, Mom?”
    She looked around and pointed to the one that contained glasses.   “Do that one.   The glasses go in the cabinet next to the dishes.”
    As he started to work, he asked, “What about grandma Wilson?”
    â€œWell, she was very strict.   I guess she had a hard time after my father died.   She passed away when I was five.   It wasn’t much of a family, David.”
    â€œWhat did you do when she died?   Where did you go?”
    â€œI lived with an uncle and aunt in Texas until I… went to college.”  
    David noticed that his mother had become distracted again.   She tended to do that whenever she talked about the past.   It was almost as if she couldn’t remember certain details.  
    â€œNow where was I?” she asked herself, looking at two open boxes.  
    â€œI think you were working on the linens,” David answered.
    â€œRight.”   She continued to unload towels and walk them into the hallway where the linen closet was located.  
    â€œI thought you went to Harper College before you married Dad,” David said.
    â€œI did,” Diane replied.   “That was later.   I went back and got an education degree and my teacher’s certificate.   The first time I went to college was as a history major.”
    â€œWhere did you go?”
    â€œWhat’s with all these questions, David?   I’d rather not talk about all this.”
    â€œSorry.”  
    They worked in silence a while longer until David sat on the sofa, spent.  
    â€œHad enough?” Diane asked.  
    â€œI think