My parents put Grandma Rosie in a home when she started to “lose her grasp on reality,” they said. I still found it cruel. But she seemed content. Content enough, I guess.
I remember visiting her. She had an old, wooden rocking chair that faced the window. Outside was nothing but flat, fields of green. The green would eventually fade, and when it snowed it was carpets of white for miles and miles. I’m not sure which season Grandma Rosie liked the most. She didn’t do a lot of talking. She mainly listened to her radio, and always one station: 89.1.
But 89.1 never had a signal. It was always static. Grandma Rosie listened to this static, all day, seemingly waiting out her life. No one could reach her.
I visited one day to drop off a box of chocolates. Grandma Rosie rocked slowly in her chair with large headphones over her ears, staring out the window, watching the snowfall. I couldn’t tell if she knew I was there. I walked over and placed the chocolates on a small table, and her hand suddenly reached across and snatched my wrist.
“Shhh,” she whispered. “Listen.”
Grandma Rosie leaned in close, and I put my ear to hers. I lifted up the cup of her headphone and listened. There was only static.
I was about to speak, but she covered my mouth with her hand.
“Listen closer,” she said.
I did, but all I heard was more static.
“Soon, they will come,” she said. “They will come to take me away.”
This freaked me out a little, and I went home. I told my mom and dad about what happened, but they didn’t think it was that weird.
I kept thinking about it. One night I couldn’t sleep so I buzzed my friend Abby on our walkie talkies. She lived across the street, and she somehow she knew all about 89.1. She told me it was an old legend in our town, and you needed two things to explore the legend further: a radio, and a closet with the door slightly open. Face away from the closet, tune in to 89.1, and listen very closely. At some point through the static, you’ll hear the faint sounds of an organ, distant screams, and the dragging of metal chains along a gravelly surface. The open doorway is an invitation - keep your eyes closed, and only if you keep your eyes closed - a figure will appear and drag you into the closet. From there, your fate is unknown.
“How do you know this?” I asked.
“I’ve heard about it,” she said. “Don’t tell anyone. The less people that know, the better.” I looked out my window and saw Abby in her bedroom. She put her finger up to her lips.
“This is our secret,” the walkie talkie buzzed.
For the next few days, I kept thinking about the ritual and Grandma Rosie. Why would she be playing this game? Why did she want to be dragged into an unknown fate?
I again told my parents that I was worried about Grandma Rosie. They were very dismissive.
“Ever since Grandpa died, I think she wants to let go,” my mom said. “She wants to be with him.”
I wanted to know more, so I decided to try the game myself. It was late at night, and I opened my closet door just a crack. I sat on my bed with my back to the closet, tuned my radio to 89.1, and put on my headphones. I heard the static, and I closed my eyes.
I sat there for a long time, focusing very hard on the static. The longer I sat there, the more it felt like my room was shrinking. Kind of like the space was filling up with something else, like I wasn’t alone.
In my headphones I heard the distant organ, and I heard the screams that seemed far away, but sounded like they were getting closer. The screeching of the metal began, and then I heard a voice:
“OPEN YOUR EYES!”
I jumped from my bed, very startled. Abby was laughing hysterically through the walkie-talkie. I looked around my bedroom. I was alone. I looked out the window and saw Abby, smiling and giggling. She brought the walkie talkie up to her mouth.
“I totally scared you!” she said. “There’s no one there! You’re such a wuss.”
I noticed the closet door. It was wide open. The static of 89.1 hissed from my headphones.
“I was only joking,” the walkie talkie chirped. But I wasn’t so sure it was a joke.
Grandma Rosie died two weeks later in her sleep. Her time had come. And I was done fooling around with legends and superstitions.
Thanks, i will like any of this CIvilization V, HotlineMiami or Tropico4 (even FTL is cool)