It was very late and everybody was asleep. I heard a noise. It was a very soft noise and I didn't recognize it. I thought it must have been the dog or cat into something so I went to the balcony and looked over the railing but there was total darkness down there and no more noise. The house is at the end of a gravel road in the woods in northern Idaho so it is always perfectly quiet except for coyotes, owls and frogs. It can be very dark with only stars and moonlight trickling in. As I peered over the edge into quiet darkness I saw an odd, faint hue of a blinking blue light somewhere down there. I didn't know what it was, where it was coming from, or from inside or outside.
I slowly crept down the stairs. When I got near the landing I quietly called out, "Anybody down here?" And when I reached the bottom of the stairs Sarah was standing right there. I could barely see her in the darkness. I was confused; why was Sarah down here in such darkness?
Sarah is Beth's grandmother. She's 90 years old and not able to take care of herself. Beth wanted to be Sarah's caregiver for the summer giving her mother a break. I've known the family for over fifteen years. Beth and I used to be a couple but now we are best friends. I'm self-employed and live in the "big city" but business takes me to Beth's small town frequently and I stay there for four or five days at a time. Since Sarah is now using the guest bedroom, I sleep in the loft.
Sarah is a sweet old woman, barely eighty pounds, her memory is fading, can't do much except read Reader's Digest in big print, feed the cat, she slowly shuffles about the house but needs a cane when outdoors. She's often confused about ordinary things like what month it is, balancing her checkbook, or where she lived last year. She often says strange things that don't make sense and does funny things that show her senility. If it wasn't for her family she would be in a nursing home.
I said, "Sarah, what's going on down here? Why are you here in the dark?" It was so dark that I barely saw the outline of her face so I knew she couldn't see my nakedness.
All she said was, "Brad, please stop the blinking lights."
I said, "Sarah, I'm sorry but I'm naked. I didn't think anybody was awake. I came downstairs to investigate something. What are you talking about--blinking lights?"
She didn't make any comment about my nakedness; she just repeated herself, "Can you please stop the blinking lights." I still didn't know what she was talking about but I could see somewhere that there was a very faint blinking going on.
"Can you stop the blinking lights?"
"Sarah, I'm naked. I shouldn't be down here like this."
"Oh, don't be such a fuddy-duddy. Nobody can see you in this darkness. Just fix the blinking lights, please."
I didn't quite know what to do. I don't have a problem with nudity. Beth and I hang out naked all the time before Sarah moved in. It just didn't feel appropriate being naked around her grandmother. She obviously didn't have a problem with it and it was so dark that she couldn't see anything anyway so I followed her to the source of the blinking lights.
Earlier that day we had a power failure and electricity was out for a couple of hours. In northern Idaho it stays light in the summer until 10:00 and we all went to bed before it got dark. Only when it got dark it was noticeable that the oven and microwave clocks were blinking the time to be reset. "Please stop the blinking lights, Brad?"
The kitchen has more windows so a little more light was coming in and with these two blinking clocks; Sarah was a bit more visible. So was I. She wasn't concerned about my nakedness as she pointed and pleaded, "Here. Here are the lights. Please make them stop?"
I didn't know what to do. I could tell her, no, I don't know how to fix the lights so let's just go to bed and we can fix them in the morning. I could tell her, yes, I'll get some clothes on, and come back down. I could tell her to leave the room and I'll fix them. It was an odd feeling, kind of scary, kind of titillating, to be talking to Beth's grandmother like this. I decided to leave it up to her. I said, "I can stop the blinking lights but I have to turn the kitchen lights on to find the right buttons to push."
"Do it, please do it, Brad."
"But I'm naked."
"It's not a big deal. Please stop the blinking lights."
I said, "I'll be honest with you, Sarah. It doesn't really bother me if you see me naked. It just seems a little odd, don't ya think?"
Sarcastically, she replied, "What do you want me to do, close my eyes?"
I said, "Okay, fine." I quickly turned the kitchen light on, stopped the blinking clocks as fast as I could, then turned the kitchen light back off and then we were back in darkness again. The whole process took about five seconds.
I turned to go back up the stairs but Sarah wanted to talk some more. So I stayed and talked. Standing in the kitchen, there was more light with the big window and my eyes adjusted to the darkness. I could faintly see Sarah's facial features and her bathrobe so I knew she could faintly see me as well. I was actually quite comfortable in the darkness just chatting with her. She's usually quiet and solemn but now she was lively, friendly, and talkative. In fact, it was fun standing there talking to her. We don't normally get into conversations just the two of us. She was unusually talkative and kept the conversation going so I wouldn't go back up the stairs. Eventually, we said our goodnights, Sarah shuffled down the hall to her bedroom and I went upstairs.
The next afternoon Sarah and Beth were sitting side by side on the deck and I was playing with the dog when I said, "Hey Beth, last night Sarah saw me naked" and Sarah started laughing and laughing with a girlish redness flushing her face.
Beth screams, "What? What? What happened last night?"
I told Beth the whole story; the noise, the faint light, me going down the stairs naked, finding Sarah there in the dark, fixing the blinking lights, talking to Sarah in the dark. I told the whole story. They both laughed hysterically but Sarah was as red as she could be. Sarah doesn't laugh much anymore so it was fun to see her laugh and have such fun at my expense.
A few weeks later...
I'm a 31 year-old active guy in pretty good shape. I was telling Beth that I joined the gym to get back into shape. "You're in perfect shape, what are you talking about?"
"I weigh eleven pounds more than I did when I graduated from High School and I'm going to lose those eleven pounds. I want to get back to my ideal weight."
Sarah was close by reading her big print Reader's Digest when she got up to join our conversation asking, Who's going on a diet?" Sarah has to know everything going on.
"Me, but I'm not going on a diet; I'm just eating right and working out at the gym to get myself in better shape."
"There's nothing wrong with your weight. You look great. Show us."
So I lifted up my shirt and showed them my stomach. "I've already lost four pounds so I have seven more pounds to get myself in my ideal weight."
"Well, when you get yourself in ideal weight you must show us again."
"Okay, I will."
"You will show us everything, right?"
"Of course, yes."
I didn't realize what Sarah meant by "show us
everything
" until a few more visits. Every time I came to stay with Beth, Sarah asked me, "Are you down to your weight yet?"
And I always said, "No, not quite."
Beth and I talked about this, "Your grandmother is hinting for me to show my body when I lose my weight."
"Then show her."