I took his words to mean, that I was supposed to follow him; so I scurried after him while readjusting my towel.

As I followed, I noticed that the way Grandfather walks, isn’t like I’d ever seen someone else walk; he sort of marches in a somewhat dignified sort of way. You know what comes to mind? A man of royalty, like in the movies.

I guess I hadn’t been paying attention to where we were going, because when he came to an abrupt stop, I ran right into the back of him.

“Oomph!” I exclaimed as I fell back onto my butt with a thud.

Grandfather turned around looking very displeased with me and said, “Boy, you’ll never get anywhere in life sitting on your backside!”

He blew heavily out of his nose causing his mustache to twitch and flare, like a cats tail when it is scared.

I nervously nodded, “Yes sir, sorry sir!” and rubbed my now aching butt while getting to my feet without losing my towel.

He gave himself a little shake, kind of the way a dog does to dry off, only not nearly as vigorously. His mustache jumped, first the left side, then the right. It was both creepy and hypnotic at the same time.

“Right then.” he rhythmically rapped his knuckles on the door he was standing beside, “This is the door to the room you will be staying in, while you are with us. What-What!”

“Oh we’re back.” I butted in.

“What’s that?!” he asked with annoyance, “Now, stop interrupting boy! What-What!” and the old guy popped me on the top of my head with his hard knuckle. Granted it didn’t hurt much, but still he didn’t have to thump me like that.

“Now what was I say… Oh yes!” he said almost like someone invisible had answered his question before he’d finished asking it. Again, he rapped on the door, “This is the door to the room you will be staying in while you are with us.”

I rubbed the top of my head where he’d thumped me and shot him my meanest look, “What’d you go and do that for?”

He recoiled, scrunched up his nose and looked at me, as if I had suddenly just transformed into a hideous spider.

“Now listen here boy!” Grandfather started to say, “If you interrupt me again, I shall become quite cross. What-What!”

I nervously stopped rubbing my head, nodded and waited, for what I thought would be instructions on how to go find my parents, but instead he said, “You are to wait inside until your parents come. I shall send them up directly. What-What!”

Then he left me standing there alone. I went back into the room and with nothing else to do, but wait, I climbed up on the bed to sit down. However, I hadn’t expected the bed to be as soft as it was. With my back to the bed, I gave a little hop, thinking that my bottom would land on the mattress, but instead I fell over backward into the downy bedding. I was nearly swallowed alive by that darn bed and by the time I was able to free myself, I had made a mess of the bed coverings. As it was, while thrashing about, I had also managed to lose my towel. Therefore, when John came in, with his arms loaded down, I was sliding off the far side of the bed, totally naked again.

“Alvin? What are you doing?” John asked.

“John! That bed tried to eat me!” I said as I smacked the bedpost out of spite.

John must have thought I was playing, because he didn’t say anything further about it. He put all my things down on the floor at the foot of my bed and sensing, that he wasn’t going to say anything more, I quickly asked, “Is Mom still mad at me?”

He ran his hand through his hair and blew out a lungful of air.

“I tried to find you guys a few minutes ago, but I got lost and Grandfather brought me back here.” I said.

John nodded, which told me, that he already knew about that. “He told me that he had found you running around the house naked and snooping around in his study.”

“I wasn’t snooping!” I nearly shouted in defense, “I didn’t even go inside! All I did was open the door, because I was lost! And I was wearing a towel!”