Milk for grandmother
Three rules for the summer: stay inside the gate after ten, never answer your name, and leave milk on the porch every evening.
- ThemDid you get there all right
- YouYes. My grandmother met me
- She gave me three rules
- ThemWhich
- YouDo not go past the gate after ten
- Do not answer if someone calls my name from the yard
- And leave a cup of milk on the porch every evening
- pause 1.5 s
- ThemFor the cat
- YouThere is no cat
- ThemThen who is it for
- YouI asked. She said it is not my business
- pause 1.2 s
- ThemYour grandmother is strange
- YouShe is not strange. She is frightened
- Her hands shake when she pours it
- pause 1.8 s
- ThemHave you been leaving it
- YouThree evenings in a row
- By morning the cup is empty and washed
- ThemWashed
- YouWashed. Someone cleans it and puts it back
- pause 1.5 s
- ThemMaybe she does it herself
- YouTonight I stayed awake and watched the window
- ThemAnd
- YouThe cup was taken at 2:40
- pause 1.2 s
- ThemBy whom
- YouI could not see. It is low to the ground
- Them"It"
- YouThe height of a child, and it does not walk like one
- pause 1.8 s
- ThemLeave in the morning
- YouI will
- The cup came back empty, the way it always does
- Only tonight there are two of them
- ThemTwo cups
- pause 1.5 s
- YouTwo. And both have to be filled
- ThemAsk your grandmother
- pause 1.2 s
- YouMy grandmother is asleep
- I checked twice, she is asleep
- pause 1.5 s
- So who is filling the second one
How it works
Three rules are handed over as household details and not one of them is explained. The second cup at the end says more than any description of who comes for it.
Every story here is fiction. Any resemblance to real people or events is coincidental.