Chapter Thirteen: The Old Man and his Grandma

I immediately took a step forward and did the formal salute which should be done in front of the Matriarch or Patriarch of the family as a sign of respect.

- "I am Cristian, grandmother"- I said as I kept the position some seconds before returning to my normal standing and smiling looking at her.

- "Call me grandma Rin"- said my grandmother with a satisfied smile on her face.

- "I understand, grandma Rin"- I said with a nod.

Her face showed wisdom and stoic as if she could face anything with calm and recollection. She had a white hair as snow and it suit her extremely well as it gave her a majesty than only those who accepted and lived in their own age could have. After that, my brother also did his best to introduce himself and was rewarded with a loving touch on his head.

- "Please sit down"- Grandma said and then nodded to the servants who immediately placed cookies and served tea for all of us.

- "It's been a while since the last time we saw each other"- she said smiling at the view of her daughters and grandchildren.

- "We are sorry we couldn't visit more often"- said my mother nervously.

It was known that normally you have to be summoned to be able to visit my grandmother. So the fact that my mother was saying that was simply to save face. Still, I stayed silent knowing that in this family children should be silent while the adults talk. I took my tea slowly as I made sure my brother did not eat too fast since he loved cookies a lot.

- "Where are your children, Riza?"- asked my grandmother.

- "They will come a little late"- said my aunt- "they had to do extra activities on their clubs."

- "It's good you keep them busy so they don't start getting lazy"- said my grandma with approval. After that, she looked at my mother

- "So how are the things in my beautiful land"- asked my grandmother and I understood why her voice sounded so nostalgic. She loved our city and one of the things she told me regretted the most was not being able to return to it.

- "I wish I could just die in my land"- she had said once while we were looking at the sunset.

My mother started to talk about the things that happened lately and then how it was mostly peaceful. She put some rumors and gossips in there to spice the conversation which made my grandmother and aunt laugh. I simply kept listening as I sent sporadic looks to the garden which my grandmother was working before. I smiled at it and wondered how much effort and time she had put on it. After an hour, my brother started to feel tired and bored. My grandmother noticed and then she smiled.

- "We will have dinner in a moment but form now I wish to talk to Cristian privately."

- "Of course"- said my mom while giving a look full of pride but also warning. I simply nodded.

After a moment they went away while my grandmother looked at my eyes directly. I simply smiled and returned the look.

- "You seemed interested in my garden"- she said proudly following my line of sight

- "I like places with plants and trees"- I replied being totally honest.

- "Want to have a closer look?"- she offered with a radiant smile.

- "I'd love to"

She smiled and stood up while making a move with the head. I followed her and then she opened the crystal door and let us enter the garden which was very well maintained.

- "Beautiful"- I said honestly appreciating the variety of flowers and trees that were present.

Many would find my reaction exaggerated, but coming from an era where flowers and trees were a rare sight, this image was simply breathtaking. The garden had many flowers of different colors and even some fruit plants and trees. A sight like this was simply impossible and so I loved this kind of places. Another thing was my original city was always cool-cold climate which meant that not many plants were able to grow there and made fruits and vegetables extremely expensive. Here, however, I could see many plants already ready to be ripen.

- "Here… eat these"- my grandmother said ripping some strawberries and giving them to me.

I ate them and the strawberries were very sweet and delicious. I was in a dream and wished this could be possible back in my city. Maybe if we made a greenhouse.

- "Thank you"- I said looking at my grandmother- "they are delicious."

- "I'm glad"- she said with great approval as she also put some berries on her mouth- "It's very satisfying to be able to grow things."

- "Eat something you planted and saw grow, right?"- I repeated.

- "It seems you understand"

- "I have an idea, but until now I did not have the opportunity"- I replied examining a group of violet flowers- "it must have taken a lot of effort to grow so many of them."

- "At the beginning"- said she taking a big look around her garden- "many times I failed and obtained nothing, but once you get the gist of it, it becomes natural and extremely satisfying…"

She started to give more details about her experience in gardening and many stories about her beginning. I simply heard what she had to say as I learned to do in my past life. I received a lot of good advice from her so I normally let her do the talking.

- "In time you learn which seeds will work and which ones will not"- she said looking at me directly- "and you learn to recognize the plants which have the most potential."

- "Am I a good seed? - I asked with a light smile.

- "I don't know yet"- she said while walking as if examining her plants- "no child in this family is useless I can tell you that… however, as for having a potential to be higher from the others, that's a different story."

I had to agree. I only needed to see my cousins Rico for example. He was 14 years old but he was already learning how to fight and his personality was one of a natural leader. If I aimed to be in a position of power in the family, maybe one day I would have to compete with him and the question would be if I could compete or not.

- "However, for now you are showing potential. The business with Firendis was very well executed by you. Tell me what happened exactly."

I told her about my fight with Kori and how he had "supposedly" blurt out his father's secrets during the fight. I had told my uncle what I heard since it sounded important and how he had decided to reward me.

- "I read what happened next in the newspapers."- I said innocently.

- "We decided to hit them with their own poison preemptively"- said my grandmother with a cunning grin- "They are having big trouble with the law and their associates at this exactly moment. This will keep them busy for a long time before they can even start thinking in trying to do something to us."

I could imagine the chaos and headaches the Firendis must have been suffering at this moment since I once saw it happening inside our family. They would be weakened by the end of this mess and the other families would definitely not lose the opportunity to take advantage of their circumstances.

- "Their situation though, would have been ours had you not told us in advance which is a great merit for us, Cristian."- she said with a very caring look in her eyes.

- "I just did what I must for the family"- I replied.

- "While it's true that your uncle gave you money as a reward I think there are other things that could be used for your reward"- said my grandmother- "so apart from money. What do you wish, Cristian?"

- "Money is always good- I said choosing my words with care- "it may sound mundane especially for our family, but money is definitely a protection that can be used effectively when I needed. I'm still young so the things I need are still limited. However, in the future I will have more needs and opportunities which I will only able to grasp with money. Also, we don't know how things can change so I am saving money now that I can.

- "Money can lose their value"- said my grandmother testing my comprehension.

She was right. Just a few years earlier, the previous currency of the country had suffered a huge devaluation due to the super inflation and the government had to change it to the present currency. The situation had been so bad that what it was 1000 in value In the morning, dropped to 0.01 in matter of hours.

- "My account is in dollars"- I said confidently knowing that at least for a decade dollars would be the king until the arrival of Euro and the HK dollar.

- "What is your aim or your purpose if you may say?"- asked my grandmother who seemed surprised about me knowing something about economy.

- "Protect my mother, brother and the family."- I replied with no doubts.

My grandmother seemed curious when I said this and immediately started to look at me with dubious eyes as if I had said something that had displeased her.

- "In that order?"- she asked me looking at my eyes directly.

- "In that order"- I said without trying to sweeten my words- "I will defend the family and do my best for it. However, if the family threatens or does thing which goes directly against my mother and brother, I won't doubt for even a second in protecting them."

- "You are aware of course that the family is the best protection they can have, don't you?"- she said and her attitude changed as if she were discussing a business issue- "you will be safe as long as the family is strong."

- "What if someone in the family who has a high ranking betrays the family, then?"- I countered laying down the situation that I knew would definitely happen in the future.

- "Do you think I would allow that?"- asked my grandmother with a tint of feeling insulted in her voice.

- "You will not be here forever, Grandmother"- I said with a natural tone since I knew that her absence would mark the end of our family.

- "True that"- she said admitting the veracity of my words- "I see that you are thinking in the long term."

- "Expect the best but be prepared for the worst"- I said paraphrasing another family motto- "While I hope the family protect us forever, I can't blindly think the things can't change."

- "Wise… but many could accuse you of being disloyal" - said my grandmother- "so as long as the family offers protection, but otherwise you would betray it and go to another one?"

- "I won't betray the family since I also think it is the best place to be"- I said with calm- "but if the family attacks me or betrays me, I will not doubt in protecting what I can."

- "Is there a specific reason for this standing?"- she asked and for the first time I did not answer eloquently.

I had the temptation to tell her everything. That the family would end up extremely weakened due to the war against Firendis, how the other families would join them to attack us, how she would be personally attacked, how our power would decline steadily as she gotten older. How my uncle Patrick would start having second thoughts and would finally betray her and the rest of the family until there was nothing left. How the other families would end up dividing our assets and even kill some of our members including my cousins in order to eliminate future problems. However, I could not say all of that without telling her that I would come from the future, and that was extremely dangerous and even if I tell her, there wasn't any assurance that she would believe me and she could even lose the interest I already had gathered in her.

- "I studied the information about other families which included the Mordel Family"- I said thinking about something I could say to explain my position.

- "Mmm, yeah I remember what happened with them"- my grandmother started to think about Nicholas Mordel and the fall of his family.

Just as our family, the Mordels were a respected and powerful family. Nicholas Mordel had created a powerful foundation and was without a doubt the most powerful in the entire country. He had his hands in everything you could imagine and even mafia gangs respectfully bowed to him. It was all perfect for him until he had fallen sick and cracks started to appear all over his organization. He had centralized the power on his person and a few members in his circle. However, he had not found anyone capable enough to handle the family and then his many children started to fight themselves. It was a bloody conflict where blood ties were simply ignored and you could see brothers and sisters killing each other in order to secure at last a piece of the empire which had been previously been united.

- "Once he fell, his family fell with him…"- said my grandmother sighing with melancholy. I supposed she met the person and as far as I knew our family had good relationship with them.

As Mordel family lost unity, they also started to be preyed upon other families and mafia gangs who used the warring members of the family to infiltrate it and soon they were the ones in control. They started to lose businesses and territory city by city until only their base city was left. Nicholas had to control everything even as he was dying and, in the end he was "forced" to step down from his head position by his own son who even had emotional words in his funeral. In the end, the son's position was not strong enough and soon the family was reduced to a normal family with some businesses that even today were legally fought over by different members of the surviving family.

- "Do you think that could happen to our family?"- asked my grandmother looking at me with curiosity.

- "I know we are different since the power is not centralized"- said I with apprehension and showing nervousness- "however, what if a very influential member started to gather more and more control and tried to take control using other families. I know I'm being paranoid about this, but when I read that story it made me think how vulnerable and weak my mother, brother and I would be."

- "I commend you think like that since there's always the possibility"- said my grandmother firmly- "however, I have placed safeties in case of said situations. In case someone in the family started to act like you mentioned, their wardens would act."

I stayed in silence trying not to shout that the wardens were useless in the case of my uncle since his wardens were two, one would die in a year and the other lived simply too far to control him. However, supposedly the wardens were secret to there was no way I could know so I just nodded with incredulity.

- "Also, Mordel mistake was trying to chew more than they could swallow. We are much more compact and everything is already divided to stop your uncles and aunts to stop fighting"

Once again I did not know how to explain that would not matter for someone who had legal knowledge as my uncle. He had the knowledge and the connections inside the legal system to make all those documents invalid, especially since my grandmother had trusted him with them to safeguard never imagining that he would simply use them to benefit himself and sell the family.

- "Be sincere… is there a reason why you do not trust your uncle Patrick?"- she said and I was shocked. Was I so obvious?

- "I think he had too much power inside the family, especially in the legal matters"- I said looking down and choosing my words carefully since this could start a conflict inside the family when my uncle had not done anything yet- "I respect him and I'm grateful for many things, but I would never put a hundred per cent of legal matters in just one hand. In the end he's only human and if one day he decides to betray the family, it would be a walk in the park for him."

- "I don't know why but I have the feeling you're not being absolutely honest with me"- she said with incisive eyes directly looking at mine- "is there anything else you want to say to me?"

- "Never show all your cards at once"- I replied and my grandmother smiled

- "Smart kid. I will note your suggestions"- said my grandmother looking at me with an amused expression- "however, rest assure that your uncle has his loyalties in the right place."

Of course she could not openly say so, but I was certain that she would take my words in consideration and take the proper measures to avoid the situation I planted in his head. I could only nod with my head and pray for the best. She returned to the tea table and started to take another cup of tea but it was empty. I immediately got close and served more tea for her. Then, I served myself another cup and sat in front of her. She smiled and nodded her head. After that we drank the tea in silence as if both of us were thinking about the previous conversation. Many would get nervous at this, but I knew that my grandmother did not mind these moments of silence.

- "You are very patient for someone you age, Cristian"- said she finally with a smile- "if I didn't know better I would say you are older than you look."

That sixth sense of hers was very scary. To be true I was technically still younger than her by maybe 20 years even by my past life. However, I suppose old people tend to be the same in any era.

- "People always say I'm more mature than my age make it look"- I replied simply- "I like reading and being alone with my thoughts. I like physical activities of course, but I could say I like to sharpen my mind more."

- "What books do you like?"- my grandmother asked.

After that we had a long conversation which touched many aspects of our mutual hobbies and interests. I know many of them already due to my past life interactions with her, but it's still fun to listen to her telling me directly. We laughed and had a nice moment.

- "Excuse, lady. It is time for dinner"- a maid entered.

- "Thank you, Rizelma"- said my grandmother who was just talking about her time teaching in a far town- "we'll be there."

She stood up so I did the same as her. I stood next to her offering my arm which she took naturally as we advanced to the stairs.

- "I really enjoyed the conversation"

- "I still want to know how you managed to learn another language so fast to teach those students in their own language."- I said since she had mentioned something new that I did not even heard in my past life.

- "Huhu I'll tell you another time"- she said smiling as if remembering a pleasant moment in her life.

Teaching had always been her passion and she would still do it if she could. However, the family business simply stopped her and she had to retire early in order to take the family on her hands along with my grandfather who accompanied her until the day of his death. She always loved to tell stories about her time as a teacher not only in the city but especially in the country side where she had countless experiences and where according to her reached the epitome of her happiness and professional growth.

- "I'm glad we are all over here"- said my grandmother looking at the people gathered in the table who include other uncles and aunts which I had not seen in a long time. Also, many cousins who looked at me with curiosity and also with caution.

My family was big in consideration to this time standard. My grandmother had had eight children including my mother. This number would be incredible for the time I was and impossible before and during the end. Even before the end, when the technology and well-being of humankind was at its summit, people had stopped having children due to different factors which included the rise of the cost of life and people trying to avoid responsibilities like parenting. Of course we had many more reasons, but most people simply were not interested in having kids and once the End started and things turned out to be extremely bad and was difficult even surviving by oneself, there was no way people wanted to have the extra burden of protecting another person. There were cases of course, but they were rare. In dangerous times like those, having a baby would be considered to be an act of hatred since you placed the mother and the baby in danger for a great deal of time. Also, hospitals and things like that had collapsed and the risk of having babies were just too high.

- "I'm happy to see my family united and reunited here again"- said my grandmother raising a cup with champagne and my uncles and aunts along with my mother did the same- "the family is the most important. Through our bonds and blood, we are strong. Reject your family and you will reject yourself. There is nothing more horrible than being alone and without purpose, so hold dear your family and enjoy their presence in your life since we won't be here forever, but at least you will have the happy memories that will help you even in the worst moments. Let's eat and enjoy, I love you all. Cheers"

- "Cheers!"- everybody raised their cup and clinked with each other and the dinner started.

We ate a lot of different foods which just made me extremely happy. Even though I had returned half a year, my love for good ad delicious food had not changed a bit. Maybe due to the knowledge that someday these foods would disappear. I enjoyed every bite and savor it as if they were the last I would have. My grandmother threw some curious looks at me and smiled seeing how I enjoyed the food. Afterwards the adults started to talk while the younger ones were let go to talk.

- "Hey, Cristian. How was the visit"- asked me Rico who got closer with an affable smile.

- "I enjoyed it a lot"- I said shaking his hand

- "Come with me"- said my cousin and we guided me where the rest of my cousins were.

We were 12 present. 7 were not able to come since they lived in the capital very far so they couldn't come.

- "The star is here"- said Ken who had also arrived to the meeting.

- "Don't bother him"- said Marcia.

- "Not mocking"- said Ken who looked at me approvingly- "he really did well in telling and showing that idiot Firendis who rules. No offense cousin!"

- "Non taken"- I said noticing he was really not trying to offend me- "I just did as I should"

- "What happened exactly?"

I told my cousins the story and they cheered for me gleefully. I always had a nice relationship with my cousins, until later when each one had to go their separate ways to different places and could not have any contact. After a while the girls went their own way while my male cousins also went to another place to talk about boy stuff like soccer, videogames and similar stuff. I would lie if I said I did not like this situation. Grandmother was right, there was nothing like the family and even if we did not see each other very often, there was always that bond that united us.

- "Return safely and do not forget to visit me often"- said Grandmother as she gave me a kiss on the cheek and caressed my hair.

All cousins went to the house of Rico and we once again divide in boys and girls. We started to play videogames and watching movies. We spent all night taking turns to sleep and we enjoyed the night a lot. I had missed this a lot. My cousins were surprised to see I was good in videogames, especially my cousins from my city since they knew I did not have consoles and I had to go to their house to play with them. Especially since my cousins had bought the newly released Ninten** 64 console and they had managed to get a copy of Mar*o Kart 64 which was new in the market. This was my favorite video game and even though new releases had gone to the series the 64 version had a special place in my heart. My cousins were just shocked that I knew how to play and even got some shortcuts and I simply destroyed them.

- "You cheater!"

- "Huhu, praise me more, praise me more"- I said as I used a shortcut to put a big distance between me and the second person.

- "Not praising you!"

- "When your level is so high it can only be understood as cheat it is the best compliment you can give a gamer"

- "A gamer?"

We had fun and soon the morning caught us. For the first time I did not exercise in the morning and rested all the day. We had to return soon to our city but this was without a doubt the best experience I had had since I returned to this time. And renovated my wish to thrive in the end with my family.