hack

As I spoke to Lisa Marie(LM)the old guy walked away toward the bar ditch along the road. I didn't pay attention to where exactly he disappeared to, but after a few minutes I realized that he was gone. LM and I talked for a while, in vague generalities, about farming and art. When I commented on "Grandpa's" absence, LM told me that he may or may not be back. This was a little disconcerting to me, both her nonchalance and the prospect that the old guy she came with should just disappear. I walked around the van to see if I could see him anywhere. Nope, he was gone.
I asked LM if I should search for him. She replied that if he was coming back it would do no good, and if he wasn't, I would never find him unless he wanted me to. OK, twilight zone moment. While LM and I continued our conversation for the next half hour or so I kept scanning the countryside in the direction into which Grandpa had vanished. As I looked out over the desert LM said "there he is", and I turned to see Grandpa standing only a few feet behind me. He held a handful of weeds, some dried and brittle and some only a little wilted. He walked past without looking at me and, at the opened van door, reached in and withdrew a single stiff yellow sheet of plain paper and, after setting his bundle of greenery on it, he quickly made the seven folds that are characteristic of a jeweler's packet, enclosing the leaves with the final fold.