Use Your Judgement

"Grams," She cautiously sat down on the floor in front of the squeaky old rocking chair. "I was hopin' for some advice. Y'see there's a kid in my class, Loraine Dixie, an' she's been bein' really mean to me. Should I tell our teacher or should I rough her up, Grams?"

The girl sighed and headed outside. She trudged through the corn field out back, and cut clear across Mr. Johnston's backyard, to Loraine Dixie's house. Lilly Lynn sat on Loraine's swing for hours, watching the sun set behind the one story farmhouse. But she couldn't find the courage. So she went home, and after a quick scolding from her Mama, she went to sleep.

The next afternoon Lilly Lynn told her teacher about Loraine, who told the principal, who told Mrs. Dixie, who whooped her child with a wooden spoon until her bottom was sore. When Loraine Dixie came back to school, she teased little Lilly Lynn so bad she had to leave during recess, tears rushing like a waterfall down her pink cheeks, fresh bruises on her arms. 

"Grams, Grams!" Lilly Lynn rushed into the living room where, as always, Grams sat spinning yarn. "Grams, Loraine Dixie said the meanest things about me today." She cried into her Grandmother's skirt.

"I told you to use your judgement 'bout that girl. If she kicked at ya an' said more bad things, well," The old woman paused to address her yarn. "that's your fault." She nudged Lilly Lynn's head away from her. "Go help your Mama with supper."

Lilly Lynn did as she was told. The teasing got worse, but it was too late now for Lilly Lynn to fix.

She grew up, got smarter, and then that girl met a boy. 

"Oh Grams, you'll neva' believe it. Jonny asked me to the dance. Grams he's cuter than all them other boys." Lilly Lynn sunk to the ground by Grams' chair. "Oh but what if he's lyin' to me? Should I trust him, because I really do like him, or should I tell him I cain't? What if it’s another awful trick set up by that Dixie girl?" Because through all the years that had passed, the feud between Lilly Lynn and Loraine had only worsened. It was hard for Lilly Lynn to trust anyone, because she had been burned by those doing Loraine’s bidding more than once.

"Use your judgement about that boy, Lilly Lynn. You know him an' I don't." Grams waved Lilly Lynn away. That was all she would say on the subject.

Lilly Lynn though about it, and decided it was a bad idea to go. It could be a trap set to humiliate her. But, nothing could go wrong if she stayed home. She was wrong.

"Grams," She cried the next morning. "Jonny was real mad at me. He neva' wants to see me again" Lilly Lynn sobbed. 

"I cain't believe you missed an opportunity to have a nice boy." The old woman shook her head. "I told you to use your judgement. You never do the right thing no matta' what an'a'body else does to help." Grams wrinkly face scrunched up. "Go make yourself useful, child." 

A Lilly Lynn left Gram's side, vowing to do whatever she could to make a sound decision.

A couple years later Lilly Lynn took her Grams' advice, and the next boy that asked her out, she married. He was big, ol' cruel man that hit her when he drank. He ordered her to stay, and she was so afraid that she did. One day, she climbed in his truck and drove down the dirt road. Lilly Lynn stopped at her old house, and found Grams, now too old even spin her yarn, sitting alone in her rocking chair. 

"I did what you said an' I found a boy but Grams, oh Grams, he don't treat me good." Lilly Lynn stood next to the chair, trying not to cry in front of the old woman. 

She cackled. "What I told you, was to use your judgement girl. Not marry a man that smacks you aroun'." Her arthritic fingers twitched as if there was yarn between them still.  "You have neva, I mean neva, heard what I said. You listened, but ya didn't hear meh." 

Lilly Lynn's voice was calm. "Y'know what Grams, I did hear ya. I am gonna use my judgement." She raised the gun, using the second of two bullets she had loaded earlier that day, and blew Grams' head clear off. 

And it was the best damn decision that girl ever made.