The next morning, there was a knock on the door, Liz answered, it was a package delivery.
"Delivery for Bethany Patricia Pritchard."
"Thank you very much."
The delivery man left.
"Bethany?"
Bethany walked in from the kitchen.
"There's a package for you."
"From who?"
"From England, a Francine Pritchard."
"That's my granny! Let's open it, she always sends me the coolest gifts!"
She opened the package.
"A jacket-"
"Read the note first, when the Dooley's open gifts, we always read the cards first."
She read the card.
"My dearest Bethany, because of myself being senile, I finally shipped your father's old jacket to you, you loved wearing it when you come to visit, it is now yours permanently. I remember when he bought it with his own pocket money when he was your age back in 1958. It is yours, wear it well, while it still lasts. Love, Granny Pritchard."
Grant and Claire walked in. Bethany got the jacket out of the package.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"My jacket, look Claire, my old jacket from my teen years, I wore it to death, but now I am."
"That's a nice jacket," Liz said.
Bethany put it on.
"It's big a little bit, but I don't care, it's Daddy's jacket."
Grant picked up the plastic package wrap.
"Mother sent it to her, that's really nice."
"Now Grant, she always loved that jacket," Claire said.
"I had rather unpleasant memories while wearing that, people wanted to pick fights with me, half the time I fought back. I was quite the scrapper when I was a kid."
"You still are."
"No I'm not."
"Yes you are."
"You wanna bet-"
"Hey hey hey, what's all this?" Jack asked as he walked in.
"Bethany got herself a gift from her grandma."
"What do you think Grandpa?" Bethany asked.
Jack looked at the jacket.
"It looks pretty nice on you Bethany but it's a tad big."
"It's a man's jacket, it was Daddy's."
"Well it is a nice looking jacket, I bet your daddy got quite the reputation."
"He did, he was a ticking time bomb up until he died, it's why he never took things lying down."
"I'm not a ticking time bomb!" Grant yelled.
"You are now," Claire said.
"Bethany why don't you go call your grandmother and tell her thank you?" Liz asked
"But she lives in England, it'll be considered a long distance call."
Bethany took the jacket off and hung it on the coat rack by the door.
"That's true but you know what, it's for a good cause, go call her."
Both Bethany and Liz walked to the kitchen.
"Jack, go tell my daughter I'm not a time bomb."
"I ain't gonna tell her."
"Why?"
"Because it's true."
"I'm just a no nonsense person that's all. It's my parenting style as well."
"I've noticed that Bethany acts like you sometimes."
"And now with her going through changes, she's been worse lately," Claire said.
"How so?" Grant asked.
"You know how so, she's turning into you Grant!"
"Well call the police and have her taken away for identity theft," he replied in sarcasm.
Claire nudged him.
"Ow."
"She's her father's daughter, there's nothing wrong with that. It's perfectly normal for a child to end up like one or both parents in personality. I was always told I act like my mom," Jack said.
"Was your mother a ghost talker?"
"Well you know what they say, it takes one to know one-"
"Bethany, you got something on the back of your pants," Liz said from kitchen.
"...Oh no!"
Liz and Bethany walked in with Liz's hands on Bethany's shoulder to block her back side.
"What's wrong?" Jack asked.
"She started her...you know, Daddy," Liz replied.
Grant and Claire gasped.
"Her first one!" Claire said.
"She's officially a woman Claire, our little girl is now a woman," Grant said.
Then Claire started to cry.
"Claire why the tears?"
"Bethany's growing and we're not living to see it!"
"We see her still Claire-"
After realizing what Claire meant, Grant held her in a comforting embrace while Jack bowed his head down in sympathy.
