That night, I slept a lot better than I had for the previous nights I'd stayed on the farm. I also had a very vivid dream about my grandpa, which probably had something to do with it. In the dream, I was walking down the middle of Main Street in Zumbro Falls. It was a ghost town. There wasn't another car or person in sight, except for an old, rusty red pickup parked by the mechanic's shop. For some reason, I decided to walk into the mechanic's shop. Inside the little lobby room I walked into, nobody was there except for my grandpa, who was seated in a chair reading a magazine. He looked just like I remembered him. 

I sat down in the empty seat next to him. He slowly closed the magazine he was reading and shakily put it down on the floor. Then, he turned towards me and reached out to hold my hands in his. This was something he always did whenever we spent time together. He knew my hands were always cold, so he enjoyed wrapping up my hands in his until they were just as warm as his. 

After a few moments of silence, my grandpa sighed, and in his usual gruff, slurred voice said to me, "I'm proud of you. I'm very proud of you. Remember that."

After he said that, he wrapped me in a tight hug, held me for several minutes, then slowly pulled away, and got up to his feet. I was baffled. He hadn't been able to stand up without help for over 30 years! And he just got up from his chair like it was nothing. I stood up too, but something stopped me from following him out of the mechanics shop. 

When the solid wooden door closed, I saw my grandpa walk past the window next to the door. I only saw his back, but judging by his posture and his longer brown hair, he was a young man again. I got up to run after him, but when I swung open the door and stepped outside, my grandpa was gone. He had just vanished without a trace. The red pickup I'd seen parked by the shop was also gone.

I woke up with hot tears streaming down my cheeks, just before my morning alarm went off.

I've had a lot of dreams about grandpa Bob after his death. Each one was different than the others, but they always left me feeling the exact same way. I was always left incredibly sad, but relieved at the same time, because in each dream, I saw my grandpa as a young man again, doing the things he loved to do before he became bound to a wheelchair.