Grandma Mary is the best grandma in the whole world. She always wears beautiful, colorful, modern skirts, and her silky silver hair is neatly combed back. But the most charming thing about her is her lovely smile – it never leaves her face. Even though she is much older than everyone else, she’s a lot of fun to be around.
Sometimes grandma Mary comes to visit her grandson Rory for the weekend. He’s a restless red-haired boy with mischievous eyes, always thinking up some kind of prank. Grandma Mary loves him very much and sometimes even encourages his ideas.
This weekend, Grandma Mary went to Rory’s house again to look after him while his parents were away on a business trip. The weather was nice, so Grandma and Rory went for a walk, then sat down in a café and talked the whole time. They always had something to talk about. It was a very pleasant and nice day.
Late in the afternoon, Rory realized that he didn’t miss his mom at all – but he wanted to tell her what he and his grandma had been doing all day. He turned to his grandma and said: “Grandma, shall we call Mom?”
“Yes, we can, Rory,” replied his grandmother.
She opened the window and called out, “Mom, hello!”
“What are you doing, Grandma?” asked Rory in surprise.
“I’m calling your mom, like you wanted,” replied Grandma Mary.
Rory couldn’t hold back any longer and burst out laughing so hard he had to hold his stomach.
“Grandma, I meant on the phone, not from the window,” said the little boy.
“I know, I just wanted to have some fun,” said Grandma kindly and handed her grandson the cell phone.
Rory told his mom everything and then, when he finished talking to her, he wanted to show his grandma something on the phone. Grandma Mary wasn’t yet familiar with these new gadgets, but she liked the videos the boy showed her.
Before Rory went to bed, his grandmother gave him some advice:
“You know, Rory, the internet isn’t bad. You can find interesting things there – but please be careful what you look at. Not everything is as nice as it seems, and not everything is true.”
The next day, Grandma and Rory had the whole morning free before his parents came home. Because the weather was nice, they went outside again. They talked and watched the squirrels jumping around in the trees.
Suddenly, Rory ran off, climbed a tree, and shouted:
“I’m going to jump to the other branch too! Like squirrels!”
He was about to jump when his frightened grandmother called out to him not to, saying he could hurt himself. Fortunately, Rory listened.
When he climbed down from the tree, he said sadly, “I saw on the internet that I could do it – someone had already done it and jumped really far in the air. So I wanted to try it too.”
“My boy, do you have any idea how worried I was about you? Never forget that not everything you read or see on the internet is a good idea. You could have hurt yourself – you could have broken your leg or something. The internet is like fire: a good servant but a bad master.
Rory was glad his grandmother had stopped him. He didn’t like the idea of having his leg or arm in a cast. Once again, he realized that even though his grandmother was much older than him, she was cool – and sometimes had better ideas than the internet.
