Grandma grew up in what she calls “the Old Country,” and her family didn’t move to the United States until she was a teenager. When I was a kid, I thought the Old Country was a fairy-tale kingdom. In the Old Country, Grandma said, peaches grew heavy and sweet on every tree you passed. In the Old Country, the cornflower-dotted meadows hummed with fat gold bees. In the Old Country, you could drink straight from the stream behind the house Grandma was born in, the water cold and clean and tasting of mountaintops.
After hearing Grandma’s stories, I used to think I could get to the Old Country through an enchanted door, like the kind you read about in kids’ books. If I just looked hard enough, I’d find a portal in the back of a closet somewhere, or shimmering in the forest like a soap bubble. I wanted to visit the Old Country with Grandma more than anything.
When I was old enough to realize the Old Country is an ordinary place you can get to on an airplane, I asked Mom if we could go there sometime for vacation. “Oh, honey,” she said. “Maybe one day.” Her face got that sad, tired look that happens whenever I want something that costs too much, and I never asked again.
I told Grandma what Mom had said, but she just smiled.
“You don’t need money to find the Old Country, Pepper. You can see it as well as I can, if you close your eyes and dream.”
The Drive
When Pepper agreed to go for a ride with Grandma, she had no idea how far they’d travel.
Learning Objective: to explore descriptive writing in a work of short fiction
Grandma’s slowly going blind. I don’t know how that feels. Maybe it’s like nighttime in a house as someone goes through the rooms one by one turning off the lights. It’s the scariest thing I can imagine. But I’ve never heard Grandma complain about anything. “Sorrow needs a season, Pepper, so we can recognize sweetness when it comes again,” she’s always said when I’m sad.
Every Sunday, for as long as I can remember, Grandma has gotten in her old car and taken a long drive through the countryside. She says the rolling ocean of poppy-flecked grass outside our town reminds her of the Old Country. But Mom says it’s time for Grandma to give up her car keys. So this Sunday is her last drive. I’m supposed to be at track practice, but Mom asked me to go with her, “so she doesn’t get into any trouble.” Like Grandma’s some kind of outlaw.
So here I am in the car, and of course, Grandma’s not breaking any rules. She’s driving miles below the speed limit, peering over the steering wheel like a little old lady—which, I guess, she is. Luckily, there are no cars behind us for her to hold up. The road unspools like a black ribbon through miles of fields. The sky is a blue bowl overturned above us.
When I was little, I talked to Grandma all the time. I told her about my imaginary friends. I told her about the books I was reading and the books I was going to write one day. I made up silly, stupid jokes, and she laughed at every one like it was the funniest thing she ever heard. Grandma was always baking me Old Country treats you couldn’t find in any grocery store here. They crumbled in my mouth like sandcastles made of butter and cinnamon. I must’ve eaten hundreds of her Old Country cookies, sitting in her steamy kitchen that smelled of spices and magic, the fogged-up windows shutting out any sign of the world outside.
Now that I’m in middle school, I don’t have as much time to visit Grandma as I used to. She looks older than the last time I saw her. Probably I look a little older to her too.
“When did the speed limit go up to 50 here?” Grandma grumbles. “That’s much too fast.”
Maybe I’m supposed to have a deep conversation with Grandma, since this is her last drive. “Losing your sight must be really hard,” I say stiffly.
“The world is always changing its shape around us, and we have to keep learning how to live in it,” Grandma says, putting on her blinker a mile before the next turn. “My eyes don’t stop telling my mind stories. The stories are just different now.”
“But we’ll never see the Old Country together,” I say.
“We can visit it together just as easily as we did when you were a little girl,” she says.
“Those were just stories,” I say. “We didn’t really go there.”
“What on Earth do you think a story is, Pepper?” Grandma asks.
I close my eyes. I swear I can smell cinnamon on the wind coming in through the open window. Hear a bee’s bright buzz in my ear. I sigh as I feel the velvet weight of a ripe peach in my palm. “I knew you’d remember how to see, Pepper,” Grandma says.
I don’t have to open my eyes. I can hear the smile in her voice.
And she’s right. Finally, I do.
Writing Prompt
Pick a memorable moment or event in your life and describe it in one or two paragraphs. Include at least one simile and one metaphor in your work.
This story was originally published in the April 2025 issue.
Close Reading, Critical Thinking, Skill Building
Essential Questions: How can figurative language bring a story to life? How can your mindset shape the way you view the world? What can we learn from our elders?
1. Prepare to Read
(5 minutes)
Preview Vocabulary (5 minutes)
Project the Google Slides version of Vocabulary: Definitions and Practice on your whiteboard. Review the definitions and complete the activity as a class. Highlighted words: outlaw, peering, portal. Audio pronunciations of the words and a read-aloud of the definitions are embedded on the slides. Optionally, print the PDF version or share the slideshow link to your LMS and have students preview the words and complete the activity independently before class.
2. Read and Discuss
(30 minutes)
Read the “Spotlight On” box on page 28 or at the top of the digital story page.
For students’ first read, have them follow along as they listen to the audio read-aloud, located in the Resources tab in Teacher View and at the top of the story page in Student View.
Have students reread and annotate the story for descriptive details independently. Here are some symbols you might have them use:
👀 = sight
👃 = smell
👄 = taste
✋ = touch
👂 = sound
Alternatively, have students complete a double-entry journal during their reread. In their journals or on a piece of paper, have students create a T-chart. In the left-hand column, have them record three to five lines that help bring the story to life. In the right-hand column, have them record their reactions to these lines through questions, comments, connections, or analysis. You can find both a print and a digital version of our Double-Entry Journal handout in the Resources tab.
Sensory detail examples:
Sight: “If I just looked hard enough, I’d find a portal in the back of a closet somewhere, or shimmering in the forest like a soap bubble.”
Smell: “I must’ve eaten hundreds of her Old Country cookies, sitting in her steamy kitchen that smelled of spices and magic, the fogged-up windows shutting out any sign of the world outside.”
Taste: “In the Old Country, you could drink straight from the stream behind the house Grandma was born in, the water cold and clean and tasting of mountaintops.” “They crumbled in my mouth like sandcastles made of butter and cinnamon.”
Touch: “I sigh as I feel the velvet weight of a ripe peach in my palm.”
Sound: “In the Old Country, the cornflower-dotted meadows hummed with fat gold bees.”
Divide students into groups to discuss their annotations or double-entry journals. Then reconvene as a whole group and pose the following questions, some of which may draw on students’ reading responses and group discussions. (If you prefer to have students answer these questions in writing, use the Discussion Questions in the Resources tab.)
Discussion Questions (15 minutes)
1. Describe the relationship that Pepper has with her grandmother. How has it changed over time? (character) Pepper and her grandmother have a special relationship that formed when Pepper was young. Pepper has magical memories of listening to her grandma’s stories and sharing personal thoughts and dreams with her. They would spend a lot of time laughing, playing, and baking together. Now that Pepper is older, she spends less time with her grandma but still loves, admires, and appreciates her. She also has a new understanding of the valuable lessons her grandmother has shared.
2. Consider the following lines: “Grandma’s slowly going blind. I don’t know how that feels. Maybe it’s like nighttime in a house as someone goes through the rooms one by one turning off the lights.” What is the purpose of these lines? (figurative language, author’s purpose) These lines help illustrate how it might feel to slowly lose your ability to see. They show Pepper trying to imagine what her grandmother is going through and the fear that Pepper feels for her.
3. What lessons does Pepper learn from her grandma? (theme, critical thinking) Pepper learns that our minds and the stories we tell are powerful tools that can take us anywhere. She also learns about how to manage sadness, appreciate the joy in life, and adapt to life’s changes through her grandmother’s attitude toward her loss of vision.
3. Describe a Memorable Time
(30 minutes)
Have students use the Featured Skill Activity: Similes and Metaphors to help them to respond to the writing prompt on page 29 in the printed magazine and at the bottom of the digital story page:
Pick a memorable moment or event in your life and describe it in one or two paragraphs. Include at least one simile and one metaphor in your work.
Alternatively, have students choose a task from the Choice Board, a menu of culminating tasks. (Our Choice Board options include the writing prompt from the magazine, differentiated versions of the writing prompt, and additional creative ways for students to demonstrate their understanding of a story.)
Connected reading from the Scope archives