by Teodora C.
I was waken up by the glorious sunlight shining on my face through the window. It was beautiful, so I shut the drapes. I didn’t want anything to do with this day. I wanted to just skip it. But that hope went away the second my grandfather came in with a stack of pancackes singing “Happy Birthday”. I wanted to just crawl under the covers and sleep, but the smile on his face wouldn’t let me. We went downstairs and ate the pancackes (they were good, can’t argue with that) and was about to go back to my room, when my grandpa said “Go get dressed and meet me at the car when you’re ready”. Every single muscle of my body was saying “No”!!!! but I pretty much had no other option, so I changed and, about an hour later, I was standing in the passenger seat of my grandfather’s pick-up truck. He sat next to me and we drove for a while, and I was relieved that all this time we didn’t say a word. I was clearly not in the mood, and my grandpa seemed to understand that.
And so, after two muffins and about half an hour of driving, we arrived at what seemed to be some kind of small forest. He got out of the car and took out a basket from the backseat. He signaled me to follow him, so I did. We walked for a while through the woods, until we got to a small cliff. We sat there and my grandfather put his arm around my shoulder and gently said:
“I used to bring your mother here back when she was your age.” A tear rolled down my cheek, as I said with a shaky voice: “Thank you, and held him tight. It was the first birthday since my parents passed away, and he somehow managed to make it the best. And I sat there, happy to receive the best gift I could’ve ever hoped for.