Bringing him back

Birthday Wishes

"C'mon Autumn, give me a smile!" Autumn watches her seven year-old self pout with her head rested in her hands sitting grouchily on the table.

"No." her seven year old self replies as she frowns at her mother. Being sick and incredibly bored Autumn had dug around in an old closet behind their couch to find a box of dusty photo albums, old art projects from both her and Emily, and finally home videos finely wrapped in a layer of dust.

Autumn watches her mom walk over to her seven-year old self with jerky movements from the camera. Finally her mom sits down across from her on the table.

"Honey, what's the matter? It's your birthday, you're seven years old!" Her mom happily exclaims, trying to get a smile out from Autumn.

"James won't be here for my birthday..." Seven-year-old Autumn says sadly not looking at her mom or the camera.

"I know, Autumn...But he's supposed to come back tomorrow! That'll be nice, right? You can invite him over to spend the night." Her mom attempts to cheer her up. However, Autumn's eyes begin to water.

"But I want him here now! Who else am I supposed to eat cake with and play with?"

"Well Grandma and Grandpa will be here. And Aunt Chloe! You always like it when Aunt Chloe comes." Autumn doesn't say anything but moodily picks at the table. The screen turns gray and goes all fuzzy and is replaced with a new scene. It was still Autumn's birthday but they were no longer located at the dinner table. They were outside and all of Autumn's relatives seemed to be there happily talking amongst themselves. Autumn finds herself slouching on the patio chair resting her head upon her hand. She had a birthday hat strapped on her head but she looked anything but in the mood to party.

The camera turns off of Autumn and to the younger version of her dad who just walked outside with a chocolate cake with seven candles lit on it. Autumn lazily watches the cake come closer to her with a bored expression on her face. From behind the camera, Autumn's mom is still trying hard to cheer Autumn up.

"C'mon everyone! Let's sing!" The family circles around Autumn and begins to sing cheerfully (though badly) the Happy Birthday song. Once it ends Autumn's mom yells from behind the camera, "Now make a wish, Autumn!"

Autumn looks glumly at the candles before deciding upon a wish and blowing them out. Everyone claps as the cake is taken anyway to go get cut. At the same time, a car is pulling up into the driveway next door. Nobody seemed to have noticed though, except for Autumn. Her head whipped around much faster than she had been moving all day.

"Is that...?" Autumn's mom mumbles nearly inaudibly from behind the camera.

"IT'S JAMES!" Autumn shrieks joyfully and runs towards the car next door. The camera zooms in on Autumn and James, who had just gotten out of the car. Though it was slightly blurry, Autumn could make out her pulling James into a big bear hug. James had started growing faster than Autumn now and he had a couple inches on her. Without any time to be embarrassed Autumn grasps James' hand in hers and pulls him across the yard and towards her mom.

"Mom! It came true! My wish came true!"

"That's great honey!" Autumn's mom's hand comes into the view of the camera and ruffles Autumn's hair.

"Have you guys ate cake yet?" James asks, looking around for some.

"Autumn's dad is cutting it right now. Oh, Emily's crying." The camera is hurriedly dropped onto the patio table and is left there to watch people's legs walk back and forth and incoherent conversations being passed from on person to another.

Bored with this, Autumn fast-forwards the tape to see if there's another clip to watch. She watches as people legs shift and speed by and her and James' waists are caught running across the yard. Finally, someone notices the camera and everything goes dark. Autumn is left in the dark room by herself with nothing but her thoughts. What she would give to just wish upon a candle and have James back. The sweet, funny James and not the jerk one.

October was hurdling quickly in there direction. If by that time Autumn hasn't found a way to bring James back to the way he was before maybe wishing upon a candle wouldn't be such a bad idea.

Autumn gets up off the couch with a pounding headache threatening to break her skull. She presses her cold, clammy hands on her forehead to try and relieve some of the pain as she works to take out the old video and store it back into the closet to collect more years of dust.