*Four months after mom passing away… a.k.a. my 7th birthday… a.k.a. the worst birthday of my life*
It’s been four months that mom’s been gone now. Life is pretty quiet at home. Dad is always home for dinner, but Jackson and I have a nanny now. Her name is Kayla. She has medium length pretty blonde hair and she smiles all the time. Kayla does an okay job of taking care of us, but mommy would do better.
Jackson still avoids me for the most part and I never know why. It makes me really sad. I wish I knew what was wrong; maybe I could try to help.
Anyways, today is my birthday and Kayla brought me a jewelry making kit. I love it! It is so much fun to pick all the pretty colored beads to make bracelets and earrings. It definitely occupies a lot of my time and keeps me pretty busy. I even make friendship bracelets for Blake and I. I tie the blue colored yarn in a fancy knot that I learned how to do from the booklet that came with the kit and I add one special bead to the middle.
I’m not really in the mood for a big party again this year, but Mrs. Todd and daddy insist that it will be a good idea. So much to my dismay, Blake and I have another joined birthday party, but this time it is at the bounce house by the mall. All of the other kids have a lot of fun, but I just can’t find much in me to bounce around and have fun without my mom. I know she would love to be here and watch me, so I try to put on the biggest smile I can for her in heaven. I’ve gotten really good at that; faking a smile so people think I’m okay. The only person who doesn’t really believe me when I say I’m fine is Blake. I think it’s cos he spends so much time with me. Not even daddy can tell.
During the part where everybody sings happy birthday to Blake and I, he hugs me tight cos he knows how much this part means to me. Mommy always usually made my cake special for me and would bring it in with candles all lit and singing to me. That doesn’t happen this year. It’s a store bought cake, but personalized for Blake and I, but nobody carries it in singing to me and it’s sad.
As soon as they finish singing, I quickly break free from Blake’s hold and run out of the room before I start crying in front of all my friends. Daddy follows me out almost as quickly as I run away and catches up to me just as I find a place in the corner by myself to let out my muffled cry.
“Oh, Mere, what’s wrong sweetie?” he tries to console me.
“Don’t call me Mere! Only mommy called me Mere” I seethe.
Dad is very taken back by my claim and he fumbles over his next few words. “I’m so sorry, hun. Can you tell daddy what’s wrong?”
“Mom’s not here, that’s what’s wrong” I bark again.
Now he looks like he might cry too. Before I can see a tear drop from his eye, he envelops me in a tight hug and strokes my hair gently. “I know, honey. I know. And I am very sorry about that. … But you can’t let that stop you from having fun with your friends. You still have your whole life to go. You can’t be sad forever. Mommy loves you very much. I know it. And she would not want to see you sad.”
He’s right. From this moment on, I make a promise to myself that I will do my best to be as happy as possible… for mom.
Mrs. Todd comes up behind dad and squats down next to us. She tries to comfort me too and it does help. I compose myself together and wipe my eyes with the back of my hands. “Hey I don’t know if this is going to help, I was going to wait to tell you tomorrow, but you and I are gonna have a spa day. We’re gonna go shopping and get our nails done. Just you and me.” She hugs me and I burry my face in her hair.
“Thank you, Mrs. Todd. I love you” I wipe my eyes again and stand up on my own. I smooth out my shirt, then head back to my friends.
*~*~*
Today Mrs. Todd is taking me out for a special girl’s day, just me and her. Before we go, Blake comes up to me with a little box with a pretty bow on it, “Wait! I have one more gift for you” he hands me the box and I have a seat to open it.
Inside is a silver necklace of a rose pendent lined in light pink and a little bit of sparkles and it looks just like the one my mom would love. “It’s so you always have a piece of your mom with you.” Blake chirps.
“It’s beautiful!” I feel like crying again, but I try to hold it in this time. He helps me put it on and it fits perfectly. I run to look in a mirror to see how pretty it looks on. It’s so pretty! I know my mommy would love it and I love it too.
With my new addition to my outfit, Mrs. Todd and I embark on our journey for our spa day. We go to get our nails done first and I get birthday sparkles on my nails. They are so fun.
Then we go to the mall to go for lunch and shopping. We go to a nice restaurant for lunch and I order a pasta and chicken dish. It’s very yummy. We have salad in the beginning to try to be healthy and go along with our whole spa/girls’ day, but we end up splurging on some chocolate cake with fudge filling by the end.
Mrs. Todd takes me to all my favorite stores and lets me pick out some cute new outfits from each store. I get a new denim skirt and a yellow long sleeve sweater with a pink shirt to go under it. I get a pretty pair of cowgirl boots and a new pair of vans. Lastly, I pick out a pair of leopard framed ray band sunglasses and a long silver heart necklace. With my arms loaded with bags and a happy and grateful heart, I thank Mrs. Todd immensely for taking me out for such an amazing day today. She promises we can do it again soon; I can’t wait.
When we get back to her house, Blake is just coming back inside from playing with his sisters outside. I put on a fashion show for everyone with my new clothes and shoes and Blake claps excitedly at the end for me. “Okay, now go change back into your play clothes so we can play some more before dinner.” He orders me. I poke my tongue out at him before rushing back upstairs to change.
Blake and I play for another hour before his mom calls us in for dinner. We wash up in the sink and race to the table, like always. I win, like always. It’s a nice family dinner and we continue conversation like we usually do by taking turns going around the table to tell about our day.
Blake and I usually have our spend the night parties on Friday’s, but we didn’t have one yesterday, so I call dad to beg him if I can stay tonight. He says no at first, but I keep begging and pleading until he finally caves. Then I thank him ever so much and tell him I love him before hanging up and jumping up and down to celebrate with Blake.
Like usual, Mrs. Todd pops the popcorn while Blake and I get ready for bed. She brings us the bowl and we settle down to watch a movie that Blake picks. It’s the Lego movie. We’ve only seen this one about four times, so I guess we could watch it again. We basically narrate the entire movie, including the sound effects, while we use our action figures to act out the movie.
Our recreation of the movie leaves us in a fit of hysterical giggles as we roll back and forth on the bed. After the movie is over, we try to settle down, but it doesn’t work so well. Even though the TV light is off and there is only one little night light in the corner behind a chair, we continue to play and tackle each other. We try to stifle our laughs, but we obviously don’t do a good enough job because Mrs. Todd comes back into the room a couple of times to tell us to be quiet or this will be our last spend the night party for a while.
We quickly hush ourselves and pretend to zip our mouths shut and throw away the key. She gives us each a kiss goodnight again and closes the door. As soon as she’s gone, we giggle again, but we don’t play much anymore. I’m tired anyways. I yank the blankets up to my chin some more, but my hand slips and I punch myself in the face. “OW!” I whisper yell.
“I didn’t do it!” Blake whisper yells back.
“No, I just punched myself in the face.” I rub my jaw with my hand. “That really hurt.”
“You’re such a dork” he giggles.
“You’re not much better yourself mr-falls-off-the-top-of-the-side-because-you-leaned-over-to-far.” I retort playfully.
“That was one time! You’ve hit yourself many times.” He laughs again.
“Ya know, what? I don’t wanna hear it” I huff jokingly and turn my back to him.
He mocks me by turning the other way so our backs are facing each other. We don’t stay like this for long though because I have to be closer to him to fall asleep. I like the comfort of knowing he’s there.
Sleepiness slowly overtakes us and without another word, we’re both fast asleep.