I woke up to the sun shining through my window. ‘Today shall be great’ I thought. I got myself up out of bed and happily walked to the kitchen to start breakfast. After I finished making what little food we had, I called to my sister.
“Bella! Breakfast is ready! Hurry, before I feed it to Duke!”
Our little rottweiler perked his ears at the mention of his name.
“No!! I’m coming!”
Bella, the cutest 8 year old I’ve ever seen, came running around the corner.
“No running in the house, remember!”
“Sorry, I just didn’t wanna lose my food” she said with her most innocent voice.
I laughed “Oh you know I wouldn’t give away your food. Now eat! We have a busy day.”
After breakfast I took Duke out for a walk while Bella finished getting ready. I had set out her favorite dress, yellow with white polka dots, and a yellow ribbon for her hair. I wanted her to look her best today. Today was special. Today we got to-
“Hey! Watch where you’re going!” I barely heard someone yell.
I had to tell myself to concentrate on what’s in front of me before I run over someone. I all-of-a-sudden remembered that I wanted to buy a treat for Bella today with what little money I had saved up. I turned Duke around and we walked up to Bella’s favorite store. All Things Miscellaneous was the name and it was run by our favorite person in the world- Mr. Gold. He was so nice and if he had any little things sitting in his store for over a year, he would give it to me or Bella or even Duke. He loved Duke more than anything!
“What can I do for you today, Miss Allie?” he said as he reached down to ruffle Duke’s ears.
“I would like to buy something today” I said with a smile. “Do you still have those colored pencils I saw in here last week?”
“Oh the pencils! I knew you’d see those” he laughed. “How many?”
I pulled a couple dollars out of my pocket and set them on the counter.
“As much as this can get me.”
After a little more friendly conversation with Mr. Gold and a tiny scrap for Duke, I headed home to give Bella her treat. Even though she gets a free education, she only gets one pencil a month and they are always plain grey. It sucks for her because she loves drawing and she loves bright colors but she can’t have them together. Well now she can. I looked at the 5 colored pencils in my hand and thought about how much she is going to love them. I got her yellow (her favorite), red, blue, green, and purple.
We finally got home and I put Duke out in the back yard. I watch him run around for a minute but I’m too excited to see Bella.
“Bella, come here! I wanna see you in your dress!”
“No, I don’t wanna! I look silly!”
“I don’t care. I picked it out so I’m sure you look amazing.”
Silence. A few seconds later I heard another “No”
“Arabella, get out here right now before I take your surprise back to Mr. Gold!”
She jumps out from behind the corner with a smile that touched her ears.
“Surprise? Where? What is it?”
She looked amazing. Her hair was still down but I could fix that easily. She even painted her nails while I was gone. Bright yellow, of course.
“Can I have it now, pleeeeeeease.” she begged.
“Yeah, here.”
Her eyes lit up brighter than her nails as I brought the colored pencils out from behind my back. I had them in my hand for about a second before they were gone, and so was she.
“Thank you!!” I heard from down the hall.
I followed her into her room and smiled when I saw her using them on her latest masterpiece.
“These are perfect for my drawing for Dad! He’s gunna love it even more now!!”
“You made this for Dad? This will be perfect to brighten up his room.”
“Do you think they’ll actually let him keep it? I thought they would throw it away!”
“Well they’re being nice enough to let us see him today, maybe they’ll let him keep it, just for a little bit.”
She had a hopeful smile on her face. I walked out to visit Duke while she finished coloring. I checked the clock. 2 more hours. I started getting anxious. We haven’t seen Dad in 2 years. I wondered how much prison had changed him. He used to be the nicest guy, it was shocking for everyone when he was arrested. He had been smuggling sugar into America and was caught by a spy pretending to be a customer. He was sentenced for life. We’re only allowed to visit him on his birthday every other year but today’s the first time so far. 1 more hour. It’ll take us that long to get there.
“Arabella, time to go.”
® Hohnstein