Two Days Before My Birthday, One day After the Spring Equinox

I woke up and went into the bathroom. We were staying at the house of my grandparents good friends. Waiting for me in the bathroom where two little presents. One was a scroll and the other a bracelet. My grandparents friends knew how hard this trip had been. Being the kind people that they were, they had been leaving Nathan and me little gifts every morning. Today I got two because today was special. It was my birthday.

After the rest of my family got up we drove over to my grandparents house where my grandma and cousins were waiting for us. Although I was getting to spend my birthday with my cousins, it was not a very good day.

The reason we were in California was because my Grandpa had died two days before. We had been there visiting him and had stayed for the funeral. Almost my entire family was there. Although it was my dad's father my mom's family came in to California too. 

I felt bad because all day everyone had been doing whatever I wanted even though my grandma was the one who deserved all of the help and attention. Everyone gave me gifts that my mom had to keep telling them that I liked, even though I didn't want them. Everyone wanted me to have a good birthday but nobody could give me what I really wanted.

I wanted the sadness that was lurking in every last corner of the house to go away. I wanted everybody to be cheerful again. I was tired of watching the sad faces and feel the emptiness.

My grandpa was the only thing that everyone wanted on my birthday. The only thing that could make the sadness go away. I was ten. I didn't know much about my grandpa. But one thing that I did know, was that the emptiness was because he wasn't with us.