THE SKY IS FALLING !!!

It is one of those extremely cold December morning , a morning in which you can only leave the comfort of your house if you wrap yourself from head to toe in clothes . I wake up in that morning , feeling very rusty and clunky . My legs refuse to respond , and my back protests against any commands . Just the simple act of looking out the bed covers freezes my face . The boiler must have broken ... again ... and left our crumbling house to the frost .

" dear father ... breakfast is ready ... "

The soft voice of my daughter softens my joints , and kickstarts my brain and heart once again . With a groan , I rise form my bed like a zombie rising from the ashes . I stretch my limbs , feeling my joints cracking , as if they were that close to snapping . Sometimes I wonder if my body is falling apart .

I am way past my heyday , I used to be strong enough to push an entire jeep all on my own , and during the war I once carried two gravely wounded soldiers back to our camp all on my own . Nowadays , I can barely push myself to move , and I can't gather the resolve to carry myself out of my own bed , without my daughter calling out to me . Back then , my friends and neighbors used to look at me like a hero , but now youngsters mock me by calling me a ' boomer ' or whatever that means . In the end , I don't care . I have lived my share of my life , and have seen of its joys what I desire , so the only thing I really am doing nowadays is just live off of my retirement and wait for the reaper to harvest me out of this world .

I arrive at the small kitchen , and immediately as I enter , my two grandchildren encircle me . My daughter giggles as she brings the breakfast to the small table by the wall , taking care not to knock over the bucket in her stride , that bucket that was gathering the droplets of rain from the leaking roof . The small table could barely include the our simple breakfast , as well as an old lamp which has a crack in its glass and rust creeping up its handle , but it was also the only source of light in the dim kitchen . The weather outside is so cloudy it might as well be night

" a power outage ... huh ? " I sigh , realizing the reason for the cold morning

" yup ! The good news are ... our boiler isn't the problem this time ! " my daughter replies , her chirpy tone almost makes me feel like everything will be alright .

" I'll go start the generator " I sigh , thinking about the pain that would do to my back to pull the rope over and over again just to get the small generator to work

" no dice , it's frozen " My daughter replies as she brings the yellow teapot to the table " I kept wrestling with it for an hour but I couldn't get it to fire up , I might as well be playing tug war with a cylinder "

" great ... more expenses ... "

" it's not broken , it's just frozen . Next time I'll keep it inside the house until we really need it " my daughter says in an attempt to comfort me , but I know that damn generator was broken . It has been acting up for a long time , and it seems it finally decided to just quit this morning .

" if you say so ... " I yield , looking down at my grandchildren who were still playing around me

" granpda ! Granpda ! " my granddaughter jumps up and down excitedly , trying to get my attention , while waving a piece of paper " Ei dreiu uss pak ! "

" is that so ? Let me see that " I chuckle , never feeling tired of her speech , she is nearing her third birthday and she could still barely talk , but she is still as energetic as ever , almost more cheerful than her own mother . As for the paper , it is a messy scribble , but I could still recognize our family and a few trees " aren't you an artist prodigy ! I'm so proud ! "

" grandpa ! Grandpa ! I finally memorized my multiplication table ! Check this out ! " my oldest grandson says proudly " 7 multiplied by 6 is 48 ! Aren't I cool ?! "