Finding Connection

Chapter 5

  As I was being dragged down the hallway I wonder what's going on. Both Diana and Nana were being rather weird. Well, weirder. We ended up walking past a few open doors into a huge open room with tall ceilings, dark wood throughout with many bookshelves filled with various things. Old antiques such as bass pocket watches, decretive vases, different goblets and chalices from around the world and time eras and of course many many books some new but many very old. It was very well furnished that complemented the room well, a light brown leather sofa with matching chairs, side and coffee table set in front of a fireplace and a few tables with chairs pulled under them. The place would feel dark and gloomy if it wasn't for the windows and the various amounts of laps and light fixtures that brightened up the place nicely.

I notice Papa standing with a mug in his hand, looking out the far window, seeming to be lost in thought. "Hey Papa!" Diana says with excitement in her voice. A smile on Papa's face is shown as he turns his head towards us. "Looks like we are all here." He says as he places his mug on a coaster before walking towards us.

"What's going on?" I say rather confused. Papa stops in front of me, placing his hands on my shoulders, giving me a weird look as if trying to compose himself. "Umm Papa?" I say with concern before I am suddenly embraced by the man in a hug. "What's this about? Am I dying?" I ask half joking and concerned. His hug tightened before he pulled away with his hands holding my shoulders again, with a smile on his face "No my dear boy, I'm just so proud of you." Before I could respond, I felt another hand rest on my shoulder. I turn to see Nana with a smile. "We both are." She pulled me into a hug of her own before letting me she kissed the side of my face as she always did. I look at her and back at Papa still a bit lost. "They are talking about you jumping a grade you goof." Diana chimed in shaking her head. "For someone so smart you'd think you'd put that together without help." She snickered before giving me a hug. "We received a phone call from the school." Nana says as she wraps her arms around Papa's arm. "They informed us you accepted their offer to be put in the senior class." When Diana ends our hug she winks at me before playfully punching my arm. "Hey!" I laugh while rubbing my arm as the pain slowly goes away.

"We got you something." Papa says as he holds a package wrapped in paper with some string. "You know you guys didn't need to. It's not the huge a deal. But thank you." Papa and Nana both smile as Papa hands me the gift. It was had some weight to it. I walk over to a near by table, setting the package down as I undid the string that held everything together. I pulled away the paper wrapping to reveal a dark leather book with a silver clasp,the cover had two crescent moons, one at the top and the other mirroring it on the bottom, with a white gemstone at the center, recognizing it as moonstone. My eyes widen and i wouldn't be surprised if my mouth was hanging open from shock. My eyes darted back and my grandparents, having difficulty speaking. "Is this...?" I manage to squeak out. Everyone laughed at the pathetic attempt. "That's right." Nana says wiping a tear from you face from laughing to hard. "You're very own grimoire." Both her and Papa stand on both sides of me, Nana with her hands around my right arm and Papa resting a hand on my left shoulder. "We've taken the liberty to fill in several of the pages that we think would be useful from the family grimoire. We did go a bit overboard" Nana admits. "But don't worry, there's a ton of empty space left." Papa added in.

I look over to Nana then to Papa. These two have been here for Diana and I since our parents passed away when we were small children. They've taken us in not only has grandchildren but also parents. I wrap my arms around both of them. "Thank you so much. I love you guys."they both wrapped there arms around me in a warm and comforting embrace. "We love you too, sweets." Nana says. "And we will always." Papa added. "Hey! I wanna get in on this mushy stuff too!" I hear Diana say as we involve her in the family hug. "Better?" Papa teased. "Much." She said before laughing which caused us all to join.

Ding-Dong! The house door bell rings.

"That's probably Danny." I say as I give Nana and Papa another hug before making my way out the study, down the hall, to the front door. As I open the door and there stood Danny.

"Danny!" Diana rushing past giving Danny a big hug. "Woah there Diana." He chuckles, returning the hug. "Looking as gorgeous as ever I see." Diana let out a little giggle. "Why thank you. You are just as gorgeous if I may say. " She winked. They both laugh as I stand there rolling my eyes. "You both are weird. I hope you know that." They both stared at me. I notice Danny having a mischievous grin. "Danny don't. " I warned. "Yes do it Danny!" Diana claps excitedly. His grin still plastered on his face as he rushed at me, picking my up and carrying me over his shoulder as he quickly walked into the house with Diana following, giggling to herself. I try to struggle but it was no use. He was naturally stronger from all the working out they have to do for lacrosse. He starts to spin around as we go down the hall and into the kitchen. "Whoa! Seems like we are having fun!" Papa says letting out a chuckle. "We are definitely not Papa!" I say right as I wiggled myself free at last, trying to catch my balance as I land on my feet, hanging on to one of the bar stools. "Well I had fun." Diana chimed in with smile, as I roll my eyes at her.

"Danny." Papa began. "Are you set for your move?"
"Yes sir I am." Danny went to sit in the empty bar stool next to me, placing a hand on my harm, whispered "I'm sorry." I shook my head as I patted him on the back "I'll get you back someday." as I took a seat in the chair I was previously hanging on to. He smiled as he gave his attention back to Papa. "The movers left today with my things and they will make their way to my new place. In the mean time, I'm making a road trip out of the drive their with some buddies. Should be loads of fun. We leave tomorrow." He was saying before I noticed him stare off in the distanced. I followed his gaze to the baked goods at the far end of the island. "I was wondering  why it smells so good in here!"  "They taste even better." Diana says as she rested her face in her hands, sighing with a smile.

Nana suddenly appeared,  setting a medium size cardboard box on the counter next to us with a loud thump.  "Don't you worry sweetie. I've packed some of my baking for you." She says with a winked. Danny smiles. "Thanks Nana, I love your baking. Going to definitely miss them." She smiles and gives Danny a hug. "We are going to miss seeing you around." She then holds him at arms length. "But this isn't goodbye." He smiles as he gets up. "Well I should get going. I have an early morning." "Yes of course." Papa gives him a firm handshake before pulling him in for a hug. "You be safe. Make sure to text your cousins when or if you need anything." Danny nods. "Of course. Thanks for everything." He looks over at Diana who is pouting a little. "I'll be sure to send you pics on my trip." He promised. "You better." She gets up and hugs him one last time. "Have fun with your friends." She winks at him. He chuckles as he picks up the box, I follow him out after digging in my book bag and putting a small green wrapped box in my pocket.

"What did she even put in here?" Danny says as he carried the box to his car. I shrug. "Knowing Nana, she probably made sure you had all the essentials for the trip and then some." He loaded the box into his back seat, shutting the door. He turned around to face me with a small box with blue wrappings in his hands. "You do know that normally when someone leaves, they get the gifts?" I chuckle as I pull out the green wrapped box from my hoodie pocket. He smiles. "Well, consider this you're  graduation present." We exchange gifts. He immediately tore open his gift, revealing a black bead bracelet with a single purple bead that's slightly larger, surrounded by two silver rings. "Aww. You bought be jewelry." He teased. "Hey if you don't like it..." I began to say but was interrupted with a sudden hug. "No I love it. Thank you." I sigh and wrapped my arms around him and squeezed tight. "I'm happy you like it." After the hug he walked to his car and began to drive off. "I'll talk to you later." He said with a smile. "Yeah for sure." I say as I wave goodbye while he drives away.

I head back inside. I pick up my book bag from the kitchen,  Papa helping Nana clean the kitchen. "I'm heading to my room for the night." Nana turns her head from washing dishes. "Alright sweetie. Have a good night." "I've asked Diana to take your grimoire up to your room." Papa adds while he dries dishes. "Thank you, good night."

I make my way down the hall, up the stairs, down another hallway leading to a dark blue door,  my bedroom. I walk inside, closing the door behind me. I walk over to hang my bag on my desk chair before flopping myself onto my bed. Laying there, my mind wonders about the events that took place today. Being moved up a grade, almost getting hit by a car, working with Scott at the clinic, saying goodbye to cousin Danny. I turn over in my bed, closing my eyes and before I knew it, I was out.