It was a chilly fall afternoon and the Smith children, Eric, Emma, and Emmy, were sitting on a log by the old lake, as they once did with their grandfather. They would just sit and talk, whether it was about school, friends, the latest trends, or even how their day went. Their grandfather, Emilio, would do anything just to make sure that their relationship would forever be strong. He would pack a lunch and wait for the kids to come home from school and then they would head to the lake and begin to speak about their day. Unfortunately, Emilio had died when the kids were quite young, however the bond that had grown over time had never once decreased. Ever since Emilio died, the children had continued with the schedule of coming home from school, making a lunch, heading to the lake, and speaking about subjects from their day to the most strangest things as if he had never left.
As they sat at the lake, as usual, they spoke about their days but today something just felt different and none of them could tell what it was. Emmy and Emma, being twins and both the youngest of the three, felt that if they could ask anyone any questions it would be their older brother that is after their grandfather. The one thing on their minds, begging to be asked, was what had happened to their grandfather. Of course they were old enough to understand that he had died, but what happened after that? Where did he go? Does he still think about them? Little did they know, these were the exact questions that were running through Eric's mind at that very moment. The three kids had been sitting there in silence for a few hours, all relaxed and lying against the log, each lost in their own thoughts. It remained that way for quite a while, that is until Emma broke the silence. "Eric, do you know where grandpa went after he died?"
Eric sighed and responded "Honestly, I don't know. I've been thinking about that for a bit of a while now....what you think Emmy?" The two siblings looked over to Emmy, who hadn't spoken at all this entire time. She just responded with a quick shrug of her shoulders and the other two just sighed and went back to laying down. After a few more minutes of silence they suddenly hear a mumbling. "Wait what did you say?" questioned Eric and Emma. Emmy sighs and says "What if he's in the stars?" It takes a minute for the others to process but they began to think it through and began to wonder if that could be possible. They continued to sit in silence and wonder about the stars. They laid there with the possible thought of their grandfather being in the stars. Emma stuttered while she asked, "W-What if we go to the stars when we die but what if we don't?" Eric furrowed his eyebrows because he himself didn't know where you would go when you pass. There were so many different thoughts running through his mind at that point. "Where did his grandfather go? Where would he go when he died? What about his sisters? What if they went somewhere else? Would they all go somewhere different?"
As the night came, they all retreated back to their house with their grandfather in mind. When they got home they shared dinner with their grandmother and they all headed up to bed. While Emma, Emmy, and their grandmother went to sleep, Eric laid in his bed wide awake, while rethinking all the memories he shared with his grandfather and the twins. There was a time when the twins were little, it was right after their parents died in the car crash, it was when only Eric and Emilio went to the lake. Considering that their parents died right after the twins were born and since Eric didn't remember them so well, Emilio would tell him stories about what his parents looked like, what they were like, and how they had died. He slightly remembers his mom when she brought the twins home from the hospital. When their father and mother walked through the door, each carrying a little pink bundle and walking up to the nursery that they had spent a few months planning and decorating. He was suddenly brought out of his thoughts when he heard his door opening. Eric looked up to see the twins cowering behind each other in fear. He motioned for them to come over to his bed, they did, and he raised an eyebrow as if to ask what was wrong. They answered with shaky voices "W-We couldn't sleep because of the thunder." Eric didn't even realize that there was any thunder until they mentioned it. He sighed and scooted to the middle and the twins each ran to a side of his bed and began to cuddle up to the blanket. He sighed and said "Just try to sleep,"
They woke up the next morning to their grandmother calling them from the doorway. "Hello kids, time to wake up. I have breakfast ready for you guys before school," The three got out of bed, got dressed, and headed downstairs. Soon they headed off to school and Eric spent the day still thinking about all the memories. He didn't even realize how fast the day had went by and soon enough he was walking home with the twins. Each one was wondering and hoping that they would continue with the tradition and go to the lake but none had the guts to recommend it. They arrived home and went to their rooms, they each finished their homework and headed downstairs. Fortunately by the time they went downstairs their grandmother was already packing a lunch for the kids to take with them. Eric walked up to the twins and asked with hesitation, "Do you think we should still go down to the lake?", Emma and Emmy both nodded as if was the most obvious answer in the world. So they gathered the lunch and headed towards the lake, and as soon as they got there they followed tradition by just laying on the log and relaxing. Each child was slightly hesitant as to whether or not they should start a usual conversation about their day until Emmy began to speak by saying, "So today Mrs. Gonzalez was in a pretty bad mood so she gave us a ton of homework for tonight." Emma and Eric looked slightly surprised due to the fact that a majority of the time Emmy remained silent, but nodded nonetheless and tried to carry the conversation. They each took turn in talking about their day as if their grandfather was still there just without the replies. Eric looked to the sky and noticed how dark it had gotten over time, he sighed, thinking about the talks he shared with his grandfather and his sisters over the years. He decided to talk to his sisters about the situation about his grandfather, he turned to them and asked "Do you guys ever think about the talk we had? Ya know, the one about where grandpa is?"
Much to his surprise, the twins looked over to him and nodded. "We had been thinking about it for a while now. We even were talking about it earlier at school," Emma said curing his surprise. To say Eric was shocked was an under exaggeration, he never took the time to think that what had been on his mind lately was the same thing running through his sisters' minds. "What do you think now, like where he is? 'Cause I'm definitely not sure if he is in the sky or the stars or wherever." Emmy asked as the other two just shrugged their shoulders. Emmy spoke up again suggesting that they ask their grandmother when they get home. Eric and Emma seemed to like that idea and all three kids were excited to say the least and all seemed to want to return home more than ever. So they all decided to pack up the remains of the lunch into the lunch bag and walked the way home while deciding who would be the one to ask the unanswered question to their grandmother. With not much argument it was decided that they would approach her together however Eric would be the one to ask the question. They spent so much time talking about the future conversation with their grandmother that they had already reached the house, so they walked in to see their grandmother in the kitchen, over the stove, cooking dinner. It was until they were eating dinner that they decided to ask their grandmother, they were sitting at the dinner table eating the chicken that she had cooked. "So, uh, grandma we were wondering if you could answer a question for us?", she summoned him to continue with a nod of her head, "Where do you think grandpa went after he left? Because we were wondering, plus Emmy said that he could be in the stars."
She looked like she was very concentrated on her answer, she finally looked up and said, "I think he can be wherever you want him to be. He could be in the stars, he could be in the sky, he can even be wherever you go because he will always be in your heart," Eric was surprised as to why her answer was so simple but he was definitely pleased because it did make sense to him and as he looked over to his sisters, they also looked relieved to have found an answer. "If we go anywhere he'll be with us, is that the same case with mom and dad?" Emmy asked but quickly regretted it due to the look on her grandmother's face. At the mention of her lost son and daughter-in-law, her face dropped and she began to rethink all the memories from her son's first baseball game to his first date to his wedding to the night that they brought home Eric then the twins. She looked up to her grandchildren and said "I sure hope so, and I hope that wherever they are, they will be there waiting for us." And so it was left at that with all of the hope they could muster, being set on the wait of seeing their grandfather and their parents once again, wherever they would be.
