Black Wing [Watty Awards 2012]

Chapter 11

I awoke the next morning at ten o'clock, I heard the birds singing outside of my window again, they were singing the same tune they had yesterday. I flung myself out of bed and made my way downstairs and into the kitchen. All of a sudden a piercing sound filled the room, I covered my ears with my hands and squeezed my eyes shut. When the sound finally stopped, I opened my eyes to find my dad with a flashing whistle in his mouth. I started laughing at the sight of him. I looked around the room, there was a birthday cake with the words Happy 18th birthday! on it, I couldn't believe he had gone to all this trouble, I had totally forgotten it was my birthday.

I looked around the room again and noticed a bundle of presents on the counter tops. I flung my arms around my father and said "Thanks dad, you're the best" I had a huge smile on my face, he smiled back at me.

"Happy Birthday love" my father said "Cut into your cake, nothing better than a bit of cake for breakfast!" I smiled even more.

"Dad, this is amazing, you didn't have to" I said, feeling overwhelmed at the effort he had put into it.

"It was hard, with your birthday being so close to Christmas, but I managed to pull it off" he said, I could tell he was feeling proud of himself. We sat there at the kitchen table, stuffing our faces with birthday cake, the taste of raspberry and vanilla covered my mouth.

"Open this one first" my father said, with a mouthful of cake. He handed me a present, it was wrapped in metallic red wrapping paper, with a silver ribbon. I ripped it open to find a cardboard box, I opened the cardboard box. What I found was amazing, it was a snow globe, and inside it was a small angel, praying on its knees, its wings spread. It was beautiful, and it would mean more to me than he would ever know.

"Dad, its amazing, thank you" I said, I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes, I quickly wiped them away.

"You'll get me crying in a minute, open another one" he said, the excitement rising in his voice. He handed me another present, wrapped exactly the same as the other one, I took off the wrapping. The tears shot down my face when I saw what it was.

It was a picture. A picture of me and my mother. She was standing behind me, hands on my shoulders, she was as beautiful as ever, her auburn hair flowing past her shoulders, and her eyes were looking into mine. It was the best gift anyone could ever give me.

"Dad, you don't know how much this means to me" I said, tears still flowing from my eyes. My father got up out of his seat and gave me cuddle, he was crying too. He had no idea how much this picture actually meant to me, to know that she was important to both me and my father, it was still hard to believe she was gone.

"I wish she could have been here, you've grown up so much since she left" he said while wiping away his tears, his voice was barely audible.

"I know dad, I wish we would talk about her more" I said "I miss her so much" Me and my father were still cuddling, I started to wonder whether he would let go, I don't know how much my father was suffering over my mothers' death, but in a way, I could feel his pain in the way he held me, so close, like he didn't want to let go. Until he shuffled back over to the kitchen counter to retrieve yet another present.

"I don't know who this one is off; it had no name on it. The postman brought it this morning" he said. I stared at the present, who could this be off? I tore away the purple wrapping paper, inside was a note.

'I'm sorry I couldn't be there for your big day! But I couldn't let you think I didn't get you a present! See you soon! Love Katie'

She was sneaky. I can't believe she would do this for me, I needed to realise what good friends I had around me. Inside was a new pair of straightners. I laughed. Typical Katie. She knew how bad I was at styling hair, whereas Katie was born to style hair.