Silent Pain

Welcome 2020

"Oh my precious angel, don't cry!" Grandma says, walking in the room with her arms out. I let go of Tina so she could let grandma hug her. Aunt Avery and Uncle Liam stood in the doorway behind grandpa. "Was it another flashback sweetie?" Aunt Avery asked. "Yeah" Tina whispered. "Aunt Avery, I have flashbacks too." My aunt had a surprised look in her eyes. "You do?" "Yeah, almost every night." Grandpa headed for the living room and came back with two gifts. He gave one to me and the other to Tina. We opened them and they were journals. Mine was blue with white letters spelling the word "dream". Tina's was purple with glittery blue letters spelling the word "believe". "Thanks grandpa." I said. "You're welcome dear." "Yeah thanks." Tina says after wiping away a tear. Grandma stood in front of us while we looked at our journals. "You know, when your mothers were growing up, I always encouraged them to write their feelings in journals." "I still have a few of mine." Aunt Avery added. "My mom probably has hers too. Likely in storage in our house." "I think it would do you both good to keep journals of your own." grandpa added. Tina and I grinned and nodded. Tina was still tired, so she apologized for waking everyone up to which everyone brushed off with "no, you didn't" or "not to worry." I got in bed too. We slept until the sun was shining into the room. My parents had come back and Tina wasn't in the room. I got dressed and went into the living room.

Tina was making cookies with grandma and Aunt Avery. I went over and joined them as my parents watched TV with grandpa. Grandma smiled at me and asked me to get the ingredients for the frosting. I pulled out some powdered sugar, milk and sprinkles then put them on the counter next to Tina. Grandma's way of making frosting was similar to how Allen made frosting, so I asked my grandma if she taught Allen. "Well I gave him some pointers when he was taking his culinary class, but I'm sure he found some shortcuts." Interesting how Allen was creative enough to come up with some tweeks to a common recipe, most people who can do that are professional chefs. When Allen finished his culinary class, it made me wonder that if he were to have been a chef, would he have tried to open his own restaurant? He once mentioned how there should be a restaurant called 'Kingston's Diner,' and the name really had a ring to it.

Grandma took the finished cookies out of the oven and put the next tray in. Tina was using a spatula to move the cookies to the cooling rack when her phone rang. "Oh, it's my roommate, excuse me for a minute." Tina went down the hallway back to the guest room while I helped grandma put the next batch of cookies on another tray. It was the last batch as well, so I started cleaning up the kitchen, and that's when Tina came back in. "Sorry about that, just a little check up." "Not to worry sweetie." Grandma says. "I'll take care of the rest gram, thanks for letting us help." "Oh my pleasure Tina! Help yourselves to a cookie, you know what they say, you can't serve what you didn't sample." Tina and I giggled.

After lunch, we were all watching Christmas movies when there was a sudden knock on the door. Grandpa answered it, then he called for me. I came to the door to see Javier! I hugged him so tightly, I heard him gasping. "Come in! You must be cold!" "To be fair muchacha, I haven't really been too far north in this country." I could tell. He was wearing two coats, a scarf, hat and heavy gloves. "How did you get the money to surprise me like this?" "Kate's papá, he paid for my ticket with the half off discount. It was only $308." "Wow, and your family is okay with this?" "Mamá doesn't mind, she actually understands." Grandma cleared her throat, and I turned around. "Oh! Sorry grandma, this is my friend Javier, his family is from Mexico." "I can tell," grandpa said. "When did your family move to the states?" "In 2008 señor. I met your nieta in the third grade, we had the same teacher. She was my first friend." Javier looked at me during that last sentence. "Well, I hope you like America young man. My name is Matthew Walker, you can call me Matt, this is my wife, Jessie, my older daughter Avery, son-in-law Liam, and my other granddaughter, Tina." Javier politely nodded to each of my family members.