There was a girl once, who was very happy. She had a fair, and just dad, and a mother, who would help her get on her daddy’s good side after every disagreement they had. Her daddy was a doctor of some sort, and her mother was a nurse. They lived in a two story house, with beautiful bay windows that let the sunlight shine through during the sunrise. They had a porch in the back with a swing, facing the sunset. She had a younger brother that she got along with just fine. They had a large backyard, which held a big tree with many branches. Those branches held a tire swing, and a rope swing which the children played on almost every sunshiny day. On the rainy days, they went inside and played board games, or video games. The mother fixed supper, and sometimes had the girl help her. Every Friday night, they gathered around the tv together, with a big bowl full of popcorn between them, and watched a movie. The movie ranged from Disney, Transformers, Star Wars, Power Rangers, and Marvel Superheroes, for they took turns picking, and everyone liked a different thing. The girl had just started first grade, and she loved every bit of it. The boy was about to start preschool, and he was more excited about his transformers backpack than anything else in the world. The girl let her mom fix her wavy blonde hair in anyway she seemed fit, and she could sit on daddy’s lap for hours letting him brush her hair.


Every spring, the family would go to the mall. The girl went with her dad, and they picked out two dresses, one summer, one winter, for her. And, if he saw one she’d like, he would get a dress for his wife. The boy went with his mother and got new dress clothes, and sometimes a tie. And, if she saw one he’d like, she would get a tie (and sometimes, a bowtie) for her husband. On the staircase walls hung many pictures of the family. One, in the middle, was of the parents on their wedding day. And everything after that, was like a big timeline. Birthdays, Christmas’, vacations, first days, special moments. On days when their parents were distracted with other things, the kids slide down the banister from the upstairs. The parents knew it was happening, but chose to let it happen, for there hasn’t been an injury so far.

One day, in early December, the kids helped their mom wrapped presents in the living room. When they heard a car pull up, they hurriedly finished the last one. When their father walked in the door, they attacked him with hugs, and “Happy Birthdays”. Not long after, all the presents had been opened, and the kids had gone upstairs to make rocketships out of the cardboard boxes. The wife stood up and walked to the kitchen table, grabbed a present and walked back. He smiled as he took it, and began to opened it. She kneeled in front of him, all smiles, biting her bottom lip and impatiently watching him. When he finally got it open, he grabbed the picture and looked at it again. He laughed, and hugged his wife, kissing her and smiling. She couldn’t hold it anymore, and cried softly, smiling almost as big as she did on her wedding day. He had dropped the picture in the embrace, and it lied there, face up. … It was an ultrasound sound of a little baby boy.