A knock at the door has Freda putting away the bowl containing shredded glittery nylons under the table. She walks briskly toward the door and opens it, to reveal her friend and neighbour, Avery.
"Heyyyyyy" Avery says, a smile on her face so wide you'd think she came to announce something as good as she won the lottery.
"Hiiii. Happy Birthdayyyyy" responds Freda as they both lean forward for a hug.
"Thank you. If only the company would be nice enough to give me a day off today. Speaking of which, I'll be leaving for work now. I just came to tell you byeee. I'm already late as it is."
"Oh sweetie. I'm sure even without a day off, your day will be awesome. Now go, before you are fined for checking in late on your birthday." says Freda to an already sprinting off Avery.
The sound of Avery's car leaving the driveway is heard and two minutes later, two heads peek out of a room, looking in the direction of Freda's door. Soon enough, her head also finds it way out, staring back at the other three heads.
With her fingers, she silently gestures the other two heads to make their way to her place. In her room, tons of shimmery paper bags and balloons lie around. Each blown out in the shape of letters. The other two little people, on cue, pick as much of the shiny airbags as both their hands can accommodate and make their way back to their house, Avery's home.
They go back and forth, moving the items from Freda's place to Avery's. This doesn't take too long as soon, they are settled in Avery's home. The two little people have their butts on the floor, legs bent before them, a bowl in front of them and scissors in one hand. They are shredding the coloured nylons Freda was shredding before Avery's visit. Freda herself, is not in the parlour but the sound of a mechanical whisk could be heard from somewhere in the house.
Everything stays the same for what seems like hours. The kids shredding the nylons, Freda continuously making baking sounds from the kitchen. Nothing changes till a loud cry is heard from a room everybody had forgotten about. The last born, Desmond who had been sleeping.
Almost mechanically, everybody pauses in their actions and within seconds they are scrambling towards the source of the cry. Freda getting there first, scoops the little boy up in her arms, patting his back and moving rhythmically in a way to pacify the almost 2year old. It works as he stops crying almost immediately. The other kids head back to the parlour to continue with their shredding while Freda takes him to the kitchen for his regular morning cereal.
Two weeks ago, while Avery was away on work, her two kids of 12 and 8 had gone over to Freda's place with their little brother, to ask for help with planning a surprise for her mom. Freda, of course had obliged to helping them willingly and today, was the D-Day. With Freda's help, they got all the required items and for the past two days, they've been preparing the little gifts such as the handmade beaded necklace they wanted to gift her and leaving it back at Freda's. But somehow, there still appeared to be so much to do till Avery got back from work.
The kids soon finished with the shredding and had to stuff them into the balloons, so when they bursted as Avery entered, there'll be a shower effect. The cake Freda made had been set strategically on the dining and now she was busy taping all the handwritten letters from the kids to their mom. The letters were going to be placed on every step of the way that led from the door to the dining room. The shimmery paper bags had all been put up to form a string of letters that spelt Happy Birthday Mummy.
The kids were so excited that their mom's surprise was coming along well and they wished things would stay that way till their mom got back. But no.
It wasn't until they heard a cry similar to that of Desmond's, that they all raised their heads to the sight few metres away from them.
On the dining table, was the boy, seated before the cake, hand suspended in the air. Weirdly, the perfectly round cake had now taken an odd shape. Half of it's evenly rounded sides had now flattened in and on his face, was the imprint of the icing.
Freda had left the little boy, asleep on the sofa, and had gone about taping the letters. Busy with the tasks at hand, they had all forgotten and now he had cake smeared from his cheek to his left eye and part of his forehead.
She ran towards him and picked him up. Worried about the condition of his eyes, she headed straight for the bathroom where she rinsed the icing off his face. After a few minutes of having water sluicing down his face, the icing seemed to have left his eyes. It was now time to worry about the mashed cake.
Heading to the parlour, she looked directly at the wall clock which displayed 4pm.
"Oh no. Kids your mom will be back in an hour and there's no way to salvage the cake, as messed up as it is. Time is of the essence".
They all turned to look around and everything was almost in place, except for the partly defaced cake. They all stared, contemplating their next step and Jane, the 12 year old, went towards the cake and turned it backwards. Leaving the smashed part of the cake facing the wall.
Freda, impressed with Jane's smart action, went back to taping the letters and placing them in their respective locations. The kids continued with stuffing the balloons and tying them to the rope tied from one end of the room to the other.
Soon, they were done and it was now time for the wait. At the sound of Avery's car pulling into the driveway, they all crawled towards the back of the sofa. Even Desmond seemed to be in on the arrangement.
"Janie, Vee, I'm ho-". came Avery's voice as she entered. The sound of the balloons bursting and raining glitters on her, had her pausing in her tracks. And at that moment, they all stood from behind the chair where they'd been hiding. Desmond crawling out and walking towards her.
"Oh my darlings" She cried out, stretching her arms out to envelope them in a hug. The kids, excited to see their mother, ran towards her. Jane bending to pick Desmond who seemed to be having a hard time running towards his mom in baby steps.
Reaching their mom, the kids dived into her open arms, happy that their mom was happy. Even though she hadn't seen the cake.
Images were generated using Meta.ai
Posted Using INLEO
What a beautiful and touching story. Despite the problems, love and family happiness are among the most important things in our lives.
They sure are. And I'm glad Avery and her kids share a beautiful familial bond. Thank you
The importance of family is seen in your story and this was such a beautiful read. Thank you for sharing.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thank you
Such a lovely stories tears came out of my eyes
Ohhh... I didn't think it was that emotional. Thank you
Yea it was
Congratulations @oluchi31! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out our last posts:
This is such a beautiful and heartwarming story. The love of families ❤️❤️
Even in problems or sad situations, family is still what we’ve got. There is nothing that beats having a good family