"Just coffee for me, thanks," he said through his thick Dutch accent.
The waitress turned to the other person sitting at the booth.
"And what will you have, young man?"
The little boy, no more than 8, squinted up at her through his glasses and sighed.
"Waffles," he said sadly.
"Waffles it is then," the waitress said cheerily, smiling down at him gently before moving off to place their orders.
Daniel sighed and stared at the table. He really wasn't all that hungry, but Nick had brought him here and probably expected him to eat something.
Nick just looked at the small, sad form of his grandson. He shouldn't have to go through this kind of pain...he was too young...
This week had been hard on the both of them. He grieved for his daughter, his only child. He grieved for her husband, who had been such a good man and a good father.
And he grieved for Daniel, who through no fault of his own had been left behind to cope with this loss.
His thoughts were interrupted by a small voice.
"Nick?" said Daniel, almost too quiet to be heard.
"Yes?"
"What's going to happen to me?"
Nick looked up and found his eyes captured by the wide, innocent blue ones of his grandson. Big eyes in a skinny little face. His glasses were sliding down his nose again.
He looked so much like his mother.
"I don't know yet, Daniel. We will have to see."
Daniel nodded and pushed his glasses back up his face.
"Am I going to live with you?"
Nick smiled inwardly. Inquisitive, this boy. He was going to be a great archaeologist like his grandfather and parents. He had that questioning mind, that need to know force in him that drove people like them to dig sites to unbury Egyptian pharaohs and mummies.
"I don't know. I may not be able to, what with the many digs I go to in far off places."
Daniel's eyes lit up. "But I could help you...learn from you. I want to go with you. Please, Nick..."
"No, Daniel. You need to live in a place where you can go to school and get good grades. Go to college. You must use the brains you are given," he said, laying a calloused finger on his grandson's forehead.
Daniel sighed. It was no use. He was going to be stuck here, in America, forever. He hated it here.
But before he could say anything, the waitress brought Nick's coffee and his waffles, and Daniel realized that he was actually hungry for the first time in days.
While he plowed into his waffles, he thought about all the places he had been with his parents. He had been to so many countries in his short life-Turkey, England, Peru. He had loved them all, marveled at ancient temples and ruins and strange ancient writing.
But, he remembered, he had loved Egypt the best. The pyramids had dazzled him, and he wanted to go back there so badly it was like an ache in his chest. It joined the ache where his parents had been, and suddenly Daniel had never felt so alone.
He put down his fork, his appetite suddenly gone.
Nick noticed. "What is the matter, Daniel?"
Daniel couldn't talk; the lump in his throat was too big. He stared at his hands, willing the tears to back off.
Nick came around the table and slid into the booth next to Daniel, holding the little boy as he sobbed into his shirt.
"There, there, boy...there, there..." he said as he smoothed Daniel's hair.
"I...miss...them..." Daniel hiccupped between sobs.
"So do I, Daniel. So do I." Nick gently took hold of his grandson's chin and looked into his eyes.
"But we must go on living. Cannot give up on life because it lets us down once or twice," Nick said sternly.
Daniel nodded, swiping a hand across his eyes and sniffling.
As they left the diner hand in hand, Daniel swore to himself that somehow he could do it. He could prove to Nick that he could make it out there on his own, make a life for himself. Someday, he was going to be an archaeologist just like his grandfather and his parents. He'd live in Egypt and dig up pharaohs, hunt for buried treasure in exotic places.
Somehow, Daniel thought, he'd make Nick proud of him.