Happy Birthday Allison

"Everybody, it's time for cake!"

All the children immediately stopped what they were doing and came running across the freshly cut grass and towards the picnic table, which beheld a frosted chocolate cake. Allison came giggling and stumbling alongside the others. The expression in her wide brown eyes seemed to match the joyous smile that filled up most of her face. Excited shouts and screams of the word "cake" continued among the toddlers as they seated themselves around the table. She sat in the center of all of them, taking her rightful place as birthday girl in front of her birthday cake. It was all for her birthday. July twenty second.

Her mother carefully placed three candles atop the cake and lit them. One of the kids gasped when the candles caught fire. Allison, however, found the flames, flickering just inches away from her face, fascinating. Letting the heat radiate her small, inquisitive face, she stared at it, noticing that the fire was somehow yellow and orange, then purple. Her trance was broken when everyone began to sing.

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Allison (Each person sang that note differently, distorting her name.)…….Happy birthday to you!

Everyone began to clap for her. She redirected her gaze from the candles to the people surrounding her. Her smile was utterly sincere and innocent as her eyes swept across each person.

"Go ahead sweetheart, make a wish," her father said.

Allison looked back at the three lit candles in front of her and glanced up at her father and mother. What did she want? She remembered the older boy on some kind of special silver bike that she saw earlier at the park that day. What kind of bike was it again? She remembered someone behind her calling it a mountain bike. He seemed so happy when she watched him race along the sidewalk, with a much older boy, a teenager, in close pursuit. He was older than both her and the other boy. 'You can't get me Derek!" the little boy teased in a singsong voice and looked back at his pursuer. The teenager smiled to himself, but seemed truly out of breath when he gasped out, "I will get you eventually Kyle!"

She decided that is what she wanted. A bike. More of that happiness. She closed her eyes tightly and wished with all her might. After taking a sharp intake of breath, she blew, and the flames sputtered out. Smoke rose up over them and Griffith Park, into the gray-blue sky.

***

It was dark out now. Her friends had already been picked up by their parents. She sat in her father's lap, watching her mother clean up the picnic table. She noticed her mother humming classical musical quietly to herself. It was Chopin. Her father's arms were wrapped around her. In front of her he held a sketch pad and a pencil. He had been teaching her how to draw, but she did not recognize the drawing as the architecture of a house. She turned suddenly to face her father. Those big, hopeful brown eyes always found a way to soften his very heart and soul. He put down his sketch pad and pencil.

"Yes, sweetheart?"

Strangely, she looked down with what looked like guilt and bit her lip nervously.

"What's wrong?"

Her voice was quiet when she asked, "Daddy, if I told you what I wished for….will it not come true?"

Her eyes flitted back to his face when he said, "Of course not, honey. You can tell me."

"Okay," she took a deep breath and her father smiled. "I wished for a bike. That's what I want. A silver mountain bike."

Anxiety and excitement lit up in her eyes as she bit her lip again, and took a sideways glance at her father, waiting for his reaction. He chuckled at how adorable his daughter was being. How does a three year old even know what a mountain bike is? She misinterpreted the chuckle and frowned.

"You won't make my wish come true?" she said and curiously cocked her head slightly to the side. Her father found it quite odd. He had never seen his daughter do that before.

"Don't worry," he said, patting her back lightly, "I will make sure it comes true."

"When Daddy? When?" she said, with eagerness in both her voice and expression. She edged closer to his face gripping the collar of his shirt. He hugged her and laughed.

Smiling contentedly, he squeezed her closer and said, "Next year. Maybe next year."