AUTHOR'S NOTE: Finally, here is Charlie's birthday chapter! Happy Birthday to Tamilyn313, who prodded me to finish up so she could have the chapter as her birthday present! And thanks to her for giving me so many great ideas for Charlie's fic! We're one chapter away from the 100th- EEK! I have something exciting in store for that, so keep your eyes peeled! Enjoy!
CONTENT WARNING for some angst and tears (might make you cry) and lots of fluff!
~ spn ~ spn ~ spn ~
I woke up slowly, and rolled over- I could smell bacon and something sweet...cinnamon?
I sat up, realizing—it was my birthday!
I got out of bed and peeked into Daddy's and Uncle Sam's rooms, but they were empty- they must already be awake.
I could hear talking in the kitchen, and got nervous all of a sudden. What if they'd forgotten? What if they'd decided not to celebrate my birthday? I stood in the doorway and looked in.
Uncle Sam was at the stove, holding a spatula.
Daddy was sitting at the table with a mug in his hand. He saw me, set it down, and scooted his chair back. "Happy Birthday, Charlie!" He gave me a big smile and opened his arms.
I walked over to him, and he pulled me into his arms and kissed the side of my head.
"Thanks, Daddy!" I hugged him back, feeling relieved.
Grandpa John came into the kitchen. "There she is! Happy Birthday, darlin'!" He leaned down to drop a kiss on the top of my head as he walked by, and got a mug out of the cabinet to pour himself some coffee.
"Thanks!" I replied, smiling at Grandpa John. He leaned against the counter and took a drink.
I looked at Daddy, since he was still holding on to my arm. "Now it's time for a birthday tradition," he announced.
"What? What tradition?" I was confused.
"Your birthday spanking!" He pulled me down across his lap and I yelped, "Dad-dy!"
"One..." He brought his hand down, but then, he just patted my bottom.
"Two..." He counted out loud as he continued to land pats on my rear. I relaxed, realizing he wasn't being serious.
"Nine..." He finished, "And one to grow on!" He placed one hard swat right to the middle of my butt, and I yelped again.
He flipped me upright onto his knee, and hugged me. Then he set me on the floor and turned me towards Uncle Sam. "Okay, Sam, you're next!"
"What?" I gasped, looking at Daddy, but he was grinning at me. "I'm just teasing," he told me.
Uncle Sam brought a plate of bacon to the table and set it down. "Set the table, birthday girl." He patted my bottom.
Daddy left the kitchen and Grandpa John brought a stack of plates over. I set them out as Uncle Sam removed a tray of cinnamon rolls from the oven.
"Yum, that smells so good!" I said happily. I sat down, and Daddy came back into the room holding a stack of presents. He set them on the counter. "I figured you could open your presents from us before the big event," he smiled at me. I was having a party at Chuck E. Cheese's today.
"Can I open them now?"
"Let's eat first," Daddy sat down next to me, grabbing his mug and taking a drink.
I was hard to not gobble all my food up at once, I was so excited about my presents! I snuck glances over at them as everyone talked.
Daddy leaned back and stretched, and then scooted his chair back and grabbed the stack of gifts. "All right, Charlie, you've waited long enough."
He set the pile in front of me, and I felt nervous again. I looked at all of them, but they were all watching me with smiles on their faces.
"Go ahead," Daddy handed me a square package wrapped in brown paper. "This is from Missouri, she sent it earlier in the week."
Daddy had to cut the thick mailing tape with his pocketknife, but then I tore the paper off. Underneath the brown paper was a box wrapped in colorful paper with butterflies all over it. In the box was a fancy notebook with a pretty cover. I looked inside, and Missouri had written a note on the inside flap.
"It's for journaling, she said I should start writing stuff down, especially when I see things or know them. And I should write how things were for me before." I flipped through the pages. "She wrote down some exercises for me to do too!"
"That's a good idea," Daddy said. He pushed the pile of presents closer to me. "Go ahead and open another one, they won't bite!"
A few minutes later everything was unwrapped. Grandpa John had given me an outfit- a long shirt with matching leggings with Hello Kitty printed all over them, and a Hello Kitty wristwatch with a glittery silver strap. Daddy had given me a pendant with symbols on it that he said was a protection amulet, a couple new games for my 3DS, and some framed photos to put in the bedroom. One was of Daddy and me at the hospital during the party when I graduated from PT, there was one of all of us on Christmas day, that Uncle Bobby had taken, and one of Ben and me from the waterpark. I also had a new book series to read from Uncle Sam.
But the best present was another one from Uncle Sam- it was a charm bracelet with sparkly purple and pink stones on it, with a couple of Hello Kitty charms. There were also charms from each of them- a book charm from Uncle Sam, a heart charm from Grandpa John, and a slice of pie charm from Daddy, with cherry filling made from tiny red rhinestones! Uncle Sam said he came up with the idea for it and Imani helped him pick it out and then Daddy and Grandpa John said they wanted to get charms for it too.
After I had thanked them, and we had cleared away all the wrapping paper, Daddy said, "I have a surprise for you, Ben is going to call today!" He pulled out his phone.
"He is? But I thought- I mean, Lisa-" I said hesitantly.
"She called my on my birthday and we had a- a good talk. She feels differently now, than she did before, and she thinks- well, she wants me to be a part of Ben's life." Daddy explained.
"What does that mean?" I felt a pang of anxiety. Did that mean he'd leave me and go to live with them for a while?
Daddy chuckled. "Relax, Charlie, it just means that I'm going to talk to Ben every once in a while for now, they may try to come visit us this summer. Or maybe we could all meet somewhere and go on a vacation, would you like that?"
I nodded. "Yeah, we could go to an amusement park!"
Uncle Sam stood up and started to clear the table.
"Thank you for all the presents," I said happily. Grandpa John stood up and came over to me, leaning down to hug me. "You're welcome, sweetheart."
Daddy's phone rang just then, in a funny way. He was getting a video call from Lisa! A window popped up in the display, and then Lisa and Ben were there. They smiled at me.
"Happy Birthday, Charlie!" Lisa said, and Ben chimed in, "Yeah, Happy Birthday!"
"Thank you!" I smiled back at them. Lisa's hair was longer and Ben looked thinner in the face.
"How have you been? How is home schooling going?" Lisa asked.
"It's okay..." I said. "I'm taking gymnastics now!"
"That's cool! Our baseball team went to the championships and and I caught the fly ball that won the game!" Ben said proudly.
"That's neat!" I said, and everyone congratulated him.
"Are you doing anything today?" Ben asked.
"We're having a party at Chuck E. Cheese's!" I said excitedly.
"Oh, awesome! At the one near us, you could hit the foosball table real hard and it would give you extra tickets!"
"Ben, you never told me that!" Lisa frowned at him.
Ben looked guilty. "Uh, Tyler figured it out." Then he perked up and said, "Well, have fun! We're going to a Science Convention today, 'cause I'm in the Young Explorers Club!"
"Yeah, we have to go, we're car-pooling, and our ride just got here," Lisa said regretfully. "Have a great day, Charlie!"
"Thanks, you too!" I said, and everyone said goodbye.
Daddy put his phone in his pocket. "Why don't you get dressed in your new outfit for the party?"
"Okay...will you wear your Hello Kitty shirt, so we match?"
Daddy had laughed when he saw the 'Hello Daddy' design on the shirt I had gotten for him.
"Well, okay, I guess." He leaned down to hug me.
I gathered up all my presents and carried them to my room. I spent some time arranging the photos on my dresser, and then after I got dressed I put my Hello Kitty barrettes in my hair.
Uncle Sam came to the door. "I'm going to leave to go pick up Imani, so I'll see you over there."
I held up my wrist. "Can you help me put the bracelet on?"
He walked over to me. "I sure can." He took it and fastened it on my wrist. "You like it?" He seemed a little shy.
"I don't like it, I love it!" I threw my arms around his waist and he laughed and leaned down to hug me.
"I'm glad...I know we had it rough for a while, and I didn't want you to think...well, I didn't want you to think it was because of you or that I had a problem with you or anything... I love you, Charlie."
"I love you too, Uncle Sam!" I squeezed him, and he kissed the top of my head and then let me go.
"I'll see you in a little while."
I stood with Daddy and Uncle Sam near the entrance to Chuck E. Cheese. Uncle Sam was looking around at everything with an uneasy look on his face.
Imani put her hand on his arm. "What's wrong, Sam?"
"Well-" he sighed. "There used to be this chain, similar to this, called Plucky Pennywhistle's, and Dean would take me there when we were younger, and-"
"Sammy's scared of clowns, and he didn't like all the mascots they had," Daddy said teasingly.
"It didn't help that you would ditch me for hours so you could go make out with some girl," Uncle Sam retorted.
Imani put her arm around Sam's waist. "There are no clowns here, Sam. And remember, you're an adult now, and you don't have to be scared."
Uncle Sam pulled her close. "Yeah, thanks," he smiled down at her and then kissed her cheek.
One of the workers came over and pointed at a table. " Hi, I'm Tia. You're going to be over there at that table, all righty?"
Daddy nodded. "What are we supposed to do?"
"When your guests arrive, you can point them over there to drop their things off, and then let them go play games for a while. Come with me and I'll get you set up with tokens and everything."
Daddy followed her over to the counter. We saw Addi and Aubrey coming in with their mom.
"Happy Birthday, Charlie!" Addi said happily, grinning at me.
"Thanks!" I grinned back at her.
"I've been talking to everyone in the neighborhood, and a few of the parents said they would be here," Addi's Mom said to Uncle Sam.
He nodded at her. "Thank you, that's great."
I had been playing outside more with some of the other neighborhood kids, and gotten to know them a little bit, but we didn't have anyone's phone numbers. Addi's Mom had talked to Daddy and Uncle Sam and said she would call people and tell them I was having a party, to make up for how mean Aubrey had been.
"Which table is yours?" Addi asked me. I pointed it out, and we walked over to it to set the present down. By the time we came back, Daddy was there with little plastic cups of tokens. He handed one to Aubrey, and she peered into it. "Only ten?"
"That's for starters," Daddy said.
"What do you say, Aubrey?" Miss Darlene asked, nudging her.
Daddy handed a cup to Addi. "Thank you," she said, and Aubrey chimed in, "Thank you."
They walked away to start playing games. I stood with Daddy and Uncle Sam and Miss Darlene, waiting to see who else showed up. The worker, Tia, stood with us too, and pointed people to the tables that we were using. A couple of the older girls who were friends with Aubrey came together, and they ran over to see her, giggling. Miss Darlene reminded me of everyone's names as they came in because I couldn't remember everyone.
Daddy handed me a cup of tokens. "Go play, and we'll keep an eye out for the other kids, all right?"
I smiled at him. "Okay, Daddy, thanks!"
He ruffled my hair and then tweaked my nose. As I walked away I heard Miss Darlene say, "She is such a sweet little girl!"
I found Addi and we played a couple games of Pac-Man together, and then we tried to play a game where you had to dance on a mat that had squares that lit up in time to the music. It was really hard and I was out of breath when we were done. Addi went to ask her mom if she could get a drink.
I heard someone calling my name and turned. Macy and Cara came running over to me.
Macy hugged me, and then Cara did, giggling excitedly.
"Gram-Gram bringed us!" Macy told me.
Miss Stella came over with her mother, and she smiled at me. "Happy Birthday, Charlie!" She looked around like she was looking for someone.
"Unca!" Cara shrieked, and she ran over and threw her arms around Uncle Sam's legs.
He and Imani were standing with their arms around each other.
I looked over at Miss Stella and she was looking at Uncle Sam, and she got very pale.
I looked back at Uncle Sam, he had picked Cara up and she was looking at Imani. Uncle Sam was talking to Cara.
He brought Cara over to us, Imani walking next to him. "Hi there!" he said, setting Cara down. "How are you doing, Stella? How's the arm?"
"It's, uh, it's doing well," Miss Stella stuttered, looking back and forth between Uncle Sam and Imani.
"Who's that lady?" Macy asked.
"Dat Unca's giwl-fwen!" Cara chirped, and it seemed like Miss Stella got even more pale.
"Girlfriend? Ewww!" Macy wrinkled her nose, and Cara giggled.
Daddy came over holding a couple cups of tokens. "Hey, glad you could make it!" He smiled at them. "How's it going?"
"My head is all better, I was a brave girl when the stitches got tooken out!" Macy told him proudly.
"That's great!" Daddy smiled at her.
"We 'cited!" Cara tugged on the side of his jeans. She hopped in place and grabbed my hand, grinning widely. "It Taw-ee's birfday!" I saw what was in the present that they had gotten for me. It was a plush Hello Kitty that came with some outfits. I could feel Cara's excitement about giving it to me, but she was also jealous because she wanted one too. I pulled my hand away from her.
"Uh—I'm going to—I need to use the rest room," Miss Stella said. She took the gift bag. "I'll go put this on the table." She turned and hurried away.
Daddy looked confused. "She okay?"
Uncle Sam shrugged.
Daddy squatted down. "Well, girls, here are some tokens for you to use, you have to-"
"We know, we done this before!" Macy took one of the cups. "Charlie, let's go play something!"
Cara took her cup and the three of us walked over to the video games. Most of them were too tall for the girls to even see the screens, so we walked over to where the Skee-ball game was.
Cara went up to a lane and grabbed a ball.
"Hey!" Aubrey and another girl were standing there. "Put that back! It's mine!"
"You not da boss a' me!" Cara frowned.
"Yeah, but we were here first!" The other girl said, taking the ball. She tossed it and it landed in one of the circles and disappeared. A moment later, a bell rang, and then tickets came out of the little dispenser at the end.
"Oohh!" Cara's eye lit up and she went to grab them.
"Get off, brat!" Aubrey stepped close and grabbed Cara's shoulder.
"You git off!" Cara snapped.
"I remember you, you're the little twit who ate my lipstick on New Year's Eve!" Aubrey sneered, yanking Cara back so hard that she fell down. Cara looked like she was going to cry.
All of a sudden, Miss Darlene and Daddy were standing there. "You okay?" Daddy helped Cara stand up.
"Aubrey! What did I tell you?" Miss Darlene hissed.
Aubrey pointed at Cara, protesting, "She was bothering us! She-"
"Are you supposed to be putting your hands on other kids?"
"But-"
"Aubrey, answer me!"
Aubrey looked down at the floor. "No ma'am."
"Do you remember what I said was going to happen the next time you put your hands on someone?"
Aubrey stared at her mom, her face pale. "But Moooomm-"
Darlene took Aubrey's arm. "But Mom nothing. Let's go." She started to walk with Aubrey, towards the hallway where the bathrooms were.
Aubrey stopped, and turned to her mom at one point, talking and gesturing. Miss Darlene said something back, and then swatted Aubrey's butt and pointed to the bathrooms. She glanced over at us.
Daddy grinned at her and gave her a thumbs up.
Uncle Sam came over holding two cups. "Hey, Dean, you and me, b-ball, let's go." He shook a plastic cup of tokens at Daddy.
"Oh, it's on, Sammy," Daddy grinned and took the cup. "C'mon, Charlie, watch and learn," he said.
I followed him and Uncle Sam over to the corner where there were 4 basketball games set up. You had to make as many baskets in a row as possible. After each round the basket would move either higher up or further back. Daddy and Uncle Sam started playing next to each other, and in no time at all they had each started winning tickets. Both of them continued their game, getting basket after basket, and each time they leveled up, a bell would ring and lights would flash. Some boys noticed and came over to watch. Soon there was a small crowd of people watching.
"Grab the tickets, Charlie," Daddy said, as his machine spat out another row of tickets.
"Wow, look at that tall guy go!" I heard a boy say admiringly. Every time the bell would ring, some of the kids would cheer. I noticed that a couple of employees had come over to watch.
"I didn't know Sam was so good at basketball!" Imani said to me.
"Me neither!" I told her.
Finally the baskets started moving randomly, to make it as hard as possible to continue making baskets, and the lights were blinking. Soon Daddy missed three in a row, and his game was over. Uncle Sam was able to keep going for another few minutes and then he messed up too. When he finished, the kids cheered again.
"Are you a basketball player, mister? You're really good!" A teenager said to Uncle Sam.
"No, I played a little when I was in high school, but that's it," Uncle Sam said with a grin. He tore the strand of tickets off of his machine and held them out to me. "Here you go, honey."
Between him and Daddy there were a ton of tickets, so I divided them up and handed them out to the other kids that were there for the party.
Tia came over and told us that the pizzas were ready and in about a half an hour they would do the cake. Miss Darlene and a couple of the other moms came over to round up all the kids. I tugged on Daddy's hand. "Will you sit next to me?"
A bunch of little kids came running into the play area, followed by their moms, who were all wearing workout gear- short, tight tank tops with leggings and brightly colored tennis shoes.
Daddy nodded at one of the moms. "Hello, ladies," he said.
A mom with a long blonde ponytail looked him up and down, and I saw her looking at his shirt. "Well hello, Daddy," she smirked, and chuckled at him.
Daddy looked down at his shirt with the Dad Hello Kitty on it. He grinned back at the woman, blushing a little. I tugged on his hand. "C'mon, I'm hungry!"
There were t.v.s over in the area where we ate, playing music videos. Fortunately we weren't near the stage that had the Chuck E. Cheese animatronic band, they creeped me out. The constant music playing and the noise from the arcade started to make me feel a little bit tired.
Everyone had mostly finished eating when Tia came over and announced that Chuck E. Cheese was coming to visit, and then a door opened and someone wearing a giant Chuck E. Cheese costume walked out.
Cara screamed and burst into tears, grabbing ahold of her mom. Miss Stella stood up. "Macy, you stay here with Charlie, I'm taking her outside for a few minutes. Cara, walk with me, honey." Cara wouldn't let her go, so Miss Stella's mom had to pick her up and they all walked towards the front doors.
Macy looked at me. "Cara's ascared of anything big, 'specially people wearing big animal costumes."
Uncle Sam had gone out to the car, and he and Imani brought a flat box over. "Here's the cake!" He set it on the table and opened the box. It was a huge sheet cake with white and red icing and a Hello Kitty under a rainbow. It said, "Happy 9th Birthday, Charlie!" written in red icing.
"Wow, that's a big cake!" Macy exclaimed.
There were a couple of other birthday parties at the other tables too, and a birthday video came on the t.v. screens so that all the tables lit their candles and sang Happy Birthday to their parties at the same time. Daddy and Uncle Sam stood behind me, each with a hand on my shoulder as everyone sang. After I blew out the candles, Daddy hugged me, and then Uncle Sam hugged me. Imani leaned down to hug me too.
Daddy started to slice the cake up and Imani and Uncle Sam handed it out. Miss Stella and Cara came back in and sat down. Cara's eyes lit up when she saw the cake. "Yummy, I wove birfday cake!"
Daddy sat down next to me and started to eat a piece of cake. "Not bad," he said, "What do you think, Charlie, do you like it?"
I leaned on his arm. "It's good, my tummy is full now."
He looked down at me and chuckled. "You losing steam, kiddo?"
I nodded. "All the noise is kinda bothering me. It's loud!"
He looked around. "Yeah, places like this can give you sensory overload after a while. I think after everyone eats, they just hang around for a while longer and then go. We can open your presents and then leave, if you want, or we can stay and play some more games."
I felt suddenly shy. "Can—can I open the presents?"
He put his arm around my shoulders. "Sure you can, kiddo. If you're done, you can start now, if you want to."
Aubrey and her friends—their names were Darcy and Lila—went back to the arcade, along with a couple of the boys that had come. Addi and a couple other kids that were my age stayed to watch me open the presents, along with Macy and Cara.
One of the gifts was a big set of markers and colored pencils in a fancy carrying case and a pad of fancy drawing paper. Jimmy said, "My mom always gets drawing stuff for kids 'cause she's a artist and does drawings for the local paper." I got some nail polish, a stencils- and- stickers activity kit, a friendship bracelet maker, a big container of sidewalk chalk, a couple of board games, and some stuffed animals. Cara clapped her hands when she saw them, and she wanted to hold the stuffed Hello Kitty that was from her and Macy. "Cara wanted it for herself, she almost threw a fit in the store," Macy told me in a low voice.
Finally the pizza and cake was all eaten and all the gifts had been unwrapped. Some workers had come over and were starting to clear the tables. Daddy and Uncle Sam helped me get the presents packed up into gift bags, and then we tried to find as many people as possible to say thank you.
A lot of people had left already, and there were new groups of people coming into the restaurant.
"Looks like it's time for the next shift. How are you holdin' up, Charlie?" Daddy looked down at me. "You want to stay and play some more games?"
I rubbed my forehead, which had started to hurt. "Uh-uh, can we go now?"
"Sure, sweetheart." Daddy agreed. We walked back over to the tables to grab the leftover cake and the gift bags. Uncle Sam and Imani got into Grandpa John's truck and I rode in Daddy's car with him. I leaned my head back on the seat and closed my eyes on the ride home- I was tired.
Each of us brought in some presents. Uncle Bobby's truck was out front, but the living room was empty.
"Where's Uncle Bobby?" I asked.
"He's probably talking about research with Dad," Daddy said, "Let's take your presents up to your room."
I sighed. "I'm tired, I don't wanna go upstairs right now!"
Daddy glanced at Uncle Sam. "C'mon, kiddo, let's take everything up and you can get into your pjs, and then we can watch a movie together. Sound good?"
"Okay." I started to walk upstairs, shifting the gift bags on my arms. Daddy, Uncle Sam, and Imani all carried some gifts upstairs too.
My bedroom door was back on and it was closed. "What the?" I opened the door and as I went in, I saw Grandpa John and Uncle Bobby in my room.
"What are you guys doing-"
"Happy Birthday, Charlie," Grandpa John said, and he and Uncle Bobby stepped apart.
Behind them was a low table with a large wooden dollhouse on it.
I gasped and dropped my gift bags. "What—is- is that- is that for me?" I squeaked, looking up at Daddy.
He put his hand on my back, smiling. "Yes, it is, Charlie. Go around and look at it."
I walked around to the back, which was all open. The house had 2 floors, and every room was decorated. There was a doll family with a mother, father, a little girl and boy, and a baby. The girl and boy each had their own bedroom and there was a tiny cradle for the baby in the parent's bedroom.
They all came to stand behind me. "We've all been working on this for months," Grandpa John said.
"Yeah, it's been at my house, and everyone's spent time comin' over to build things," Uncle Bobby said. "I never knew there were so many people online who were into making dollhouse furniture, I've learned a lot!"
"Look in the living room, the books," Uncle Sam said, and I pulled out a tiny book. It opened and there was actually writing on the page! I looked up at him.
"We ordered some of the books and some of them, I made," he told me, smiling so that his dimples showed.
My eyes filled with tears. "You—you all made this? For m-me?"
"Yes, babygirl, I know how upset you were when you had to leave your other doll house behind, when your mother-" Daddy put his hand on my head. "I figured since we're kinda dug in now, we could have it here."
"And it can come back to my house if y'all have to leave for any reason," Uncle Bobby said.
I turned to Daddy, blinking back the tears. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"
He hugged me, chuckling. I hugged Uncle Sam, and Imani, and then Grandpa John, and finally Uncle Bobby. "Thank you, Uncle Bobby! Will you show me all the stuff you made?"
He laughed. "Sure I will. We can all show ya what we worked on." He let me go.
I reached in and took out a small stuffed armchair- the fabric was blue plaid. "I used an old shirt for the living room furniture, because we saw how much you like our flannels," Grandpa John told me.
I looked up at him—at all of them—and burst into tears.
Daddy squatted down next to me. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah—I j-just—it-it's been—it's t-too muh-much-" I heaved out. I couldn't explain how I felt, how sad I had been for the past couple of years, and how hopeful and yet worried I had felt about today, and then everything that had happened had made me so happy...and then this final present was almost too much. My heart felt like it would burst.
"So this isn't sad tears, it's just—overwhelmed tears?" Daddy asked, and I nodded.
He stood up and scooped me up, carrying me over to the bed. He sat down with my in his lap and held me while I cried. I heard him saying something and then the door closed.
He rubbed my back as I sobbed against his chest. I realized with a shock that I hadn't thought about my mother at all today, I hadn't thought back to past birthdays or the past couple of years. More sadness swelled up in my chest as I thought about her.
"My—Mom's n-not here, she's always the one wh-who did my parties," I said, "Sh-she always said giving birth to me w-was the b-best thing that ha-happened to her!" My chest hitched with sobs as I talked. "I d-didn't even th-think about her t-today!"
Daddy rubbed my back. "Today was a pretty big day, and you were real busy, so I can see how you might not think about her. It's all right, kiddo, don't feel bad."
"B-but I m-miss her!"
Daddy wrapped his arms around me and held me tightly. "I know you do. And that's all right too."
I buried my face in his shoulder and cried into his flannel. Eventually I calmed, and he let me go and smoothed my hair back from my face.
"I don't know much about celebrating birthdays or having parties, but I wanted to make sure you had a good one." I looked up at him and nodded. He continued, "Today was a pretty big day. Your first birthday party with me and Uncle Sam and Grandpa John, and your first party in a couple of years. Did you like it?"
"Y-yeah, it was g-great. I—I only went to Chuck E. Cheese once before when I was younger an' I barely remember it." I slid my arms around Daddy's chest. "Thanks for everything, Daddy."
He gave me a squeeze. "You enjoyed everything? I know all the loud music and noise was getting to you."
"Yeah, it was lots of fun! It was cool watching you and Uncle Sam playing basketball!"
He chuckled. "I haven't done that in a long time."
"Would you teach me?" I asked suddenly.
He looked surprised, "Well, sure, if you want."
"Yeah, it looked fun." I leaned on him again. Another wave of sadness washed over me, and tears filled my eyes again. "I—I feel sad 'cause my mommy's not here to celebrate with me."
Daddy stroked the back of my head. "I think she's watching over you, and she saw today, and she's happy."
"You do?"
He nodded. "Yeah, I do, and I know she'd be proud of you too. We all are, kiddo."
"Thanks, Daddy." I felt myself relaxing as he rubbed my head.
"What do you say we go downstairs and have some more cake and then we can watch whatever you want, or you can come play with your dollhouse?"
I looked up at him. "Okay!"
He set me on the floor and grabbed some tissues for me, and I dried my face and blew my nose. We joined everyone else in the kitchen to have cake. Grandpa John had made a pot of coffee and they were all having "Irish coffee", that had whiskey in it.
I hurried through eating so that I could go back to my room and play with the dollhouse. I pulled the table over to my bed and sat on the end, looking at the furniture and all the little details in the house. I woke up when Daddy was lifting me up to lay me down at the head of my bed. Uncle Sam and Grandpa John were there too, and after Daddy tucked me in, they each leaned down to kiss me.
"Happy Birthday, nine year old," Uncle Sam kissed my cheek..
"Good night, birthday girl," Grandpa John ruffled my hair and kissed my forehead.
"Good night, babygirl, sweet dreams," Daddy said, and I rolled over and fell asleep.