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9 Years Old

I woke up in a musty smelling bed wondering, "Where am I?" Then I remembered. I'm somewhere in Germany. Mom was dead. Now it was just me and Dad. Not even Sadie, annoying Sadie, was here. She was in England with our grandparents. I could never think of them the same way again. Not after what happened in court between Dad and them. Stupid spatulas.

I hear a door open (probably the bathroom door) and my dad says, "Carter, come on, we're leaving soon." I sit up in bed and see my dad walking over to our open suitcases. I watched him as he packed up the few belongings we had left. Dad looked so ragged then, and I knew why. Mom. If anybody took her death the hardest, it was Dad. The only time I ever saw him cry was when he came and told us at Gran and Gramps's flat.

"Carter, I said go get ready. We need to get to the airport in half an hour. I've laid some clothes out for you." I saw a button-down shirt and khakis folded up on the nightstand. Great, just what I want to wear in the middle of summer.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

When I'm all dressed my dad gets a cab and we go to the Berlin airport. The drive from our hotel to the airport is full of awkward silences and little conversation. Occasionally, Dad will rummage through his workbag, why, I don't know. I saw him look over his shoulder a few times, looking nervous. I finally had to ask. "What are you looking for?"

The look on my dad's face is something I've never seen on his face before. He looks nervous. Quickly, he says, "Nothing, Carter. Nothing." He doesn't say anything else so I figure that the conversation's over. I go back to looking at my reflection in the window, thinking of how much my life has changed in the past few months.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

The Berlin airport is hot, stuffy, and loud. A voice keeps coming over the loudspeaker, speaking, duh, German. I'm entertaining myself by trying to decipher the German signs. When my dad and I pass a food stand, I see a sign that says, Imbiss – Heir ist das gut Eis! Es schmeckt sehr gut! I have no clue how to pronounce half of it, yet alone what it says. I see even weirder phrases, like der Flughafen, die Badezimmer, and das Gepäck. I gave up trying to decipher them a long time ago.

We venture into a more crowded are of the airport. I grab onto the back of my dad's shirt so I don't get lost. I stop paying attention and don't see that my dad's stopped. I run into him and say, "What are you doing?" Dad's face has gone rigid and suddenly, I'm scared.

"Come on Carter," he says and grabs my hand. We quickly weave in and out of the crowd and make it to the plane before I even have time to reply. I manage to get a seat next to a window. I look out of it while we're taking off. Once we're safely off the ground, I hear Dad sigh with relief. I look over at him and he seems to relax the higher we get. Then, he slowly loosens his grip on his bag and I'm not scared anymore.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

When we land, my dad looks at me and says, "You get to decide where we eat lunch today." I look back at him, ready to say that we hardly ever eat out, even though we travel constantly. My dad smiles, one of the first I've seen in a long time. "You do remember that it's your birthday today, right?" The look on my face must have been priceless because my busts out laughing.

"I don't think I've ever known a boy who's ever forgotten his own birthday," he says with a smile.

"Didn't Mom forget my birthday once?" Immediately after I said it, I wished I hadn't. All the pain from her death washed over me. She won't tell me that story, or any, ever again.

I can see it in Dad's eyes that he feels the same way, but he keeps the smile on his face. "Yes she did Carter. So did I. But I guess I can make up for that now, reminding you of your own birthday."

I smile back at him, momentarily forgetting my situation. This is the dad I've been missing for so long.

I can now truthfully say that I've practiced German outside of school. My teacher would be so proud! I tried my best applying German to something other than worksheets. Here are the translations; Imbiss – Heir ist das gut Eis! Es schmeckt sehr gut! = Snack Bar – Here is the good icecream! It tastes very good!, der Flughafen = the airport, die Badezimmer = the bathrooms, and das Gepäck = the luggage. Hope this helped! Since I will be updating less frequently, this leaves more times for reviews! Let's all be overachievers and say, 7! You can do it! Look for a blue button that has the word "review" in it somewhere, and click it! Please?