• We were all sitting around the table; me, my 10 year old brother, my mom and dad, eating spaghetti, which was not one of my favorite meals. I stared at it, poking at it with my fork and taking slow and small bites. Staring down at my plate, my mind wandered and thought about random things like it always did when I was bored. My mom, to my right, started a conversation to fill the awkward silence.

    “So, have you thought about plans for your birthday?” she asked me, “July 8th isn’t that far away.”

    I look up and at her. “No, I haven’t really thought about it.” I said in a bored tone. Didn’t she realize I had my finals coming up? Or did she not listen to me when I told her the dates of my tests?

    My brother butted his way into the conversation. “Maybe we should just skip your birthday.” He said like it would be no problem at all, like it wouldn’t matter if we just didn’t celebrate my birthday.

    I don’t know what angered me more at that moment; my mother ignoring his comment or yelling at me when I said we should skip his birthday. I gave her a semi glaring look and she turned to my brother, only then did she tell him to apologize as well.

    I looked back at my plate, face blank as I thought about what we did for my brother’s last birthday. I had no idea why that came up in my mind. Looking back, the normal thing would to think about my past birthday.








    His birthday was in December, December 15th to be exact. He wanted to go to this chucky-cheese type of place. It had an arcade, laser tag, and two indoor pools. By the way he described it, it sounded like it would be a busy, popular place. Boy, talk about misguided assumptions…

    We went there two weeks after his actual birthday. The first time we went, they were closed due to a plumbing problem. I thought nothing of it, thinking they may have frozen pipes or what-not. It was a 45 minute drive to there, so if they did have frozen pipes, it wouldn’t have reached us. At least that’s what I told myself.

    As we entered, I couldn’t believe how crummy the place was. I looked over at my brother, surprised that he could see past the mostly broken arcade games and the cheap Lasertron knock-off. We picked our table, setting our stuff down, and my whole family played laser tag; parents vs. kids. I got frustrated after running through dark, foggy haze into the maze like walls again and again, as well as being constantly attacked by my mother, and I decided I wouldn’t play again after that.

    My brother decided he wanted to swim, and we all went down to the indoor pools, it was unbelievably stuffy in there. One pool was a kiddy pool; one foot deep and with a little water playground in it. The other pool was a normal one, going from 3 feet at one end to 5 feet deep on the other. The pool deck had cheep tables and cruddy plastic lawn chairs, stained with who knows what. I pulled out a chair, more roughly than needed. I don’t remember why, but I was pissed or depressed about something. I sat on the right side of the table while my parents sat on the left, right next to the wall. I rested my head on my hand as I stared at my brother doing cannonballs into the pool. My mom asked me for the 7th time if I was sure that I didn’t want to swim. I huffed and said “Yes” rather rudely, but I didn’t care.

    My brother came up from the pool and ran up to me when he saw that I wasn’t swimming or doing anything at all. He smiled, dripping water all over the pool deck.

    “Are you having fun?” he asked genuinely excited. I had several answers that I wanted to say, but knowing what my parents would do, I lied.

    “Yep, lots of fun.” I said, smiling my fake smile. He smiled bigger and jumped back into the pool. As he left, my smile fell back to that dead expression as I focused on whatever was bothering me.

    About 5 minutes later, some little boy came up to me. I had no idea where he came from, just suddenly he was there. He was about 5 years old, no older than 7. He wasn’t short, but wasn’t tall either. A little shorter than average I guess. He wore a bright orange tee shirt with some sort of graphic on the front, khaki shorts, and sandals. His hair was dirty blonde and spiked; his eyes were green and bright with youth. I looked over his face, positive I had never seen him before. I thought he might have been lost from his mom, but that didn’t seem likely. For one, there weren’t many people there, and secondly, he didn’t seem all that worried like a lost kid would be. He looked at me with a small smile, but his eyes were and odd mix of caring and concered, like an adults eyes would be looking at their child when they were rebellious. I tried to think of something to say without sounding rude, but that was hard.

    “You need something?” I asked, giving my fake smile.

    “You have a very nice smile.” He said with sincerity. I was shocked. A little boy told me something no one else had. Then a woman who appeared to be his mother came up to him. She had the same dirty blonde hair, but had lightened the top layer of her hair. She looked at me, embarrassed, trying to shoo her son away from bothering strangers.

    “Never stop smiling.” He said. I pondered that for just a moment and started smiling, really smiling, and laughed. He smiled wider too. I looked up to his mother, and she smiled along with us. I couldn’t stop smiling, and I don’t know why, I wasn't feeling depressed or pissed anymore.

    “Aww, I want to take him home with me.” I said jokingly to my parents, feeling tears build up though I didn't know why. I looked back over at the pair, and they had already walked over to the other side of the pool, where I couldn’t see them.

    Within the next minute, it was time for us to go home. My brother went into the changing room and my parents went to our original table to get out stuff. I looked around for the boy and his bright orange shirt, but couldn’t find him. Only a minute had passed, they couldn’t of left within that time, could they? I hadn’t seen them before we went into the pool either. I was confused. The building itself was small and I could see around the whole thing. I laid the facts down in my head; I hadn’t seen them when we first came in, I didn’t see them when we went into the pool area, and now I couldn’t find them. Less than 10 minutes passed between when I saw the boy and when my family prepared to leave; why would they come for such a short period of time? I sighed as my parents called me to leave, for I was still searching. I turned away slowly, doing one last sweep of the room.

    I guess the only reason I was still looking for him was because I never got to thank him.








    “Hey, you ok?” My mom asked, waving a hand in front of my blank, daydreaming face.

    I didn’t answer her right away. I gave a small sigh and smiled. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

    Later that night, I was going through songs on my mp3, but finally gave up, not finding a song that I wanted to hear. I listed to the song I happened to land on. It was "Old City Bar" by the Trans Siberian Orchestra.


    ...Then he looked for the child
    But the child wasn't there
    Just the wind and the snow
    Waltzing dreams through the air

    So he walked back inside
    Somehow different I think
    For the rest of the night
    No one paid for a drink

    And the cynics will say
    That some neighbourhood kid
    Wandered in on some bums
    In the world where they hid...


    Its funny sometimes funny how things happen...