Smiles Everyone. Smiles!

A short story by Rosemary

Special thanks to Malady for his help editing.

Brad Tyler.

He had just turned eleven years old, and he hadn’t gotten much in the way of presents for his birthday. In fact, all he had gotten was a twenty-five dollar check from both sets of grandparents.

His dad, Bill, was being laid off from his job as a groundskeeper from the local hospital, so his parents weren’t able to get him anything really. He understood, and was grateful for the fifty dollars he’d received.

The next couple weeks leading up to the book report were pretty normal, aside from my new wardrobe options. As the day I would make my debut as Annie Oakley at school drew nearer, I started to anticipate the event and harbored a mix of anxiety, excitement, and hope that my decision to go “all-in” would be well received. As I finished typing up my report, I had a little bit of trouble concentrating as I thought about all of this, but ultimately buckled down and got it done.

Mom had me practice my presentation with her, and even gave me a few pointers.

Part 7 of 7

Chapter 14
How did four years go by so fast? Seems like just Yesterday Rose was starting high school and in a few minutes she would be walking across the stage to receive her diploma. Travis and Ruth smiled to think the entire family was there to watch, and not incidentally keep track of the active four-year-old and frenetic two-year-old grandchildren who were bored with the whole affair.