Ella made her way down the hall, and peeked her head around the corner. She could hear voices talking in the kitchen. There were people here, but who? She slowly stepped out and took a step in their direction when a hand shot out and grabbed her shoulder.
“RAH!” yelled the male voice. Ella spun around and in the process, managed to trip over her own feet and fell on her butt with an audible, “poof”. When her heart finally stopped racing she looked up at the source of the noise. It took her a second to recognize him without his usual tan jumpsuit. Her eyes widened in shock. It was Pedro from the hospital! What in the world was he doing here?
“Did I scare you?” He laughed as he offered her a hand up. She nodded too stunned for words. “Still as quiet as ever, aren’t you?”
“Oh, you leave her alone!” Another voice said. No…way… She didn’t want to believe it in case she was wrong. She turned around, shock still evident on her face. “Happy birthday, honey.” Ella ran and threw her arms around Rose’s waist nearly knocking the coffee out of her hand. She laughed and thanked Heather who took the mug from her, before Rose bent down and hoisted Ella up in her arms. “Ohh! I missed you so much!”
“Me too!” Ella said, throwing her arms around Rose’s neck.
“There’s that sweet voice I’ve been hearing so much about!” Ella didn’t think her voice sounded very sweet. It still went in and out switching from high to low. Her classmates often referred to her as, “prepubescent.” She found it rather embarrassing and she still wrote her replies when she could get away with it. Right now though nothing mattered. She giggled as Rose spun her around.
“You’re getting so big! Heather, what have you been feeding this kid?”
“Oh you know, I mix a couple scoops of Miracle Grow in her food when she’s not looking.”
“You must be! I don’t remember her being so heavy! And look at all that hair!” Rose exclaimed. She waved a hand through Ella’s full head of curly black hair.
“Gee, I see how it is, Ella. You scream when you see me, but when you see her, you run into her arms.” Pedro said. “She’s the big bad scary nurse with all the needles. I’m the one who snuck you all that candy. I thought we had something special!”
“That’s what you get for being a gilipollas and scaring her.”
Pedro feigned hurt. “Can you believe her? Do you know what she just called me?”
Rose ignored him. “You remember my husband, Pedro?” Ella’s eyes widened. She looked from Rose, then to Pedro, then back to Rose.
“Since when?”
“Oh, since about 30 years ago.” Rose chuckled. Ella’s mouth fell open. She had no idea they were married.
When Rose set Ella down, she eagerly pulled her all around the house on a small tour. She
showed Rose her half of the bedroom, some pictures she had drawn, and introduced her to
Ribbit. When she showed her the front of the fridge in the kitchen, Rose let out a chuckle. It had been a running joke in the house when they saw how well Ella could draw. They had hung up a couple of sketches with magnets. One was from Ella, another from Danielle and one by Charlie, each with their name and age. Ella had made a realistic rendition of Ribbit’s face while Charlie and Danielle had made stick figures that kind of looked like cats…if you squinted hard enough.
“So when’s Leslie and …every one coming.” Danielle asked.
“They’re meeting us there.” Heather said.
“Cool! Ella’s going to love it.” Danielle said.
Ella looked from Danielle to Heather. “Love what?”
“It’s a surprise.” they both said in unison. She stared at them in confusion. She thought Rose was her surprise. What could top her?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Ella stared wide eyed and open mouthed in amazement. She couldn’t believe such a place even existed, let alone she now possessed an all day pass for everything. There were video games, tunnels, trampolines, ball pits, slides, laser tag, go-carts, mini golf, a bowling alley, a blow up obstacle course. Her brain couldn’t even begin to comprehend everything there was she could do. Just when she thought it couldn’t get any better her eyes locked onto a familiar face. Kaylee.
“I think she’s in shock.” Danielle said.
“How?” Ella asked as Kaylee and what appeared to be her mom and older sister approached.
“I was right, she is Leslie’s sister.” Danielle said. “Since mom already knows her and her mom, it was easy to convince her your friend wasn’t some diabolical juvenile delinquent there to steal your innocence. She talked with her mom on the phone and they worked out the details.”
“Happy birthday!” Kaylee said grinning. “It was so hard to keep this from you yesterday! GOAT CHEESE!”
Ella’s face was already hurting from how much she was smiling today. Not only did she get a day to play in a place that looked like child heaven, but her best friend was here too! She ran and gave Heather a hug.
“Thank you!”
“You’re so welcome, now go have fun! I have your things here if you need them.”
The four of them took off without another look back.