The Ballad of Michael & Beulah

You don't have to look at a calendar, you don't have to check and see if there's snow on the ground or if there's fresh buds on the trees, or even listen for the chirping of birds to tell that spring had arrived. All one has to do is close their eyes and smell the air.

No matter what climate you come from, there always seems to be that certain scent traveling with the breeze. It's not something that can be put into words either.

You just know.

And then you know that not only is it spring, but it's like a rebirth. New Years resolutions are already forgotten, but the hope of things being better for the year are still there. There's more laughter that wasn't as abundant in the autumn or winter. Not to mention, babies always seem to be just as abundant, playing in neighborhood parks or being pushed around in their strollers by their parents.

And on Easter morning of 2011, there was no exception for the Pritchard family either.

A tradition had come about four years prior, wherein they would all get dressed in their Sunday best, gather the kids and head on over to Billie Joe's house along with Tre and his family. The first thing that would happen is all the kids would be left in the living room while the dads went into the backyard to hide a bunch of Easter eggs and then, when they were done, the kids were taken outside and let loose.

And this year, the youngest of the children, Rory Pritchard, who had just turned three in January, was the only one lagging behind, and sniffling because everyone else seemed to be able to find eggs and her little basket was very much on the empty side.

Running around toward the furthest part of the backyard, ten-year-old Bailey was hopping around like a crazy person as he found a purple egg delicately balanced between two branches in a small bush, shouting to his dad, asking if there were still more eggs.

"Yeah, kiddo," Billie Joe nodded, scratching at the side of his face. "Keep looking."

The green-eyed punk rocker who was now a year from being forty, turned to his right to find a thirty-one year old Beulah crouching down to Rory's level as the toddler came bounding toward her mother with tears streaming down her reddening cheeks and over her pouting lips; outstretched arms and all. He watched the mother of his only child born out of wedlock with a smile; remembering briefly when she was just a girl of ten, and now had a ten-year-old of her own, with him, as well as two others with Mike.

How the years had changed them all so much.

"C'mere, sweetie. Let's find some eggs, 'kay?" Beulah spoke soothingly to her little girl.

"Daddy?"

Breaking from his reverie, Billie Joe looked downward at the little girl with thick, long hair down to the middle of her back, looking up at him and holding out a multicolored Easter basket.

"Wow, you sure found a lot of Easter eggs, Ava-baby," he grinned at his youngest. His only daughter. And boy, was she ever a mini-Adrienne in looks.

"I'm done," she stated frankly. "Can me an' Vegas go watch cartoons?"

Billie Joe's eyes flitted over toward the edge of the pool where Mike was helping his son, who was born the same day as Ava, find some eggs.

"When he's done," Billie Joe replied. "There's still some eggs left."

Emitting a tiny sigh, the little girl lowered her basket and sauntered over to stand with her mom who was stepping outside with a plastic bag full of red and blue party cups and a 2-liter bottle of Orange Crush.

After flashing his beautiful wife a smile, Billie Joe returned to looking toward the rest of the kids.

Sixteen-year-olds Ramona and Joey sat side by side at the patio table, chatting amiably with 14-year-old Estelle and soon-to-be 13-year-old Jakob; the four oldest Green Day offspring too old for Easter egg hunting. Meanwhile, Bailey and Frankito had since stopped searching, and left their eggs unattended as they began to wrestle on the ground like best friends usually did. As for Vegas, he'd broken away from his dad to join Ava, much to the girl's pleasure.

It was only Rory who was really egg-hunting anymore. And she wasn't really doing much of that except staggering over to Bailey's basket with Beulah in tow, and stealing her older brother's eggs to place into her own basket.

A few feet away from Green Day's frontman, Mike smirked as his daughter turned toward him and grinned from ear to ear, showing off the eggs she'd found; as if she'd hit a big jackpot.

"Daddy! I got eggs!"

"I see. Good job, sweetie," he called out while walking over to mother and daughter.

Standing up straight, with Rory's little, chubby hand in hers, Beulah smiled at her husband and linked her free hand with Mike's as he leaned down to kiss her lips, then pulling back with a smile of his own.

Pushing some hair out of her eyes and placed yet another kiss on her lips but this time whispering, "You have no idea how much I love you and always will..."

When they were finally looking back at each other for a while, Beulah's eyes lit up and just about sparkled. "Oh, I know alright," she replied.

"Easter brunch is served!" came Adrienne's voice, ringing out above all the others as they found the Armstrong's picnic table littered with small sandwiches, potato chips, Orange Crush, fruit salad, and lots more where that came from.

"C'mon, let's chow down," Mike muttered, bending down to swoop Rory up in his arms and rest her on his narrow hip. Turning around slightly, he looked out upon Bailey and Frankito still wrestling and all around goofing off; and most likely getting grass stains on their pants. "Hey, guys! You heard Adrienne!"

As everyone gathered toward the table, Claudia stepped back with a camera in her hands and grinned. "Oh, I need a picture of this," she insisted, aiming at everyone.

When they had turned to look at her and smile, she had unknowingly captured something on her film that went unnoticed at that moment but would be looked upon with curious eyes when developed later.

* * *

As I looked over the picture from Easter 2011, my eyes scoured over the scribbling underneath it that looked similar to my grandfather's poor excuse for handwriting. It said:

Some would call this the beginning of the end...

And it made me wonder. I hadn't gotten through all the photos yet or the letters because there were so many, and unfortunately I didn't have all the time in the world to study every detail. I wanted to figure out every detail about my grandparents and what happened. Things that happened when my mother and her siblings were growing up, that happened before mysiblings or I were born.

Something big had happened to sever the ties between my grandfather and his best friends, and something had also happened to bring them back together...even if for just one moment in time.

This, I had to know.