Leave out All the Rest
Memory
"Gwampa! Gwampa!"
A pair of twin girls came racing through the house just to see him. Even for his age, he still didn't look like that much of an old man and technically, he wasn't the oldest out of all his friends but he made that point every time they came around like today.
He spun around just in time for the girls to jump into his tattooed arms. They squealed in delight as they greeted him. The twins were about 6 and looked just like their mother who in turn looked just like her.
It made his heart ache every time he saw them but he put on a brave face and dealt with it. She was gone but what she left behind was much more precious and sometimes much more precocious. Those twin balls of energy were off and running telling him about what they have been doing in school and stuff but then they got distracted by one of their cousins and off they went.
A light chuckle came from the house and he looked up to see what he thought at first was her but it was his daughter, Elizabeth, or Liz as she liked to be called. She looked just like her mother even with the green eyes but she had his smile.
"You survived Hurricanes Lillian and Leighton, old man?" She laughed at her father. Everyone he knew called him old man now ever since she started calling him that. In fact that was one of Liz's first words, aside from Daddy, was Old Man.
"Yeah, Lil and Lei are getting pretty big there.." He chuckled back and hugged his daughter who was about her mother's height, he noticed.
"Yeah, they're being called the Terror Twins in their school now. Speaking of terror, is everyone else coming over too?"
"They better be and I don't care if Sid is in a wheelchair again, I'll drag him over here." He laughed but then sobered up, "This is her birthday and the twins so its like a double invitation to come over here and aggravate the piss out of me."
She put a hand on his shoulder and leaned onto him affectionately. She too felt the absence of her mother like her father did. It wasn't too long ago that she passed away but she suspected nobody missed more than her father did, no matter how much of a front he put up, she could tell.
Later on, all of his friends had come to the party bearing gifts and their families. He felt more complete as each of them got here, hell he even felt younger once they got here! Some of them even brought instruments to jam to while they were there but as they day progressed all the older adults started to feel more mellow while the younger ones still played around, they waiting on the cake to come.
"Gwampa! Gwampa!" Lil suddenly came around, bouncing up and down until she got his attention.
"Yeah Lil? What'cha need?" Her green eyes were round as the setting sun as she studied him. Her eyes were different from her twin's because her's were green and Lei's was blue.
"Story time!" She demanded gleefully and with that everyone got still. All the little ones instantly gathered around him at that one word while all the adults watched him warily. Normally it was one of his friends that told stories to the little ones but for some odd reason, Lil picked him to tell a story.
He took a big swig of his beer he'd been nursing and debated on just saying no or directing her and the others to another person but something told him that he should tell a story this time and he had one in mind that his friends and he knew very well but nobody's really talked about it to their children, well until now.
"How about a story about your grandma? I don't think that some of you, even you older ones have heard this one before about Lady before."
A pair of twin girls came racing through the house just to see him. Even for his age, he still didn't look like that much of an old man and technically, he wasn't the oldest out of all his friends but he made that point every time they came around like today.
He spun around just in time for the girls to jump into his tattooed arms. They squealed in delight as they greeted him. The twins were about 6 and looked just like their mother who in turn looked just like her.
It made his heart ache every time he saw them but he put on a brave face and dealt with it. She was gone but what she left behind was much more precious and sometimes much more precocious. Those twin balls of energy were off and running telling him about what they have been doing in school and stuff but then they got distracted by one of their cousins and off they went.
A light chuckle came from the house and he looked up to see what he thought at first was her but it was his daughter, Elizabeth, or Liz as she liked to be called. She looked just like her mother even with the green eyes but she had his smile.
"You survived Hurricanes Lillian and Leighton, old man?" She laughed at her father. Everyone he knew called him old man now ever since she started calling him that. In fact that was one of Liz's first words, aside from Daddy, was Old Man.
"Yeah, Lil and Lei are getting pretty big there.." He chuckled back and hugged his daughter who was about her mother's height, he noticed.
"Yeah, they're being called the Terror Twins in their school now. Speaking of terror, is everyone else coming over too?"
"They better be and I don't care if Sid is in a wheelchair again, I'll drag him over here." He laughed but then sobered up, "This is her birthday and the twins so its like a double invitation to come over here and aggravate the piss out of me."
She put a hand on his shoulder and leaned onto him affectionately. She too felt the absence of her mother like her father did. It wasn't too long ago that she passed away but she suspected nobody missed more than her father did, no matter how much of a front he put up, she could tell.
Later on, all of his friends had come to the party bearing gifts and their families. He felt more complete as each of them got here, hell he even felt younger once they got here! Some of them even brought instruments to jam to while they were there but as they day progressed all the older adults started to feel more mellow while the younger ones still played around, they waiting on the cake to come.
"Gwampa! Gwampa!" Lil suddenly came around, bouncing up and down until she got his attention.
"Yeah Lil? What'cha need?" Her green eyes were round as the setting sun as she studied him. Her eyes were different from her twin's because her's were green and Lei's was blue.
"Story time!" She demanded gleefully and with that everyone got still. All the little ones instantly gathered around him at that one word while all the adults watched him warily. Normally it was one of his friends that told stories to the little ones but for some odd reason, Lil picked him to tell a story.
He took a big swig of his beer he'd been nursing and debated on just saying no or directing her and the others to another person but something told him that he should tell a story this time and he had one in mind that his friends and he knew very well but nobody's really talked about it to their children, well until now.
"How about a story about your grandma? I don't think that some of you, even you older ones have heard this one before about Lady before."
♠ ♠ ♠
I'm baaack!! Booyah!