Happy Birthday Chris

“Grandma look! I just cracked open an egg! Aren’t I the best?”

“Yes, you are sweetheart. Now let’s get the little pieces of eggshell out…”

Grabbing the opened eggshell, Chris’ grandma wrapped her arms around her darling grandson and held his hand as she showed him how to remove the tiny bits of fallen eggshells. Seeing the most heartwarming moment shared between his wife and his grandson, Chris’ grandpa couldn’t help himself and walked towards them, giving them a tight squeeze from the back and giving them kisses on their heads. The three of them were gathered for a special occasion, it was Chris’ birthday. Unlike the previous years when Chris would just grab a burger and milkshake with his father at a nearby diner after going to the park with his mother, this year Chris got to spend his birthday with his grandparents. Chris hadn’t seen them for years, the only memory he had of them was when they took him to the playground when his mum and dad were in the other room. When he saw his grandparents at his father’s today, Chris almost didn’t recognise them until his grandfather pulled up a wooden hook and yelled “Arrgh!” Chris always loved playing pirates with his grandfather. He liked how his grandfather would always lift him above his head and spin him around. Each time he did that, Chris would always feel light-headed, but it was a good kind of light-headed, the kind that he didn’t mind experiencing again. Unlike the light-headedness he gets after catching his father reappearing from a dark alley smelling like smoke. Chris always hated that alley. His father would always be different whenever he went to the alley.

“Can we bake chocolate cookies too, Grandma? Mummy likes chocolate a lot and I think she would enjoy it.”

A bright smile grew on Grandma’s face as she patted his head, agreeing to make cookies for his mother. Upon hearing Chris’ request, his grandpa left the kitchen and came back with a recipe book in his hands.

“Some of the best-kept secrets are in here son. Let’s find out how to make the best mouth-watering cookies for your mother.”

His grandma lifted him onto the stool and the three of them began flipping through the book, finding the page for chocolate cookies. Turning the pages rapidly, Chris caught glimpses of what seemed like green paper stuck in between the pages. Curious, Chris stopped his grandpa’s hand when he spotted the green paper again.

It was cash.

“Why do you have money here, Grandpa?”

“Look Chris, the recipe for the chocolate cookies.”

Before he had another chance to ask his grandpa about the hidden money again, his grandparents turned around to the kitchen counter and started taking out all the ingredients they needed and arranged them on the kitchen island. While sorting through the ingredients, his grandma realised that they were missing flour. Turning around to see her adorable grandson, she asked Chris if he would go to the cabinet underneath the sink to retrieve it. Heeding her request, Chris walked over to the cabinet to grab the flour his grandma needed.

Swinging the cabinet doors open, Chris was met with a clutter of bottles. On top of that, the cabinet was dark, and it was almost impossible for Chris to see, never mind finding the jar of flour. Groaning loudly at the mess, Chris had hoped either of his grandparents would help him get the flour, but instead, his grandma simply shouted back, “Take out all the bottles sweetie. The flour is at the very back, you’ll see it.”

Wanting to be a good boy, Chris begrudgingly knelt on the floor and one by one he started taking out all the bottles piled up in the cabinet. He was wondering how it was even possible to have a cabinet this messy and swore that he would never get the cabinet over at his mum’s place this messy when he felt something strange. It wasn’t another bottle. It was cold, flat, and a little wet. Slowly removing the strange object from far within the cabinet, Chris was busy listing the possibilities of what the object he was holding onto could be. Was it a stack of aluminium foil? Was it a piece of lost baking equipment? Was it one of his toys that he threw about everywhere when he was younger and one of them got lost inside the cabinet? Finally pulling the object from far within the darkness into the light, Chris could see that he was wrong. Deadly wrong.

It was a bloody knife. He was holding onto a bloody knife.

Horrified by the discovery, Chris instantly dropped the knife and ran away screaming, begging for help. But as he ran straight out into the living room, Chris realised the kitchen was eerily quiet. He couldn’t hear his grandpa whisking away or his grandma humming under her breath. Scared of what may have happened to his grandparents, Chris slowly inched towards the kitchen while weakly calling out for them.

“Grandma? Grandpa? Are you there?”

Silence. It was like no one was ever in the room. Arriving by the kitchen entrance, Chris was met with another strange sight. The kitchen was spotless. There were no jars on the island and his grandparents were not over by the kitchen counter. As if the bloody knife wasn’t scary enough for eight-year-old Chris, the now silent and dark house had completely drained his soul. Panic rose within him as Chris ran around his father’s house, trying to find any trace of a living person. Chris had no idea how long he had been running around the house, screaming for help, but he eventually got exhausted and gave up. He leaned against the cold wall and slowly slid his back down. Chris grabbed his knees and sobbed into his folded arms, hoping and wishing that someone, anyone would come and save him from this place.

Still thinking about how he desperately wanted to be back at his mum’s, with her big smile and warm hugs, a blinding light filtered in through the windows and caught Chris’ teary eyes. Thinking that someone was finally here, Chris untangled himself and hurriedly ran towards the light when he heard loud sirens blasting through. Shocked by the sudden noise, Chris carefully shuffled his feet across the floor and tiptoed once he reached the little window by the front door. Peering out, Chris saw his mother bawling, screaming her lungs out. She couldn’t even stand by herself and had two police officers by her side, trying to support her as she clutched onto a picture of Chris to her chest, slowly sinking to the ground. Feeling his heart shattering into pieces, Chris raised his hands up against the window, as if patting his mother’s head, trying to tell her that everything was okay. Her loud cries then grew even louder, and she crumbled on the floor, tearfully hitting the ground as Chris’ father walked past her. He had handcuffs on as he stumbled across the yard to the police’s car, the same way he would always stumble whenever he came out from the dark alley.

Watching the heart-wrenching moment surrounded by the sounds of his mother’s anguished cries echoing throughout the abandoned neighbourhood, Chris wanted to run to her and give her a giant hug. As he left the window and was about to open the door, his grandparents reappeared. They were holding onto a tray of strawberry cupcakes and chocolate cookies, just like the one they were baking this afternoon. Standing by the door, his grandparents reached out to Chris, asking him to try their freshly baked pastries.

“Can I bring some to mummy outside?” She seems really sad; I think she’ll like a cookie right now.”

Lowering herself to meet Chris’ eyes, his grandma gently patted him on his head and told him it wasn’t possible right now.

“She can’t have the cookies right now sweetie. Maybe you could give it to her tonight when she sleeps.”

Nodding his head to the answer, Chris asked his grandparents another question. A question no one quite had the answers to, not ever for his birth parents.

“Why was Dad in handcuffs, Grandpa?”

Looking at each other in the eyes, Chris’ grandparents' hearts sank to the ground, not knowing how to answer their innocent grandson about how or why they raised a monster.

“He did something bad, something really bad. But that’s ok, at least he reunited us. Now come, let’s go have some cookies and wait for your mum later tonight.”

Taking his grandparents’ hands, the three of them headed back towards the kitchen that was filled with light once again, disappearing into the white halo shining from the sky.