The secret

It was a Wednesday around 2 o’clock and my grandpa used to come and stay with my sister and me. At that time, we would finish school early, so he would pick us up even though we could have walked home but some people, aka my parents, said we were too young. My sister had dance around 3 o’clock and I had dance right after she finished, so he would bring my sister to dance first and then go grocery shopping. Sometimes I would go with him sometimes, if that wasn’t the case I would just stay home and watch youtube or Netflix. And that Wednesday I went with him. Usually, we would go in the store to buy whatever we needed together, but this time he sent me all by myself. I felt like I accomplished something big but in reality it was nothing, and that disappointing. However, I still went in. He gave me a list of what to buy because he knew I wouldn’t remember what we needed, but silly me just bought candy. I ended up buying lots of sour candy that just melted in your mouth. I could hear people talking around me about what they wanted to eat. I remember seeing a gas station and other shops. I could smell the fresh food that was in the market right next to the store. As well as the perfume I had put on in the morning.

I payed for everything that I took and it ended up being around 20 euros. I went to the car not understanding that I didn’t buy anything that was on the list and opened the door of the car. I sat down next to my grandpa and that is when I had my moment of realization. Next thing I knew, my grandpa said:

“ Don’t worry, I understand why you would get only candy. I know how much you love it.”

He didn’t get mad at all which was surprising because anyone else I knew would have gotten mad. I appreciated that he didn’t get mad because you don’t realize how bad what you did was until someone screams at you. I will never get why people get mad in the first place because it won’t change anything, and it’s always better to be happy and positive. It is sciently proven that being happy is better for your health.

He did ask me go back and actually buy the food that we needed. I didn’t want to at first because he could have done it himself but he insisted.

After, we headed to the park, the one that he would bring me to when I was smaller. We could smell the fresh air and all sorts of sweets that other people would bring for their children. We could hear dogs barking and kids screaming but it didn’t bother us because we were in our own bubble. There was a forest that kind of creeped me out because you would see someone go in but never come back. My grandpa told me that it was because there was an exit at the end but I liked to think it was because someone would take hostage the people. There were lots of swings where kids were moving back and forth. The ground was all soft so that if anyone fell, no one would get hurt. And I am saying this because of experience, but the ground did hurt if you fell right onto your face. The slides were a little bit wet from the morning breeze even though we were in the afternoon. The weather in France is either rainy or a normal temperature so I wasn’t surprised.

We sat down on a bench next to the sandpit, where kids were playing, and I ate most of the candy, got a little sick of eating so much but it was just so good…I could have never stopped. After finishing most of the candy, we had to go get my sister back from dance and drop me off to my dance. You could imagine that after being full of candy you wouldn’t want to dance but I had no choice because then my dad would lecture me about how he pays for dance classes and how he could use the money for something else.

When we arrived to my sister’s dance which was about 6 minutes away from the park. We went in and saw her waiting for us. The first thing she said was:

“ What did you guys do today? ”

I love my sister, I do, but she could have said hi when she first saw us.

“ Just what we needed.” my grandpa responded.

“ Yep only that. Hehehe… ” I murmured.

Then they dropped me off at my dance and I suppose they went home but they could have went and done something else that I never learned about. I mean it would be fair for my sister but I guess I will never know.

It was our little secret and we made a small tradition of it. Now and then we would go to the park, sit on that specific bench and eat just a little candy or sometimes just something sweet from the bakery next to the park. It was fun for a while but then my dad told us that we were moving to New York and we couldn’t do it anymore.

Now when we go to France for vacation, we eat something together and sometimes my grandma and my sister join us. It isn’t much of a secret but it’s always enjoyable because when we are together we always have a blast.