December 14th 2006. A day I will remember for the rest of my life. Not only was it my 16th birthday but it was a day the missing piece of my heart was put back in place. It was a rainy cold night. My family and I just got back from dinner. I was a little disappointed that my brother couldn’t join us. At about 8:30pm I heard a familiar voice coming from the dining room. “Victoria come here,” it was my brother. My face lit up with joy, my brother actually came over. I suddenly went from being sad and depressed to ecstatic and loved. “I have something I want to give you” he says. I was thinking oh it’s just an American Express gift card, the same gift my brother always gave me. Boy was I wrong this year. He had a smile on his scruffy face but his eyes weren’t happy. They looked sad as if he was about to cry. “This was Grandpa Chickens and I want you to have it,” he says as he hands me this silver plastic ball with colorful beads in “paths” on it. “I know you don’t remember Grandpa Chickens and you don’t have anything of his, so this is yours. Be careful with it.” I was still amazed at the generosity and caring side I saw of my brother. He is much older than me, 13 ½ years to be exact. We don’t have many of these moments of care and love. “Only Grandpa Chickens has solved it. He told me it was his dream to see someone else to solve it. I want you to be the one to fulfill his dream.” I started crying and gave my brother a hug. I felt so close to my brother. It meant the world to me that he wanted me to be the one to fulfill my grandfather’s dream. I do not remember my grandfather at all. I was only 2 years old when he passed away. My family doesn’t really talk much about my grandfather, but when they do it’s always nice things. They tell me that he was a good man and he loved me very much. I only have pictures to remember my grandfather by. All the pictures are of me and him smiling and laughing. In many of the pictures I possess, my grandfather was wearing a gray label and I would take it off his head and place it on my head. They are very cute pictures and I always smile when looking at them.
No ordinary game, it’s a game of difficulty and memory. The Rubix Ball a plastic silver ball that is made up of two spheres that can spin around and has “paths” that the plastic beads travel on. You have to match the bead up by color, red with red, blue with blue, green with green, and yellow with yellow. The four paths that go around the ball are where you put the different colors. The red and yellow in the middle paths and the blue and green on the end paths. Getting all the beads of one color on one of the paths is very difficult. You must work on all four colors at the same time. Every day I try to solve it. I thought the rubix cube was difficult. Boy have I met my match. Trying to align all the colors together all at once is very difficult. And because it’s a ball there is a lot of spinning and mixing up of the colors. It is very challenging piece, but also very fun at the same time.
My grandfather had given the ball to my brother just before he passed away and my brother in return gave it to me because I have nothing of my grandfather’s. It was very nice of him.
My grandfather was a Motor Machinist Mate 2nd Class in World War II. He worked on the engines in the war boats. He got out of the war on February 13th, 1946. Exactly six years before my father was born. He died when I was about 2 years old. I have only visited his grave once, as it is out in a World War II Veteran Cemetery out in Cape Cod. I did not attend his funeral. My parents tell me I was sleeping during his funeral. Just as well too. I was only 2 years old and was a screaming me-me. Every day I look at the ball and think to myself I wonder what my grandfather was like. How would my life be different if he was still in it now?
This is a rather hard essay for me to write. Having something of his in my possession is like he is still here in spirit with me. I do believe he is watching over me in heaven as I am writing this and tears are forming in his eyes just as they are in mine as I am writing this. I love my grandfather very much. I wish every day that he was still here with me. I have never had a grandfather in my life. And it does hurt very much. Although some may not believe it, having my grandfather’s rubix ball makes me feel as if he is watching over me day to day and hoping I solve it.
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