Surprise
“I'm so—”
I start to apologize,
but Albert laughs.
“It's not my birthday,”
he says.
I'm confused.
“It's for you, Bindi.”
“Me?” I say. “It's not
my birthday, either.”
Albert leads me to the chair.
He hands me the present.
I open it.
It's one of those
plastic trophy things.
It says: “World's Best Sister.”
I get all choked up.
“I'm really proud of you,”
says Albert.
“You are?”
“Totally. You came through
a really rough time, Bindi.”
“Not always with flying colors,”
I say.
“True, but you never gave up.”
“I thought I did, sometimes.
And you went to all this trouble?”
Albert shrugs. “It's what brothers do.”
Albert's grandmother pops her head in.
I look up.
Megan and Kyra are in the doorway,
smiling.
Mrs. Poole leads us all
over to the table.
The message on the cake reads:
“Bravo to Our Bindi!”
“Wow!” says Kyra.
Megan turns to Albert.
“Need another sister?”
Copyright Credit: Eileen Spinelli, "Surprise" from The Dancing Pancake. Text copyright © 2010 by Eileen Spinelli. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Source: The Dancing Pancake (Alfred A. Knopf, 2010)