Written by Christine Sutton
\nPublished with Permission
\nwww.TOSMagazine.com<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sam\u2019s mom opened the \u201cget well\u201d card he\u2019d made her and smiled. He had cut out pictures of lots of summery things: blue sea, a big yellow sun, a sandy beach, and some pretty shells, and stuck them around a picture of a glass of iced lemonade, with silvery trickles running down the side.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, it\u2019s lovely, Sammy,\u201d she said. \u201cI can see you\u2019ve put a lot of thought into that; thank you. I\u2019m sorry we won\u2019t be going to see Auntie Laura and Jack tomorrow after all. You must be so disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n
He shook his head. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter. Dad phoned Auntie this morning, and she said we can go at Christmas instead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom sighed. \u201cIt will be cold then, though, won\u2019t it? You won\u2019t be able to go on the beach with Jack\u2014and all because your silly mommy slipped on the stairs and hurt her leg.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam gave her a hug. \u201cIt\u2019s okay,\u201d he said. \u201cYou just get well soon and come home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom\u2019s smile was sort of wobbly as she kissed him good-bye.<\/p>\n
All the way home, Sam couldn\u2019t help thinking how much he\u2019d been looking forward to going on their summer vacation. He always loved visiting his auntie and playing with his cousin on the beach near their West Coast home. Now he\u2019d have to wait another whole year<\/em> to build that sand castle with Jack.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re very quiet, Sam,\u201d Dad said, unlocking the front door. \u201cMom\u2019s going to be fine, you know. She\u2019ll be back before you know it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know,\u201d Sam nodded. \u201cIt\u2019s just . . .\u201d He stopped.<\/p>\n Dad put a hand on his shoulder. \u201cIt\u2019s okay to be upset for yourself, too, Sam. I know how much you were looking forward to going to your auntie\u2019s again. That was a real nice thing you did, by the way, making her that card. Where did you get the idea?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was looking at pictures in a magazine of all the great things you can do on vacation,\u201d Sam told him. \u201cI just thought, as Mom isn\u2019t going to do them for real this year, I\u2019d put them on a card instead.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, she loved<\/em> it,\u201d Dad said. \u201cGood work, son. Now, I guess I\u2019d better get dinner started.\u201d<\/p>\n Up in his room Sam knelt on his bed, looking down into the garden. Dad had been busy digging out the area for the new patio when Mom had taken her fall, and his tools and equipment were lying where he\u2019d left them. Over by the fence were the two big bags of sand he would need to put under the paving slabs and, beside them, a bag each of ornamental rocks and shells to decorate the flowerbeds. Gradually, a scene began to form in Sam\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n \u201cDad,\u201d he called, scrambling off the bed and running downstairs, \u201cI\u2019ve got an idea!\u201d<\/p>\n Two days later Mom came home from hospital. As Dad pushed her through the door in a wheelchair, her plastered leg stuck straight out in front of her. Sam was waiting.<\/p>\n \u201cRight this way,\u201d he said, ushering her straight through the house and into the yard.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, my!\u201d Mom said, gazing about her. Their little square of patchy brown grass had disappeared under a layer of golden sand. In the middle sat a brand new paddling pool surrounded by ornamental rocks and coral-pink shells. It looked just like a rock pool on a beach.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got waves and gulls too,\u201d Sam said, turning on the CD player. Sure enough\u2014the air was filled with seagull cries and the soothing sound of tumbling waves.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, this is lovely,\u201d Mom cried. \u201cIt\u2019s just like your card, Sam.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAlmost,\u201d he agreed. He opened the kitchen door and out stepped Auntie Laura holding a jug of iced lemonade, followed by Jack with the glasses.<\/p>\n \u201cLaura!\u201d Mom exclaimed in delight. \u201cWhat are you doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n Auntie Laura laughed. \u201cYou didn\u2019t think I was going to let my little sister cope all on her own with a broken leg, did you?\u201d Setting down the tray, she wrapped her arms around Mom and hugged her. \u201cIsn\u2019t this fabulous?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cSam\u2019s worked really hard setting everything up.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJack helped too,\u201d Sam said loyally, draping an arm around his cousin\u2019s shoulder.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was fun,\u201d Jack grinned. \u201cI wish our garden was like this.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut you\u2019ve got a real beach at home,\u201d Sam protested.<\/p>\n \u201cNot in the backyard,\u201d Jack said enviously.<\/p>\n \u201cMm, this is heavenly,\u201d Mom sighed, as Laura poured her a glass of lemonade. \u201cIt\u2019s not the \u2018break\u2019 I was expecting, but I think I\u2019m going to enjoy my virtual<\/em> vacation just as much!\u201d<\/p>\n Sam smiled. Me, too, he thought happily, helping Jack scoop sand into a bucket.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Christine Sutton has been a writer for twenty years and has had work published in magazines all around the world. She lives with her family in a small town called Hornchurch, just outside <\/em>London<\/em>. Interestingly, the parish church, St. Andrew\u2019s, is thought to be unique in having as its emblem a bull\u2019s head instead of a cross. This dates back nearly nine centuries to the time when the church was affiliated with the Monastery of St. Nicholas and St. Bernard of Montjoux, in <\/em>Savoy<\/em>, <\/em>Switzerland<\/em>, where the emblem was also a bull\u2019s head.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>Copyright 2012, used with permission. \u00a0All rights reserved by author.\u00a0 Originally appeared in the June 2012 issue of The Old Schoolhouse\u00ae Magazine, <\/em>the family education magazine.\u00a0 Read the magazine free at www.TOSMagazine.com<\/a> or read it on the go and download the free apps at www.TOSApps.com<\/a> to read the magazine on your mobile devices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Written by Christine Sutton Published with Permission www.TOSMagazine.com Sam\u2019s mom opened the \u201cget well\u201d card he\u2019d made her and smiled. He had cut out pictures of lots of summery things: blue sea, a big yellow sun, a sandy beach, and some pretty shells, and stuck them around a picture of a glass of iced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-for-fun","category-parenting-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1867"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1869,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867\/revisions\/1869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}