Little Green Stone

She was so upset. How could she lose it?

She had this little thing that meant the world to her. When she was about six years old, her favorite person in the entire universe had said goodbye to her. Her grandfather. She loved her Opa so dearly. At six, few memories were made with her and her Opa. And especially because he lived directly across planet earth, all she had were a few pictures of them together.

She remembered only a couple of things of Opa. One memory was that every Wednesday, her father called his parents to check up on them. As a four-year-old, she got this little green stone that she loved. She showed it to Opa and he had told her,

"Did you know that if you put that under your pillow, you'll have good dreams?"

"Really?" She was shocked. She had never heard of such a thing.

"Yeah! Go try it now when you go to bed!" Opa knew it was past her bedtime. Maybe he was just trying to help out his son and get her to bed.

When they had hung up, she went to ask her mother if she could have it for good.

"You have to take really loving care of it. That's my only green stone and it's my favorite too." Her mother pointed to her bag of only gray and dull colored stones. It was the odd one out.

"I promise."

"Okay now, go to bed."

She had the best dream she had ever experienced.

* * *

Two years later.

"Hey. Do you wanna go up with your cousin?" Her father tapped her on the shoulder.

"Yeah." She had trouble getting off her seat. She was wearing a black dress and didn't really understand what was going on.

She walked up with her cousin and stood with him at the pedestal. He was reading off his phone and took forever to finish talking. After, he told her to go up the two steps. It took her a while, but everyone was patient.

"Say, Opa was a good man." Her cousin whispered in her ear. She was a little shocked from the amount of people, but in the end, she said what she was told and everyone chuckled.

She ran from embarrassment to her seat next to her father and needed even more help getting back on her seat. When she settled in her chair, she looked up at her father. He was crying. She didn't interrupt so she just faced forward.

* * *

Five years later.

She sat on the rooftop right outside her bedroom window and held her little green stone. It was her Opa's birthday. She always believed that Opa would be able to hear her on an important day to him.

When she went back into her bedroom, she wrote a birthday letter to Opa.

Dear Opa, I don't know if you can see or hear this, but I'm writing it anyway. I love you so much, Opa. In the five years you've been gone, I've been swimming competitively, authoring short stories, made loads of new friends, moved, and been getting some surprisingly good grades. But today isn't about me. It's about you. If you can hear this, please give me some kind of sign. Or just, nothing at all. That's cool too.

Love you.

She folded up her letter and took her stone with her. It was a little cold, but she got moving. She moved to a place near a lake. She loved it. The lake was pretty, but when you went to go swimming, it was yucky and had all these algae and everything there. But it was pretty.

She walked down to the dock and stared at the lake for a full few minutes. She put her letter in the water while she was holding her green stone in her warm hands that were placed in her pocket. It seemed weird. Why would you place a letter in gross water? Then she remembered her Opa's story.

When Opa was a little boy, around four years old, his mother passed away. Back in the day, the fathers didn't really know what to do with six children. They didn't know how to care for them as much as a mother did. Knowing this, Opa's father married a terrible woman. This woman hated his children. Opa's gullible father agreed to sending them to an adoption center. Opa was about six then.

Opa and his five siblings went to this adoption center and Opa said he loved it there. He thought it was incredible to live with about thirty other kids his age and seeing them every night. Another reason he loved it there was because the center was right on the ocean. When Opa got older, he would get on his sailboat and just hang on the water.

Opa, he stayed in this adoption center for his entire childhood. Whenever someone would come in looking for a child to adopt, they would see one of Opa's siblings and then get the news that there were six of them. They couldn't take all six of them, for it being too expensive and they have their own family to look after.

At age eighteen, he left the adoption center and kept sailing. He loved the water.

* * *

One year later.

"Hey mum?"

"Yeah?" They were in the car driving home from school on a Friday afternoon.

"I think I've lost my green stone." She tried to act normal, but she was starting to get a panic attack.

"Oh man. Well, you can look when we stop the car."

"Okay."

* * *

She looked everywhere. Every centimeter in the car, in the pants pockets, in her cat sitting job's house, in her swimming bag, her school backpack, at her local swimming pool she goes to practice to.

She's been crying for over three hours. And this wasn't one of those things that you exaggerated a sickness for so you can get out of school that day. This green stone was her favorite thing in the entire world. She needed it back.

Her mother stepped into her room and saw her daughter half laying, half sitting on the floor, her room a mess. Her clothes were on the floor, pockets inside out, her bed moved far away from the wall, and blankets spilled on the floor.

"Come on. It's just a stone. Why are you crying so much?"

"Shut up! Shut up! It's not just a stone!" She only ever said "shut up" to her mother one other time. She got punished for a week with the punishment of none of her friends allowed to come over. This time her mother saw how much her daughter was in pain and let it go.

"Well, what can I say? Everyone tried looking their best."

"I know."

* * *

Forty years later.

"Well. That's the end of the story." She spoke.

"What! That's a terrible ending!" Her son protested.

"Yeah! Come on, Mum! Tell us the real ending!"

"That is the real ending! You two have to go to sleep now."

"So," her son was a little confused. "Can I meet Opa?"

"No. I wish you could've though. When I say 'said goodbye' I mean he died, sweetheart."

"Aww."

"Was 'Opa' his real name?" Her daughter asked.

"Opa means grandfather in Dutch. Opa's real name was," She smiled. "Andre."

There was a silence as her daughter in shock looked at her older brother.

"But…" Her son looked like what his mother just said was rocket science. "That's my name!"

"I know. That's why I named you that."

"So then will I have a little green stone?"

"You can. Do you want one though?"

Andre thought hard about this. And for a long time too. She wanted some alone time to herself in her apartment without her noisy kids around.

"Hey how about you tell me at breakfast tomorrow morning? Okay?"

"Okay." She tucked in both of her kids and turned the light off.

* * *

"Hey."

"What are you watching?" She asked her husband.

"Just a show. Come sit down?"

"Yeah." She walked into the kitchen and made them two teas and a bowl of popcorn. She sat next to him and slowly invested herself into the show.

"Tell them the story?" She shook her head and felt the tighten of his hands on her back.

Every night, she checked up on her kids to see if they were sleeping well. That night, she placed a little green stone on Andre's bedside table. It wasn't the little green stone, but every stone was special to every person. Then, she placed a light purple crystal she found when she was about six years old when she was living in Manhattan and found it in Central Park on a scorching summer day.

"What are you doing, mama?"

"Nothing sweetheart. Go back to sleep." She covered up her daughter with the blankets and said goodnight.

"I love you, mama."

"I love you too."