by Rob Fretz

Created on: November 06, 2008   Last Updated: December 20, 2011

The peaceful silence was broken abruptly by a shrill cry coming from the basement. In an instant both my grandfather and myself, leapt from the sofa and were about to run to the basement where my grandmother was doing laundry and stopped just as suddenly when another cry came floating up the stairs. The only reason we sat back down was because just after the scream came, all three of my names one after the other were shouted out, each with its own emphasis and a degree of passion that can rarely be described. Sitting there half wondering what the cause of such a passionate outbreak would have been from and half wondering how much trouble I was about to find myself in.

First it was me who giggled, knowing now that all was ok, that the screams were not of someone in trouble, at least not yet... It was then that my grandfather looked to me with a sly grin, and a little laughter in his words when he asked me about my "lucky rabbit's foot". "So that's what happened to it!" I said with a little more than a little boy's amused giggle. Slowly realising why there had been a scream in the first place. Often I had tried my hardest to get this same reaction from my sister without much luck.

Not more than a few minutes later I could hear her coming back upstairs, knowing I was about to be in trouble. The anticipation of getting in trouble as well as finding an uncontrolled amount of humour in it seemed more than I could bear. Both my grandpa and I had a hard time holding back the laughter when she appeared in the living room with my jeans in her hand. Our suspicions now confirmed. The laughter was no longer controllable.

In fact, I broke out laughing so hard I had tears and almost rolled onto the floor. For a small boy of no more than 8 this was something new to me, something more than I had ever experienced. Even my grandfather, who was usually much more contained, was laughing out loud now. Shaking the jeans in front of me asking me to guess what she found in my pants pocket, even grandma had a hard time holding back from a giggle or two, herself.

I doubt that as long as I live I will ever forget that day. It wasn't a moment so momentous it will be ingrained in history for decades. It was a moment of love between a child and his grandparents. Moments like this never seem to make the history books, yet I strongly feel they should. Moments like this are what make life so much more fun. Moments filled with nothing but love for one to another. There were countless laundry days before this one and countless more since. Yet this one single day of laundry do I remember.

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