Birthday Gifts

The voice sounded rather familiar, though I had never heard Mr. Atten or Mrs. Atten speak in such a way before. I struggled to place it for a few seconds, as I attempted to pull the fleeting memory from my confused mind.

Due to my inability to recall the elusive memory, I started to retrace the events of the day. I had woken up at four in the morning as I always did, gently shaking my slumbering brothers and sisters awake. 

They weren't really my brothers and sisters, since we weren't related by blood. However, we treated each other like siblings - always arguing and squabbling, but more than willing to help each other when it mattered. 

Once they were awake, if still bleary-eyed with sleep, I headed downstairs from the stuffy attic to use the tiny washroom and 'bathe myself', which was essentially just pouring a lot of cold water over my head and using a bar of terrible soap to scrub myself as thoroughly as I could. Once I dried myself with the remains of my old clothes, I quickly dressed myself in the uniform clothes we had to wear during the day - Mr. Gerald said it made us look unified. 

The moment I stepped out of the ice-cold bathroom, there would always be someone waiting to use it. All six of us had to be done before Mr. Gerald and Mrs. Rose woke up, otherwise we wouldn't get to bathe the entire day. However, when I got out of the bathroom today I found all five of my siblings waiting for me. 

"Happy birthday!" they chanted in unison, and started singing the good ol' birthday song - softly, of course, to avoid waking the adults up.

I rolled my eyes at their antics, but with a big smile on my face. I had forgotten my own birthday, but somehow they hadn't. Once the song was over, they each solemnly presented me with small gifts: Liz gave me a book filled with sudoku puzzles before scampering into the washroom, Lily gifted me a pair of hand knitted socks and Louis got me a notebook along with a sharpened pencil. Ernst shyly passed me a bar of chocolate and Mia gave me a bookmark with beautiful handwritten inscriptions.

I gratefully accepted each of their thoughtful gifts. I had been lacking a proper set of puzzles for months on end, and my only pair of socks was starting to wear thin. An empty notebook could be used for a great variety of things, not to mention the fresh new pencil that came along with it. 

Ernst's bar of chocolate was one he had been hoarding for weeks, the last of a small bag he had slowly whittling through, and I was very surprised that he had given me anything at all - he had used up most of his funds when we were pooling together our money to get a set of art materials for Lily's birthday, and the bar of chocolate was one of his prized possessions.

Mia's gift was the most unexpected of them all. Since she couldn't really start helping out yet, she barely received an allowance at all, certainly not enough to afford any more than an eraser or perhaps a cheap pen. Nevertheless, she had managed to create a beautiful bookmark, with subtle colors and unique quotations - although some of the grammar may have been somewhat inaccurate.

The thought of their heartwarming kindness and love placed a smile on my face.

Suddenly, a voice broke into my thoughts. "What are you smiling about?"