Chapter 9
“Mom! Uncle Carl! The balloon! The balloon’s flying away!” Bella cried out.
Carl was quick on his feet, jumping up to grab the balloon. I didn’t have to buy a new one.
“Uncle Carl, you’re amazing!” Bella exclaimed, hugging Carl’s leg.
I tied the balloon to Bella’s backpack. It shouldn’t get pulled off
now.
After a while, Bella got tired of climbing, so Carl carried her on his back. She rhythmically cheered him on.
I couldn’t stop laughing and was recording a video from behind.
“Didn’t I tell you to charge the power bank yesterday?”
“I thought you meant it was already fully charged.”
I heard a familiar voice and turned around to see Tom and
Isabel resting on a stone bench by the steps.
Tom spotted me and paused. “Sara?”
Isabel followed him to stand up. Her belly was slightly bulging. It looked like she was four or five months pregnant.
Chapter 9
“What a small world, Sara,” she said.
Carl and Bella turned around when they saw I hadn’t caught up.
“Bella!” Tom called out.
He jogged toward us, but Bella clung to Carl’s neck, refusing to let him hold her.
“Hello, Dad.”
In her mind, Carl was her dad, and Tom was just a stranger.
“Sara, did you bring the power bank? Could I borrow it? My phone’s dead,” Isabel asked, smiling at me.
I said I hadn’t brought it.
“I’d love to have a daughter, one as cute as Bella,” she said.
“Mom, let’s race to see who gets to the top of the mountain first,” Bella called out to me.
I agreed and walked past Tom.
Soon, the two people went out of sight.
When we were waiting for the cable car, Tom texted me, explaining that Isabel’s child was conceived through IVF. She had wanted a baby, and he was just helping her out.
Chapter
“As long as you need me.”
I remembered their conversation and couldn’t help but laugh.
Bella asked me why I was laughing.
“I was laughing at something funny.”
“What’s so funny?”
“Well… look, there’s a leaf in Uncle Carl’s hair.”
She pulled the leaf out of his and pouted at me, scolding me for seeing it and not telling him. Then she asked me to apologize to him.
I sighed, “Alright. Carl, I’m sorry.”
Carl smiled, “It’s alright.”
Bella grinned, “The cable car’s here for us!”
The End.
