A New Beginning: My Journey with Addy

I blink back the last of my tears and take a deep breath before dinner. Gran helps Danny set out the glasses while I carry the milk to the table, and Grandpa sets down a platter of bluefish and mashed potatoes. Fish is one of Dad’s favorite meals, and I usually love it too, but tonight I can only pick at my plate. Gran and Grandpa are family, and I know how much they love Danny and me, but a dinner with them still doesn’t feel like a real one with Mom and Dad.

I’m also getting more nervous every night about my call with Dad. Talking to him and Mom together on Skype is usually easy, but lately I’ve been hiding my feelings from both of them. Tonight, with my test grade weighing on me, I’m afraid my face is going to give me away.

After dinner, Gran and I clear the dishes while Grandpa and Danny play a game of musical chairs without any music in the living room. Grandpa claps out a beat as Danny marches around the coffee table, and when the clapping stops, they both flop onto the sofa giggling. I join them once the dishes are done, and by then Grandpa has already pulled out his coin collection. He brought it with him when he and Gran moved in, and Danny loves those old coins so much he bounces up and down waiting for his turn to see them.

Grandpa says history is more than just a bunch of dates, examining a coin from his chair across from the sofa. He tells us it’s about real people, and that’s what makes it special. He has told us the story behind nearly every coin in that case a million times, and Danny still wants to hear them again. Grandpa snaps open a small plastic case and holds up a coin that isn’t silver or gold at all.

Grandpa tells us it’s a bronze two-cent piece from 1864. Danny shouts that it must be a million years old, and doing the math quickly in my head, I correct him that it’s closer to 150. Grandpa nods and tells us his father had an uncle named Charley Long, who fought in the Civil War.

This particular coin was part of Charley’s first pay after he became a soldier. He sent the money home, and his mother kept this one coin with her every single day he was gone, carrying it as a reminder that the war would end and he would come home safe. Grandpa says the story still gives him goosebumps, and it gives me some too. A war is nothing like what’s happening in my family, but I can’t help thinking I miss Mom and Dad the way Charley’s mother must have missed him.

Danny asks what happened to Charley. Grandpa smiles and says Charley came home safe and sound. His mother gave him the coin and told him how she had kept it close all that time, so Charley carried it in his own pocket every day until he passed it down to Grandpa’s father, who later passed it to Grandpa. Someday it will be mine.

It’s almost seven o’clock, and I still haven’t figured out how to tell Dad about my test grade. I need a minute to think, so I head to my room to change into my pajamas. My social studies test is still sitting on my desk right where I left it.

Out in the hallway, I hear a clatter. I open my door to see what’s going on, and I find Danny is dragging part of Grandpa’s coin collection toward his room. I whisper for him to give it back before he gets in big trouble, and he whispers back a teasing “like you?” as he yanks it away from me. The box slips out of his hands, and plastic sleeves and cases scatter across the floor. We both drop down, scrambling to scoop everything up before Grandpa notices it’s missing, and Danny mutters that he only wanted a closer look.

I remind him that Dad will be on the computer in a few minutes, so he’d better go get his pajamas on. He hops up and does a silly waddle toward his room, imitating the ducks we saw at the zoo ages ago. As awful as my day has been, Danny can still make me laugh, so I call after him to wash the mashed potato off his chin.

I carry the coin box into my room and go to close the door. Down the hall, I hear the water in the bathroom running and Gran asking Grandpa if he wants a cup of coffee. As I turn to set the box on my desk, I step on something small. It’s the plastic case holding Charley’s two-cent piece, which must have landed in my room when Danny dropped everything earlier.

I pick it up, snap open the case, and examine the coin more closely. Grandpa usually keeps his coins polished, but this one has dirt crusting over the date stamp. I use my thumbnail to rub the numbers 1864 clear. My fingers start to tingle, and I feel dizzy. I close my eyes for a second and shiver from a gust of cold air. When I open my eyes, I can’t quite believe what I see.