Kids
Lost and Found
I stood at the bottom of the steps in my new dress. Dad rang the doorbell. I was nervous. Even though I’m six years old, I never met my grandma before.
What would she be like? Would she smell like peppermint—like Nana, who always had candy? Would she yell like the old woman down the street who didn’t like dogs? Would she change her mind and not want to see me? Would she slam the door on us? I decided I should run for the car.
Just then, the door opened.
A woman with a blue dress and gray hair stood at the door. My grandma. She said, “You must be Jessica.” Not Jess or Jessey. Jessica. “Come in. I have some hot chocolate for you.” I climbed slowly up the steps and took my dad’s hand. We went into the house together.
Grandma said, “Would you like some coffee, Jill?” She looked at my dad. “I mean—Frank.” I knew Dad was named Jill growing up, but I never heard anyone call him Jill. She said, “I’m sorry, you’re still Jill to me.”
Dad said, “I haven’t been Jill since I was twelve.” He looked mad, but he didn’t say anything else.
My grandma turned to me. “Jessica, you probably want something to play with. I must have some of your dad’s old toys here. You can look in his room while we talk. We have some catching up to do.”
Dad’s closet was a disaster. Everything was in a pile on the floor. There were some pictures of a girl with long blonde hair. One had a birthday cake that said “Happy Birthday, Jill.” There was a fancy dress that didn’t look like as if had ever been worn. I picked up the dress. It might fit me. Under the dress was a doll. The blonde hair was cut short. I brought the doll to the kitchen. Grandma said, “I remember that doll. I gave it to your dad for his sixth birthday.” She turned to Dad. “That night you cut off its hair. I told you that you ruined the doll, but you carried that doll everywhere you went.”
I said, “It sounds like he fixed it.”
Then Grandma said, “I can’t remember what you called that doll.”
“Frank!” Dad almost yelled this. Then he said a little quieter, “His name was Frank. I can’t believe I found Frank after all these years.”
“I found Frank,” I said, hanging on tight to the doll.
Grandma said, “No, I found Frank.” But she wasn’t looking at the doll. She was looking at Dad. She hugged him. Then she reached out to me and said, “Come here, Jess. Now that I’ve found both of you, I don’t want to lose you.”
She smelled like hot chocolate instead of peppermint. She felt softer than Nana. She wanted to see me and Dad after all, and she didn’t slam the door. Maybe having two grandmothers would be okay.
Author
Mike Huber is a preschool teacher who tells a new story every day in his class. He writes, builds, and performs puppet shows with his wife, Mary Jo Nikolai. They have performed at Heart of the Beast Theater and Birchbark Books in Minneapolis, and at the Minnesota Children’s Museum. Mike also plays drums, ukelele, mandolin, and guitar.
Leanne Franson draws the "Rosen'Blue and Sassafras" comic every month, and has also illustrated many stories for Rainbow Rumpus. In 2012, Leanne moved from Montreal back to the Saskatchewan prairies where she grew up. She draws comics and illustrations from her home studio on her acreage in Martensville, which she shares with her son Benjamin Taotao, and her two cats, Asterix and Méménou.
