Wardo's World

Chapter 15

Today is my first day back at school since dad passed away. We only have a few days until the summer holidays but mum thought we should get back into a normal routine, it's pretty hard to thought when your still mourning the loss of your dad and knowing that he will never pick me up from school again is hard... Really hard.
I quickly threw on my uniform of a white polo shirt, my black school trousers and my navy school jumper before bounding down the stairs and I to the kitchen for breakfast. Mum stood  at the island chopping fruit and vegetables to put into mine and Emilia's lunch boxes. Emilia sat at the kitchen table silently sipping her milk and eating her porridge in her neatly ironed black pinafore dress, white polo shirt, black tights and navy school cardigan.
"Morning mum," I mumbled, taking a bowl from the cupboard and filling it with a small amount of Cheerios before pouring a little milk on them and sitting down at the table.
"Do you want cheese or tuna in your sandwich today Wardo?" Mum asked tiredly. She wasn't driving us to school this morning so she was still in her pyjamas and her dressing gown. Oma, who had moving in with us for a while was driving us instead, mum as still scared to drive after what happened to dad.
"Tuna." I answered, taking a bite out of my cereal before looking over at my ten, almost eleven year old sister. She had lost so much weight over the past few weeks, it looked like she had gone on a diet but in reality she was just dancing more and eating a little less.
"Emilia?" Mum asked.
"Tuna." My sister replied bluntly just before Oma walked through the door ready to take Emilia and I to school.
"Are you guys ready?" My grandmother asked, picking up both mine and Emilia's school bags and passing us our coats. Mum quickly finished our lunches and then passed the filled, colourful Tupperware boxes to Emilia and I. She grabbed her pink one whilst I took the blue.
"See you both later." Mum said, kissing both Emilia and I on the foreheads lightly.
"Bye mum." We both replied quietly before filing out the door with Oma.

"Where have you been Eduardo?" My friend Liam asked as soon as he saw me walking into the playground. We had just dropped off Emilia and Oma had a word with the teacher and now I was being taken to my classroom.
"My dad went to sleep." I said. Liam looked at me strange."He isn't ever going to wake up, he's fallen asleep forever."
"I'm sorry Wardo." He patted me on the back before we both ran into the classroom together and got straight on with the work on the board whilst Oma had a quick conversation with the teacher, every so often I could see my teacher Miss Allan looking over to where I was sat, a sympathetic look on her face. After a while we got into the lessons and for a little while things went back to normal.
Eventually break time came around and all the people in the class started filing out of the door and into the playground.
"Eduardo, can I have a quick chat with you?" Miss Allan said, I stayed behind and once everyone had left she patted the chair next to her and began to talk. "Your grandma told me what happened." She started. "I can't begin to think what it's like going through what you have. She said that you haven't taken to the news very well." I nodded.
"There's one thing that happens when someone passes away."she carried on. "They are gone from sight but not from mind. Your dad is still in your memories and your heart, you need to let him live on in there. He isn't there to physically hug or to comfort you when your upset but he's in your heart forever, no one can take that away. No one can ever change or take away those memories and when you're feeling down those are the times you need to think about." As she was saying this I thought of the time that Emilia told dad that she thought she was pregnant because she had a stomach ache. The whole family laughed about it for months, dad was horrified to start with but then we just laughed about it. That's one memory I never want to let go of anytime soon.
Miss Allan smiled at me sympathetically then said that I could go outside if I wanted or I could sit in the reading corner for some quiet time. I opted to go outside to my friends and to be honest that realisation helped. Dad is gone from sight but not from mind, that is where I need to let him live on.