“Hey, no fair, it’s my birthday and I don’t even get a piece,” I say

“Thanks so much for coming with me to help out,” Aunt Shevi says.

We’re driving back from Bubby’s house. Bubby’s been home for a few weeks already, but she can’t do very much around the house, so the aunts have been taking turns going over to prepare supper, help out with the cleaning… things like that.

Today, Shevi asked me to go with her, which is… unusual, but I guess she thought she could use another pair of hands, and her kids are much younger.

“Sure, it was my pleasure,” I tell Shevi. I mean it. Unlike Aunt Chana, who kind of made it her business to be my surrogate mother from the get-go, I don’t know Aunt Shevi too well. But she’s sweet and fun — and young, much younger than Chana and my mother — and I’d enjoyed chatting with her as we cleaned the (pretty much clean) dining room and prepared oven-baked schnitzel and rice. Honestly, I’m not sure what I was needed for, but hey, it’s not like I have anything better to do with my time.

I’d been hoping to see Bubby, but she wasn’t home. Maybe she had an appointment? I think Chana might have been over earlier to pick her up. She has all this rehab and everything, check-ups — it’s been hard.

We pull into Aunt Chana’s driveway. “I’m coming in for a minute, I need something from Chana,” Shevi tells me.

I press the combination code and start walking inside.

“SURPRISE!” The word explodes from the dining room, along with what sounds like a hundred party poppers going off at once.

O-M-G, are they serious?! This is literally the kind of surprise party that only happens in books. Whoa. I’m… a little shell-shocked, to be honest.

How did they know it’s my birthday?

And… this is crazy, really crazy.