Each morning, Arlo liked to wake up with the birds. She loved to listen to them sing while watching the sun rise above her family’s orchard. “Thanks for watching over our apple trees!” she’d holler to the sun from her window. She would then run down the stairs to the kitchen to enjoy her eggs and toast while watching cartoons.

Her favorite part of the morning, however, was sprinting through the orchard to find her favorite tree of them all: the apple tree that can’t seem to bear any apples! Her mother says the soil the tree is buried in makes the tree sick. Still, Arlo felt sad for the poor tree and asked her mother if they could hang a swing from one of its branches. “That’s a wonderful idea!” her mother cheered. A few days later, a swing was hung.

One morning, Arlo’s grandfather was out raking the apple leaves while Arlo was swinging. “If you close your eyes” he shouted “You’ll feel like a bird!”. Arlo closed her eyes and let the wind rustle her hair as her grandfather pushed her on the swing until it was time for school.

So now every morning after breakfast, Arlo sprinted to the tree to meet with her grandfather. Grandpa would push Arlo on the swing and tell Arlo stories about playing on the orchard from when he was a boy. “Me and my brother would play hide and seek and catch fireflies in the orchards at night” he’d tell her. Being able to see her grandpa every morning made mornings extra special.

One morning, Arlo asked her grandpa to push her on the swing, but she noticed something was off with him. “Not today, kiddo. Too tired, maybe tomorrow”. She watched him rub his knees and wipe the sweat away from his forehead. He sat down underneath the tree, protected by the branches from the hot sun and began eating an apple.

Later that night, Alro told the sun goodnight and went to bed. She unexpectedly woke up to her mother sitting on the end of her bed. With a few tears streaming down her face, Arlo’s mother said “Arlo, last night, your grandpa passed away while he was sleeping. His body stopped working. His heart stopped beating, and his lungs stopped breathing.” At first, Arlo was confused. “Does this mean he’s not going to wake up?” Arlo asked worriedly. Her mother nodded and hugged Arlo tight.  

Arlo’s mother let her stay home from school that day. Arlo spent most of the day trying to watch cartoons or playing with her dolls, but she was very distracted. She couldn't stop thinking about her grandpa. She asked her mother many questions. “How did grandpa get so sick? How old was he? Did he know he was sick?”. Sometimes Arlo’s mother was able to answer the question, sometimes she wasn’t.

Arlo had a difficult time eating her dinner. She felt like she had all kinds of knots twisted in her stomach. Then she thought about something that made her even more sad and worried. Was it wrong of her to ask grandpa to push her on the swing that one morning? Was it because he was too sick?

Arlo went into her bedroom to get ready for bed and saw something that made her very upset: her little brother, Dylan, was playing with one of her dolls without asking! While Arlo usually shares her dolls with Dylan, this time her face became very hot and red. She stormed into her bedroom and pushed Dylan down “I didn’t say you could play with my doll, Dylan!”. Arlo’s mother came rushing in. “Arlo, why did you push Dylan?!”