104-Entry 001<The Journal>

L’s POV

*THURSDAY, 4th of April*

*Mason’s birthday.”

“The candles are melting, Luna.”

Mason’s first word was Luna.

While other pups in their first few years started out saying “Dada” or “mama”, my brother’s first word as a baby was my name and even though he didn’t get it correctly, it stuck and he never outgrew it. I remember the first time he said it, I was in the kitchen, cooking us a meal from what was left of the foodstuff in our house and he had fallen on his face while trying to come to me.

He’d cried the name repeatedly as I came to his aid. I didn’t understand until later that the word that left his mouth was the version of my name that he could say. I tried to correct him repeatedly but he never budged. It became his personal nickname for me.

Now he was celebrating his twelfth birthday and my baby brother was just the same, only a little apprehensive because of the waiting he had to do.

His small birthday cake that I’d whipped up quickly that morning before going to work