Sophie rolled over in bed. How could the sun be so happy when Grandpa was still sick. She missed riding on his shoulders and eating his famous french toast.

“You okay Sophie?” Dad asked as she came downstairs. 

Sophie shrugged. “I miss Grandpa.” 

“Me too,” Dad said. “He’ll be home soon.”

“Not soon enough,” Sophie pouted.

“What if I make you french toast,” Dad offered. 

Sophie shook her head. “Grandpa’s french toast is better.”

“What if we use his recipe?” 

Sophie smiled. “Yeah, maybe…” Sophie put a stool up to the countertop and pulled forward the recipe cards. 

Dad read, “It says we need milk, eggs, bread, and cinnamon.” 

“I’ll go get the eggs!” Sophie ran to the coop with her basket ready to get every egg she could find. 

“Thank you Mystic Maran.” Sophie said pulling out eggs the color of milk chocolate. 

“Don’t worry Wyandotte your creamy eggs are going to a good cause, Grandpa’s famous french toast.” 

Sophie ran back inside and saw Dad on the phone. 

“Sorry Sophie, I have to take this work call. I’ll help you in a little bit.” Dad said going into the study.

Sophie stomped. The sunshine was so wrong, it was not a nice day. 

“I guess I can still get things ready,” Sophie said. She got out the milk and found the cinnamon in the spice drawer. She washed all her eggs and set them on a towel to dry. 

“Now the bread.” Sophie looked in the pantry and found two partial loaves. One white bread and the other wheat. She laid out the bread piece by piece on the table alternating for a checkered effect. It looked pretty. 

Sophie read the directions, “Place the egg mix on the bread…” 

Sophie felt stumped. She didn’t know what to mix. Instead she took each egg and began to set them on each piece of bread. Standing on the chair next to the table she realized that her bread and eggs looked an awful lot like a checkers board. Which reminded her of Grandpa not being home all over again. 

Sophie wanted to cry. Then she heard the do-do-dooo of a video call coming from the tablet. She ran to check who it could be.

“Grandpa!” Sophie said answering the call. “I miss you SO MUCH!” 

“Hello sunshine. I’m on the mend. I can’t wait to see you too.” 

“I was trying to make your french toast to remember you today but instead I made checkers…” Sophie said, showing him her bread and egg board. 

“Now that’s clever. If you don’t mind moving for me we could play a quick game.” Grandpa offered.

“Yes! Let’s play.” Sophie smiled. Maybe the sunshine wasn’t so wrong after all.

Author Information: Hannah Deurloo is a children’s book writer and can be found on Twitter @HSDeurloo or online at QuestType.com.