personal trainer. Though he has lead us on many adventures, I’m glad we choose Baxter as our pet. Brandon Bryant Grade 6 Heritage Middle School 4005 Popular Springs Road Mrs. Reeves Lemonade with Suzy On an especially warm Monday in the year 2006, I got the excitement of going to spend the day with my grandma, Suzy as we have always called her. I had a feeling I knew what we were going to do. We had a special secret that only we knew, what we always did when I went to spend the day with Suzy. Suzy lived in Hixson, Tennessee in a small, one story house with a screened back porch and a huge backyard that seemed to be miles long. She lived up on a hill that made it seem like the world revolved only around that little cream house with the bushes around it. In my mind, it was the house of Suzy, with comfy couches, bouncy beds, deep bathtubs, and sour lemonade. One summer, Suzy had bought single serving lemonade packets from Minute Maid. When I was five, I had the attention span of a fly, so I got bored easily. That summer day, I had become bored. We decided to make some lemonade. We picked up the pitchers from the cabinet, the lemonade packets, and the measuring cups and arranged them out on the kitchen counter. Suzy began to read out the directions while trying to see through her thick glasses. She asked me to pick up the cup and bring it to her. I obeyed. She held my hands in hers and put water in the pitcher until it reached the desired amount. She told me to pour the water into the pitcher. She opened the lemonade packets and poured the contents into the pitcher. She let me smell the inside of the pitcher after she had poured it in. The lemonade powder smelled sour. I was not too fond of the smell, but Suzy loved it. She got out one of her big wooden spoons and handed it to me. She told me to stir. I stirred for what seemed like hours, but it was actually only thirty seconds. Suzy told me I could rest for a second, and I was grateful. She tasted the lemonade. She smiled big and told me that my stirring had gotten it just right. She picked up the pitcher and poured two cups full of lemonade. She handed one to me and we sat out on her porch for hours, sipping lemonade and talking about my projects in art, how I can spell almost all of the farm animals, and how it was especially warm outside that day. Every time it was warm enough, we would always sit on her back porch and drink lemonade until our mouths were raw. At the time, I never imagined it to be anything special. In 2008, I realized how special it really was when Suzy became sick. She would not eat anything and laid on the couch for hours, reading the paper, doing the Sunday paper crossword puzzle, and drinking my aunt’s special banana smoothies. She stayed in my aunt’s house for months, just laying on the couch while my aunt desperately tried to coax her into eating some food. I watched helplessly
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