Surprise Visit

The noise sounded like people whispering.  But, there should not have been anyone else there.  My mother, father, and I had just gone to dinner and returned to what we thought would be an empty house.  But, the sound of whispers coming from the living room was, to my parents, oddly unsettling, and my father began to walk towards the noise.

I was not surprised at all by the whispers.  I knew exactly what they were...and I wanted to see my father’s face when he discovered it, too.  As he walked towards the front of the living room, I rushed through the foyer and into the back of the living room.  I stepped into the room just as my father turned and saw, sitting in two armchairs, my brother and sister-in-law.

My father said nothing for a moment, just stared wide-eyed at the two people sitting in the living room.  After a few seconds, he asked my mother to come into the room.  My mother had barely set foot in the room before joyfully screaming and hugging the two.

It was my parents’ fortieth anniversary and we had been planning this surprise for over one year.  My brother and sister-in-law had flown in from the northwest that afternoon.  With the help of some equally secretive friends, they were able to sneak into the house while we were at dinner.

But, this was not the only surprise for my parents.  My parents recovered from their shock and we told them how we planned everything.  After about an hour, the doorbell rang.  My mother jumped up to answer it, peering through the window beside the door as she grabbed the key.  She just laughed when she saw, standing on the other side of the door, my youngest brother, just arrived from Oregon.