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Loïc Age Eight New Hope, Mississippi“It’s so hard to be brave when I’m so scared. But I have to be.”
—Loïc Berkeley
I walk into the side kitchen door to find my mom frosting my birthday cake.
“How was your day, Loïc, love?” she says with a wide smile.
I answer her with a big hug as I wrap my arms around her waist. I love when Mom is happy.
Dad bursts into the kitchen. “I thought I heard a birthday boy in here. Come on, come on,” he says to Mom and me. He grabs our hands and leads out the door and to the backyard.
I stand in the center of the square of grass that makes up our yard and expectantly look around.
“I spy with my little eye something that is red,” my dad says, his eyes shining with happiness.
I turn in a circle in the middle of the small grassy space, but I can’t find
