Page 68 (1/1)

"Bye, Sara"

"Bye"

I hung up and practically dropped the phone on the carpeted floor I eak all over Pushing through this sadness I was getting pretty fucking well acquainted with, I looked over at a box and hastily grabbed it Using only my hands, I pulled on a flap until the tape loosened, and then I grabbed the tape and tore it off

I won’t be scared and weak anymore, I told myself as I continued to tear the lines of tape off I won’t run away I won’t be a coward because it’s the easier way out The easier way out is the wrong way out

My breath caught inand thick black cover photo album There were more photo albu down at this cover as I sat back in a cross legged posture, I wiped away a thick cover of dust and opened it

Being hit with photos of me as a baby felt like a ton of celued n kind of pain: a pain of losing her Oh, God, there were so h the in picture after picture of her and ht, but there was an olderby the similar features between hirandfather

I couldn’t get over how young she was, how gorgeously shaped her body was, how soft and happy her face looked The first album was my first year, and I was dressed in all kinds of cute baby outfits, so in Steadily, through every photo albu aa dog four tioofiest s with a massive straw hat over my head; on a tricycle that was red and brand new; at a beach filling a box with sand; in bed in Morandfather who looked proudly at the camera… I was coht into the world

My curiosity peaked when I saw a few photos of a dark shaggy haired boy with al next to two year old self He must have been at least ten years old Was he a relative? A neighbourhood boy? The son of one of Mo that kind of info about Mom back when she was… normal

By the time I hit around four years old, the photos died off and that was the end of that

Sadly, I didn’t re buried every bit ofit with pain I pondered for a long while what ht have happened after that, but it didn’t take a brainiac to piece the ical explanation: he must have walked back into her life so for the ride Such a sha well for her at the start with the support of her father, in a house that looked homely and family oriented These were just assumptions I had no real answer to, but that I suddenly had a deep yearning to get to the bottom of

I sorted the albums aside and s, like souvenirs of soyptian mummy imprinted on it and weird shit like that This box was her little treasure trove I was impressed at the amount of tickets to concerts she’d stacked aside My oer, and that asped at what she looked like This is what I was curious about the most She was beautiful in recent years All cleaned up The alcohol and cigarettes had aged her, but she was head and shoulders different than the wo dark haired woe She was beautiful, tall and slim with bronze skin and mocha brown eyes Thisto know my mom little by little Her harboured treasures spoke volumes of the kind of woman she became before her death I also admired the tidbits from my childhood There were baby outfits I’d seen pictures ofas a baby all bundled up in another box– outfits of s I’d ures with a corner sun and a garden of what I assumed was flowers

I was overwhel back inside, and by then I received a call fro to his promise that he was on his way I waited by the front door until he showed up, twoFastback He cli cryptically stern like before and reeted me with a nod and a curt hello and entered the house He was overall impressed with the condition of the furniture and four burly large men emptied the house within the hour

On his way out, he handed me an envelope "What’s this?" I asked

"You didn’t really think I’d take all of your mother’s possessions without a price, did you?" he replied "There’s a few grand in there"

"I don’t want your money"

His safe softened for the first tiood afternoon"

With the slight misstep in his walk and the slu me to wonder just hoell he’d knownover to pick up the final box in the bedroo room when I heard a loud sla ot to lock the door after Frank had left with the men, and now so the staircase, I hurriedly raced to ainst my chest

"Sara?" Jaxon’s voice sounded at the top of the stairs

I let out a relieved breath "In here"

He followed my voice to the bedroom and stood in the doorway -- and the doorway never looked so s and brawny he hen I didn’t have anything to coht slim fit sweater and black leather jacket His hair was h it ten thousand times in the last hour, and his face cal beside the boxes