Before I Was Someone

Prologue

Baiselle sat in the kitchen, waiting for me.

"Hello, Darling," I bent slowly to kiss her fragile cheek.

"Milo, hey," she greeted me without moving her eyes from the wall. I decided to ignore her distracted mood.

"Baisie, what day is today?" I watched her carefully as I washed my aged hands at the kitchen sink behind her. She turned to me suddenly.

"Milo," she gasped at me, smiling like I was being foolish. "How could you forget? Stupid, it's Momma's birthday!" She laughed. "Oh Jeez, whopping fifty years old. I have to call later so I can tease her to death about it."

I smiled weakly. "Well, Sweet, tell Janey I hope she has a good day."

"Mm, alright," she called as I slowly made it out of the kitchen.

I eased myself into the armchair, Baiselle still visible through the French doors I had just hobbled through. As she held the phone up to her ear, I closed my eyes for a moment, dreading everything soon to come.

Baiselle had been with me so long that I could picture her perfectly in mind, and I saw her laughing, with all the world admiring her as I was. She had always known she was beautiful, but it seemed that somehow, she had recently forgotten. She was losing herself, I knew, but I was losing her faster. My Baiselle, always my Baiselle. I'd always been her Milo, too, but I was afraid that I wouldn't be for much longer. We had lasted so long, but as Baiselle's old, creaking bones rattled with her laughs when she sat herself gently next to me, as she hesitated while saying my name, I stared past her at a picture frame propped up on a shelf. I could not read the words in the photo from where I was seated next to Baisie, but I had read over them many times in the past twenty years.

In Loving Memory of Jane Sobeck

Beloved wife and mother

May 27, 1970 - August 2, 2060

I did remember Baiselle's mother's fiftieth birthday. Despite the sixty years since then, Baiselle had the same energy she had then, as a twenty-year-old at the turn of the century.

"Milo, Mom didn't pick up, so I'll just call back later. Can you remind me? You know how bad my memory is," Baisie said, laughing at herself. I kept my eyes fixed on the photo, willing myself to not to look at her; willing her to find what my eyes were boring a hole through. Instead, she pulled her mouth to my ear, laughing softly at me. "Hello! Milo?"

I closed my eyes and cried behind my eyelids because I knew that soon, my sweet Baiselle would be as gone as her mother.

_________

All right guys, that was super short because I was just testing out a sudden idea that I had, so if all goes to plan, I'll be actively writing for You Would Be Backwards and this one (completely unrelated stories) until they're finished!

x -anniearbor