For Always (book one)

Chapter 5: Family

Malyn

I hadn't seen Beau since I'd left him sitting in the sunroom yesterday. I assumed that since he was able to talk to me that he wouldn't leave me alone. I had assumed wrong.

Grandmama was gone when I got up. She left me a note on the bar saying she had to go into town and that she'd bring us back lunch. I knew she was anxious to try to find out information about Beau, so I figured she'd be at the library and courthouse all morning. I went ahead and poured a bowl of cereal and ate it at the table out on the back porch, hoping to see Beau, but I didn't. I wondered where he was. It wasn't like he could go far.

I finished my cereal and went back inside. It would be a few more hours until Grandmama got back, so I decided to crank up the stereo that was in the parlor and clean. I was one of those rare teenagers that didn't like dirt. Grandmama kept everything neat and clean, but I knew she would appreciate some help.

I ran upstairs to get my mp3 player, so I could listen to my own songs, not wanting to be tortured by some of the stuff they played on the radio. Plugging in my auxiliary cord, I clicked on shuffle, turning it up as loud as I could without busting the speakers, and got to work.

I started in the kitchen, loading the dishwasher and wiping down the counters. That didn't take long at all, so I decided to dust, which would take forever with all the stuff she'd collected over the years. I started in the parlor, which was the most... decorated, I guess you could say. She had a hutch in the corner covered with pictures, figurines, and books, so I tackled it first. I took everything off and wiped it all down before returning it to the shelves. I was admiring all her weird collectables when a book slipped out of my hand and landed on the floor. Some pictures fell out, so I gathered them up to put them back in the book when one caught my eye—it was me.

I put the book down and started going through the pictures. One was of Grandmama and Margaret when they were younger, a few of Grandmama on stage at various places, and the rest were pictures of my family—My family. My mom and dad and me.

I'd never seen any pictures of the three of us together. I'd asked Grandmama a long time ago why there were no pictures of us and she said, "Well, when your mom died, your dad put 'em all away. It made him sad to look at what he'd never have again." She said she looked for them after he died but couldn't find them. I doubt she even knew she had these.

I sat down right there in the floor to look at my family for the first time. My eyes filled with tears and I had to wipe them with my shirt so that I could see. I looked to be about two and we were at a beach. This must have been taken right before she died. We all looked so happy. I definitely look like my mom. In one picture she was holding me on her lap and Dad was kissing her. And in another, Dad was holding me up over his head while my mom was looking up at me as I laughed. I had to wipe my eyes again, hating the fact I always had a hard time controlling my emotions.

"Ya okay?" Beau yelled over the music, scaring me out of my wits.

I got up to turn the music down and sat back down in the floor next to where he stood, picking up the pictures and putting them back in the book. "I was just cleaning."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle ya." He sat down on the floor next to me and looked down at the pictures. "Mind if I see?"

"No, go right ahead." I started to hand them to him, but remembered he couldn't hold them. "Sorry, I forgot." I held up the pictures of Grandmama and showed him, which he seemed to get a kick out of. When I got to the ones of me, he smiled. "Is that you?"

"Yes."

"And that has to be your ma."

"Yeah, I look a lot like her. She died when I was two."