What I Thought I Knew

photo albums

Her father dropped Kara off back at the house before taking his parents home. She would have to wait until he came back to get her phone, but she was okay with that. When she walked inside she didn't see her mother, but she did see the door that was under the staircase, was now open. She had originally thought it was a closet, but now she could see that it led to another set of stairs. Walking down the stairs into the basement she could hear light music playing. The basement was carpeted and it honestly didn't look scary I'm the slightest, nothing like Vickys basement they used to date eachother, as kids, to go in. There we're shelves along the wall, with buckets stacked on them, canned goods lined up, and folded blankets laying on the. As well as jugs of water. That's when she sees her mother in the corner of the basement. A box pulled of a shelf as she goes through it. She was sitting at a small table, on a fold out chair. "Hey," she calls out quietly.

Her mother's startled a bit but looks up, she smiles when she see's Kara. "Oh hey honey, come sit down," she tells her and Kara walks over to the table.

"I didn't know we had a basement," Kara says before feeling stupid, of course she didn't know, because despite the way her family acted she hadn't been there her whole life, it had only been a week.

Her mother nods, smile still on her face, "well we don't really allow you kids to hangout down here, although when you were little you always seemed to forget that rule." She then slides over what she had been looking at. "Here, I was just going through our old pictures."

Kara looks down at a family photo, the word chaos coming to mind. It looked as if Sophie was screaming her head off, Rose and Charlie were fighting over something they held in between them. Leaving Kara to wonder if Rose ever got along with anyone. Amy and Eliza seemed to be in an argument, Saddie was sitting on the ground playing with flowers, Lacy was covering her ears, while Kara herself was pulling on Lacy's arm to try to get her to listen to her. while Matt attempted to get Rose and Charlie to stop fighting. Her mother smiles down at the photo, "this looks familiar?" Kara tells her, and then she remembers, "this photo looks similar to the one in the papers about my kidnapping, except, everyone is fighting in this one."

Her mother nods, sliding the photo album over too, right above the spot where the missing photo was, is another picture. The family photo that was used in the newspaper article from ten years ago. Everyone is smiling, and they look perfect. "This one was the first photo taken that day, right before Charlie stole the bow from Roses hair, and Amy and Eliza started arguing about a shirt Eliza borrowed with out permission and stained. then you wanted Lacy's attention but she was ignoring you over an incident during a game of hide and seek, and after that, we didn't take anymore photos and had to go with the first one. But this one's my favorite."

Kara furrows her eyebrows in confusion, "why?" Wouldn't she prefer the family photo that was perfect.

"Because that's who we are, the messy chaotic family that doesn't quite always get along." She explains placing the photo back into the album. She turns a page, pictures of Kara and Lacy dressed like twins, and if Kara hadn't known that it was a picture of her and her older sister, she would have assumed they were. Another photo of Matt holding a baby Sophie at the hospital, Charlie at his feet looking up in astonishment.  Amy wearing a prom dress in one photo, another of Eliza with her face painted chasing Sadie and Lacy around the back yard at a birthday party. 

Kara looks up at her mom, "how come your down here looking at photos?"

Her mother closes the book, Tracing her fingers around the edge for a moment before answering. "I haven't looked at these photos since your father put them down here five years ago. It's a long story," she then looks up, a smile on her face again. "Anyways, Why don't we go watch a movie." She stands up, taking the photo album with her upstairs, Kara following confused.

Think it about what had just happened in the basement Kara looks around the living room, noticing that there were no photos that looked older then a couple years ago hanging up on the walls. There were no photos of her, none of when she was little or family photos, nothing. It was strange, and if her mother hadn't seemingly avoided the subject of why the family photos were taken down stairs, she would ask her.

~•~

It was later that night, when Kara was upstairs in her room, talking to Vicky, who had somehow managed to convince her parents to let her have her phone back. Kara suspected that Vicky had used the "my Friend is going through a lot and needs me" card but she didn't really care, because it was true to an extent. She had attempted to text Nate, even call him, but he hadn't responded or picked up. She figured he needed more time, and he was right about her needing to figure out her feelings for Simmon before anything could happen between them again. She had just finished explaining everything that had happened in the last week to Vicky.  The photo thing in the back of her mind, as she wondered whether or not to bring it up to her, but it's not like Vicky would have any answers for her. That's when Lacy walked into the room, swinging her backpack onto her bed, she had left it down stairs this afternoon when she had gotten home and relized way too late in the evening that she had science homework.

Kara looks at her sister, thinking about how maybe she would know what happened to your he photos. "Hey, uh, Vicky, I'll call you back later okay, my mom needs me down stairs." She tells her her before hanging up, Vicky not really having time to respond.

Lacy looks over, "mom doesn't need you," she watches her Younger sister confused, as she pulls a Nate book and a folder out of her bag.

"Can I ask you a question?" Kara asks, ignoring her sisters confusion.

"I'm not still mad at you, if you that's what you wanted to know," she answers as she pulls her science book out and flips to the page she needed for her homework, no longer looking at Kara.

Kara shakes her head, "no, that's not my question." Lacy looks over at Kara again. "Why'd mom and dad move all the pictures into the he basement a couple years ago, well not all, but the ones from before I went missing."

Lacy bites her lip, looking at the door, trying to determine if her mother is anywhere near, and if she should tell Kara. Sighing, "mom never stopped believing you were still alive, but dad," Lacy looks down, pausing for a moment before looking back up and deciding to go another route with her explanation. "Everyone took your disappearance differently, mom kind of shut down for a bit, and dad started working out of the country more, but about five years ago, dad had enough of mom acting like everything stopped the day you disappeared, and he didn't think you were still alive, he hoped, but after five years that hope grew smaller. So he decided that it was time for everyone to move on, he had been back from a business trip for about a week, and mom had been up in their room the entire time. He kind of just had enough, he got a box and took all the photos off the wall, everything went in the basement. Him and mom got into a big fight because of it, he told her that she needed to move on too, she had eight other kids that needed her. They got divorced not long after that, but she changed after that day, she never brought the pictures back up, she went back to work, and she started spending time with us again. After that, we didn't talk about you, it was as if we needed you not to exist for our lives to continue. Mom still had days where she would disappear into her room but, we didn't talk about those either, and they didn't happen as often."

Both girls sit in silence for a bit after lacy finish her explanation. Kara not really sure what to say, she could feel the emotions she had cut off that morning wanting to come back, but she wasn't sure how she would feel if she allowed them too. So she just nods, "okay, thanks for answering my question." She says almost robotically as she gets up to go down stairs.