𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐘

𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐘 - 𝟎𝟐𝟔

When Dahlia and I made it to the kitchen, we stepped over the pots and pans scattered on the kitchen floor before standing in front of my mother. "You. Daisy, clean that up."She said, pointing to the stuff on the floor. "Mama she didn't come here to work-"

"Why is she here then? Huh?" She crossed her arms, squinting at me. I sighed, turning over to Dahlia and mouthing an apology. It's fine, she mouthed back with a smile. "Rae, go look in the garage. If it's not there, check my room." I nodded and walked towards the front of the house.

I don't understand why she calls me over here for the most useless things, I have bigger things to worry about. This is all stupid anyway, if she needed the dinnerware, why did she wait until 2 weeks before Thanksgiving to pull it out? I walked down the steps of the garage and I headed straight to the corner where they kept the boxes. After searching through them all and not having any luck, I walked back up the stairs and back to the kitchen.

"Found them?" My mother asked, sitting on the couch watching The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Is she seriously watching TV when she has me searching high and low for some silverware? I shook my head and walked to the kitchen to check on Dahlia. "Hey, you alright in here?" She nodded and continued sorting the pots and pans out.

I made my way up the stairs, opened the door to the bedroom, and slowly walked in.

It didn't look different at all. I looked behind me to see a portrait of my parents, it's been sitting there for years, not collecting one bit of dust. Where could she possibly want me to look? Wouldn't she know if plates were in her room or not? I groaned and bent down to look under her bed.

I dragged everything I saw out so I could get a better view of what was there and what was not, but still nothing. I pushed the majority of the things back when I paused, picking up the dusty box that looked like it hadn't been touched in decades. The tape was already starting to come up so me being nosey, I pulled it all the way back, opening the box fully.

Inside were a few gadgets, lipstick, a few books, and notepads. None of them interested me, it all seemed like old things my mother used, I picked up and placed everything aside, I sighed when I realized that there was nothing else but a cloth left but realized that something was poking out from under it. Picking up the cloth, there a brown book sat, not a particle of dust in sight.

Why was it covered, what could my mother have to hide? I slowly picked it up analyzing the outside of it, I opened the book, flipping through the pages. Nothing was on the first few, this book could really be empty but-. I paused, coming across a page full of photos of my mother and a lady next to her. She was beautiful, she had brown skin, beautiful facial features, big brown eyes, plump two-toned lips, and her wavy hair sat beautifully along her shoulders.

Was this a friend of my mother? I couldn't lie, she did look a bit familiar, but I pushed away the thought as I continued flipping the pages to endless photos of them together, and some just of the lady by herself. The photos came to a stop towards the end, which was strange. Normally, photobooks went from beginning to end but this one had not a beginning nor an end either.

On the page where the photos stopped sat a singular photo of the same woman sitting on swings with a little girl who looked to be around five. Is that her daughter? The photo had 10/14/03 written at the bottom of it, must've been the date it was taken.

I didn't look at it much, my focus being centered on the bundled-up piece of jewelry that sat next to the photo. It had a weird symbol on it, similar to a flower almost. I opened the flap and took it out, holding it carefully. Analyzing it, I noticed towards the bottom of it, a D initial engraved into it, being faint but visible.

"What are you doing?! Huh?!" My mother stood in the doorway, arms crossed, the look of anger spread all over her face. She stormed over to where I sat, snatched the necklace from my grasp, and grabbed my cheeks, squeezing them with all the force in the world. "I-"

"Get out." She pushed my face and I sat in shock, mouth agape and my eyes wide. "GET OUT!" She raised her voice, pointing to the door and I got up and rushed out of her room and down the stairs. When I reached the stairs, Dahlia was standing by the kitchen, looking towards the stairs. "Are you okay, I heard someone yelling."

"We need to go. Now." I grabbed her wrist, leading her to the front door when she pulled back,

"Why, what's wrong Raeni?"

"Dahlia, let's go."

"No. I'm not leaving until you tell me what's going on." She crossed her arms, standing in her spot stubbornly.

"Dahlia I swear to God-"

"What? You swear to God what?"

"Jesus, Dahlia we need to go. Now is not the time for you to be acting like this."

"Hm."

I pinched the bridge of my nose, taking a deep breath before grabbing my keys and unlocked the car door, "You can either get in the car with me so I can drop you off or you can stay here and figure it out yourself. Your choice." I walked to the car, and got in the driver's seat, cranking the car up.

When I looked up to the door, Dahlia was no longer there but standing on the passenger's side.
She opened the door and got in, buckling her seatbelt. The ride home had a deadly silence, sometimes it was good to sit in silence but not in this case. This was nerve-wracking. Did I feel bad for acting the way I did, yes, but did I have every reason to, yes. I sighed, pulling the car over into the nearest parking lot.

I put the car in park and looked at Dahlia to see her looking out the window. "I'm sorry for yelling. I should've handled that differently." She continued to stare at nothing and I looked down, "It was just really weird okay? I came across something I guess I shouldn't have and I got caught, that's why she yelled. That's no excuse for me to react the way I did towards you though. "

When I didn't get a response, I started the car again, driving out of the parking lot and back onto the road. "I forgive you." She placed her hand on top of mine, interlinking them together. "I'm sorry too, I guess I was being dramatic." She said with a tiny laugh. "But may I ask what you found?"

I shrugged, "It's weird man, it was like a box with a bunch of random shit in it, then it had like a covered photo book with my mom and some woman. It wasn't full though, that's the weird part."
"What do you mean?"

"Like, there were no photos in the first few pages and none in the last. They were just in the middle. Then they stopped, not even a full page left. Just a photo and some necklace. I don't know, it must've been really sensitive to her because she snatched the necklace from me and yelled at me to get out, which you obviously heard."

"That is weird."

"Right?!? And you know what's so odd to me? In the last photo, there was a child in it, she looked young. But my mother wasn't in the photo, it was just those two."

Dahlia paused, looking at me, then her lap, then back at me. "What were they doing in the photo?"

"They were at a playground, on the swings or something, I don't know. Everything's just a blur in my head right now. But why would my mother keep that from me when she hates secrets?" I looked at Dahlia to see she was staring off into space and she went completely silent. "Dahlia? Dahlia!"

"Huh? Oh sorry, I was thinking about something. Go on." She rubbed her eyes.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes I'm fine, just got caught up in my thoughts."

"Oh.. okay. Anyways, what's so important about this that she doesn't want me to know?"

"I-I don't know. You missed a turn."

"Shit, thanks. Sorry, I'm just trying to think about things right now." I turned the car around to go back to the original route.

"Mhm."

a/n: real ones would recognize the connection i made 😜