Years ago tragedy struck the Calloway's causing the family to fall apart. Lucariah Augustine St. Francis Calloway was left in the ruins of it all with a mother who couldn't bother and a father who disappeared one night with his older brothers. For...
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"Do we have to break all the pictures, momma?" I whined. It was already two in the morning and she had us ripping every last memory she had collected throughout the years. Every photograph she'd ever taken was torn to shreds right before our very eyes.
Memories that vanish as fast as the time.
And while it made me sad to rip apart every past moment; I was tired.
"Yes, Luca," My mother responded, pinching my bruised cheek. I wonder if she knew how much it hurt when she did that. "Your new daddy is coming here tomorrow and I want all the past erased. From here on out it's just the three of us. Forget everyone that came before."
In my hands was a picture of a man I've never met. I sat on his lap smiling harder than the rest, Chris and a boy that looked nearly identical to the man sat beside him on either side.
"This one too, momma?" I showed the picture and her smile dropped. I scooted myself away from her; terrified by the fact that she could hit me again.
Instead she reached for the picture carefully, stroking the man's face with her thumb. A serene and bittersweet smile on her lips. "Especially this one," she sighed, "and any other picture that has those two in it."
She pointed at the man, then at the boy.
"Who are they?"
She shrugged and tore at another picture, "Doesn't matter now."
"It does though!" I argued. Holding on tight to another picture that contained the two of them. I was on the boy's shoulders this time, my cheek resting on top of his head, my fingers interlocked just underneath his chin.
The man held Christophen in a playful headlock, lips puckered as though he were blowing a kiss to the person behind the camera.
My chest tightened at the pure happiness radiating off of our faces. The sadness that hit me like a ton of bricks took my breath away. Sadness over the fact that I was too young to remember any of these moments.
And while I don't remember them; they still exist in pictures. Memories captured in time.
The sound of paper ripping apart reminded me that we'll be ridding ourselves of these memories too.
"Goodbye happy times."
I tore the picture in half.
"You're the boy," I mumbled, eyes suddenly wide, "You're the boy from the picture!"
Faron shook his head fast, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"You were in the pictures with your dad! And me, and Chris!" I gasped, excitement and hope filling my bones. Igniting all the dormant feeling I've been holding inside. A hope so strong it burned in my chest and made my eyes water consumed me.
