A Bit More of You

Chapter Three: Now I'm Here

(Photo from  album: My tape collection, 1976)

Miraculously, Mum and I managed to settle into the grotty little flat relatively easy, and we even turned it into a proper home. It took a while but we got there in the end. 

My room felt more like... well, my room after I decorated it and got all my furniture in place. My bed was up against the far wall by the window, my faded black-and-grey check duvet spread out on it. My dressing table and dresser drawers were set up on the opposite walls, along with all the clothes and trinkets that belonged in them. Finally, I put up my posters. I had so many that the room wouldn't have needed wallpaper. To be honest, I think the posters were better than any wallpaper in the world.

"You're really putting those up all over your nice new wall?" Mum said, raising her eyebrows.

"Yes, I am," I replied curtly. I carefully Blu-Tacked the final poster to the wall, taking extra not to give it any creases or stick it on a slant. Then I stood back to admire my work.

Mum chuckled and shook her head. "I'll never understand you, Georgia. Why do you like them so much? They're just a girly pop group from Greenland, aren't they?"

"Sweden, Mum, and they're not girly." I pointedly tapped Bjorn and Benny's faces. "There are two guys in ABBA, right? So by that logic they're not a girly band."

"Whatever you say, darling," said Mum, playfully ruffling my hair. She wrapped her arms around me and gazed up at my poster. I looked too. The four smiling faces of ABBA stared right back at us.

"Which one do you like the best?" Mum asked, not looking away from the poster

"I like Agnetha," I said. "She's got lovely blonde hair. I wish I had her hair."

"What's wrong with your hair?"

"Nothing. It's just... Agnetha is so beautiful. I'm just, well, ordinary."

"You're extraordinary, you silly girl." Mum kissed the top of my head. "Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You're just as beautiful as Agnetha, and then some!"

"Yeah, but you're my mum. Of course you're going to think that."

"Don't be cheeky." Mum grinned at me. "Now stop being so daft and come help me organize my furniture. I have a few things to put on the wall as well."

"Like what?"

"Just some photographs, that's all."

Mum took my hand and led me across the hall to her bedroom. The bed and drawers had already been set up, but the room was still frightfully bare. There was a big cardboard box sitting on the carpet; it was labeled PHOTOGRAPHS. I squatted down in front of the box, pulled open the flaps and delved to get at the items inside. I came up with a handful of photo frames, each one carefully wrapped up in layer upon layer of bubble wrap.

I yanked the wrapping off of a frame and squinted at the blurry photograph. "Is this a picture of you, Mum?"

Mum peered over my shoulder. "Yeah. That's me. Me and..."

"My dad?" I suggested.

Mum nodded. "That's him. That was the last photograph we took together before... before I had to leave him."

I nodded and patted her knee reassuringly, then turned my attention back to digging through the photographs. There were an awful lot of my dad, more than I would have expected. I asked Mum if she wanted to get rid of a few of them. She stared at me like I was completely insane.

"No way! Why would I do that?"

"I don't know," I said quietly. "Don't they bring back painful memories or anything?"