Reminiscent

Chapter Eleven

I walk through the cafe slowly.

"Sanitize" the waitress points to the bottle by the door.

When did every store start providing free hand sanitizer?

I sat at a cafe table just looking through the photo album that I had taken from my apartment. There was this one photo that was my favourite out of the ones that I've seen so far. It was taken in the fall of 2019 before all of the drama started.

It was a photo of Caroline, me, Daniel and Chace. It seemed that we just finished paintballing, we were still wearing our suits. We were making funny faces and just mucking around.

"Today would have been Kobe Bryant's forty-third birthday," the reporter says from the tv, making me look up in surprise, "Vanessa plays tribute to her husband on Instagram"

"Poor kids," the waitress besides me says, her eyes focused on the tv.

"What happened?" I ask.

She narrows her eyes.

"Where have you been?" She folds her arms, "he was killed in a helicopter crash last year. Him and his daughter" with that she leaves my sight.

Jesus, I've missed a lot the last six years, haven't I? That's when I pull out my phone and start searching for answers.

The first thing I google are the 2016 highlights and summaries.

We had killer clowns and the government didn't do anything? Did Trump win the 2016 presidential election? What the hell was Pokémon go? My heart falls to my gut. Orlando club shooting. LGBTQ+ targeted in a terror attack.

I move on to 2017.

"One direction split up?" I gasp. "Three Kar-Jenners were pregnant at the same time?"

My body floods with fear when I begin reading up on the Me too movement, Harvey Weinstein and the Manchester bombings. Suddenly I find myself watching the 2017 Oscars mixup. 

I sigh. Do I even want to know what happened in 2018? Hesitantly I continue. Prince Harry married Rachel from Suits? Harvey Weinstein arrested. Bill Cosby convicted. California fires.

Whats Laurel vs Yanny? I wonder. That's when I find a YouTube video of a man saying the name Laurel. I furrow my brows in confusion and proceed to the 2019 highlights.

Trump impeached. college administration cheating scandal Notre dame fire. Prince Harry and Rachel had a baby? Whose Greta Thunberg? Game of thrones controversial ending?

Suddenly the waitress walks by me.

"All done with your plate?" She asks.

I nod "how did game of thrones end?"

She shrugs "didn't watch it" she admits.

"Another question, sorry" I bite my lower lip, "we had killer clowns running around terrorising people in 2016 and the police did nothing?"

"Yep" she nods, "don't you remember the riots last year? Shows how useless they are"

My eyes widen.

Riots?

Suddenly I knock my photo album off the table. The first photo of me and Caroline singing along to the radio while we were supposed to be moving furniture into my apartment, it was Chace who would have taken the photo probably using it as proof to show that he did all the work, it looked like it was taken by an instant Polaroid camera just like most of the photos in the album.

These photos didn't trigger a memory.

Unexpectedly, I find multiple ultrasound pictures in the photo album. This baby was much more developed to be the one that I miscarried. My eyes widened as I look at the other ultrasound picture on the next page. I compared the two photos carefully. I looked back at the hospital party photo. I suddenly saw my stomach and realized a bump, not that big and barely noticeable.

I pull out my phone quickly and search my photos again. There are no baby pictures here. There are not many pictures at all. Did I miscarry twice? That's when it clicked. I quickly move to the cloud where I find hundreds of more photos. Including pictures of a baby. The same baby that Daniel and Chace were holding in the pictures I found last night.

That's when I see me. Me heavily pregnant. Pictures from her birthday. Pictures in parks. Pictures of Chace and I masked and holding the toddler.

I have a daughter?

My eyes well up with tears.

I'm a mum?

I jump up from my chair, grab my things and quickly catch a cab to my present-day apartment. The car ride was long and painful as I anticipated meeting my daughter.

When I finally arrived at the apartment complex, I ran to the elevator then ran out when I arrived at the right floor. My fist slammed against the door, begging for someone to be home.

When the door swings open, I find Chace on the other side. I sigh in relief.

"where is she?" I ask tearfully.

Chace folds his pale arms, "where's who?"

"Our daughter" my voice breaks at the idea, hoping that I'm wrong.

If this is all true then that means I have a child out there that I don't know and may never remember.

Chace appears to be taken back by my words.

"You remember?" He lowers his voice.

I weep "I found pictures from the sonogram"

His eyes feel with sadness.

"Shes with your dad" he admits, "You dropped her off there a couple of weeks before the accident and she's been there ever since"

"Oh my god," I sob. "What's her name?"

"Evelyn Rose" he admits.

"I need to see her," I tell him, "like right now"

He nods slowly.