Scarred

Epilogue

Her big blue eyes stared back at her expectantly. The same blue that her namesake had been born with. She raised an eyebrow. "Well? Are you going to tell me or not?"

Charlotte glanced at her husband and nodded. "Let me grab something first."

She left Anthony and Jennifer in the living room and searched for the book. Despite all the years that had passed, she could still picture it clearly. She opened her bedside table drawer and fished through the letters and photographs until she found it at the bottom.

Charlotte lifted the diary reverently and touched the cover. Her fingers came back covered in sparkles, and wiping them off, she returned to her family. This time she sat next to her daughter.

"What is that?" Jennifer asked.

"This was Jenna's diary."

At that moment, a ball of curly hair and relentless energy barreled into the room. "Alien attack!" The boy then proceeded to "shoot" everyone in the room with his toy alien. "Pew! Pew pew!"

"Derrick, why don't you and Dad go outside and play Aliens?" Charlotte suggested.

The boy raced out the door yelling, "Hurry up, Dad! We have to go before they destroy everything."

The house grew quiet once the boys were gone. From outside, she heard Derrick's giggles and wondered how so much energy could be contained in such a small body.

Charlotte turned her attention to the journal in her hands. She wondered, not for the first time, what Jenna would have turned out like. What she would have accomplished. What type of person she would have been.

"Mom?" Her daughter's voice brought her back.

"You can read it if you want. She wasn't very old when this happened. You see, she was twelve—No, eleven, when she passed, so just a year or two younger than you." Charlotte handed the diary to Jennifer. Her daughter's eyes flicked to the scars on Charlotte's wrist as they often did before finally resting on the book.

"You won't hear my story until you're older."

Her daughter pouted for a moment before the diary distracted her. "She was so young," she breathed as she flipped through the pages.

Charlotte felt a twinge of sadness knowing that Jenna would have loved her daughter. They had so much in common.

Jennifer glanced up from the book. "How did it happen? I mean, like, how come . . . . Why did she—"

"It's a long story, but it's one you need to hear. I've waited to tell you because I wanted to make sure you understood. This," Charlotte waved to the journal, "affects everyone in a person's life, no matter how distant they are. It affects teachers, classmates, acquaintances, family. Everyone that the life has touched."

Jennifer listened intently to her mother for the first time in her life. She even seemed interested in what she had to say.

She shifted into a more comfortable position. It was going to be a long story.

*************

about 45,000 words, you know, nbd