Know You Again

(10)

After the intense last chapter, Mindy has gotten quite depressed so expect that this chapter has a lot of angst and  inability to control the water works.

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Chapter 10:

      Mindy found Teresa sitting cross legged on the floor by the antique cabinet. Books were gathered around her, with one on where her legs locked as she looked through the content with a bright grin. She flipped the page, and Mindy realized that they weren't books, but photo albums.

Mindy leaned over Teresa's shoulder, gazing at the vintage photos in the albums. They were all focused on a girl with a plain face, but in one photo she wore a devastatingly beautiful dark dress, a shade that Mindy couldn't decipher because of the way the photo was printed. But Mindy could see the lovely way it swished around the girl's slender calves as she spun around, her face frozen with imminent joy.

"Is that you, Teresa? When you were younger?"

The woman nodded, and Mindy took a seat next to her to look at the pictures in a more comfortable manner. "It was my eighteenth birthday."

She flipped a page, and the four new photos were filled with an older looking Teresa. Probably mid twenties. In one of them was taken with a man who was a head taller than her. Her slender frame was leaning against his broad one, a soft smile on her face as she looked up at the man.

Teresa's right hand, which had been holding on to the edge of the album, moved to the photo. Her fingers softly traced its outline before her fingers rested on the man.

"You never met him because he was a foolish man who didn't think cigarettes would be enough to stop him, but this man is Alfie's grandfather, the man I loved—still love."

And the way the elderly woman's voice cracked made something curl in Mindy's gut. She suddenly couldn't find the strength to look at Teresa, to see that haunted, lonely look on her worn out face, so her gaze drifted back down at the photo. She saw her hand grip the edge of the album tighter.

Before she could react, Mindy's stomach grumbled lightly. But the room was silent enough to hear a pin drop that it had caught Teresa's attentions.

She gave her a warm smile. "You told me that you weren't hungry."

Mindy gave her a sheepish grin. "That was earlier."

Teresa lightly laughed, setting the album on the floor before standing up. "I'm going to go make you something."

"N-no, you don't have to!" Mindy said, getting up on her feet. She didn't want to be treated like she couldn't handle things on her own. It was embarrassing enough that her mother put the woman up to taking care of her, she didn't want to be a burden.

Teresa gave her a look. "Rest, Miranda. You need it." And quickly, she swiftly strode out of the room.

Mindy huffed, but she didn't bother arguing. Her green eyes moved across the scattered albums, noting that they looked rather old and dusty.

A blue one caught her eye. It looked the newest out of all of them, although it was just as dusty. Even its design was different, which was an intricate pattern of circles, unlike the old fashioned flowers the others had. Mindy didn't have to open the album to know whose it was.

Mindy's heart caught in her throat at the sight of brilliant eyes of blue and green, crinkled with immeasurable happiness. A familiar crooked grin was plastered on his face, a dark stubble scattered across his jaw. In his strong hands was a fragile baby, eyes closed and its tiny mitten cad hand settled on its smooth, puffy cheek with thin, coral lips open as though it was in the middle of yawning.