Fool Me Once, Fool Me Twice

Picture Imperfect

Wade is sitting on a sofa with a mug of hot tea. He and Corrine are laughing like old friends and her smile only gets wider when Grace and I walk into the room. 

"Jen, come and sit down!" Wade pats the seat on the end of the sofa next to him and I walk over and fill it. The arm is pretty wide, so Grace comes and sits cross legged on it.

"I was just about to grab the photo albums!" Corrine trills, fluttering her hands around as she hurries across the room to a tall oak bookshelf. She pulls three photo albums down and motions for Wade to scoot over so she can sit between us. The first book is a pastel pink colour with hand painted swirling patterns surrounding the single word on the cover: 'Emily'. Corrine opens it and I see a tiny baby with a hospital bracelet on her ankle. 

"Is that Emily?" I ask slowly, "Is that me?"

"Yes," Corrine smiles proudly, "You were the smallest baby on my ward."

"No change there then!" Wade laughs. He always laughs at my height, saying that I'm only good at my job because the target doesn't see me coming. This whole book shows the first year of my life. Days out, days in and all the days in between. The second book is more random, pictures of the whole family and not just Emily. There's one photo of Emily with a tiger painted on her face and the biggest grin I've ever seen. Michael is standing a few feet behind her, holding two tall ice creams.

"Where was this taken?" I ask, pointing at the tiger photo.

"Oh, that's not you. It's Grace. You look so alike don't you?" I can see Corrine trying to smile, but I know it must be hard for her.

"Yeah," I agree, "Even now she looks exactly like I did when I was a teenager."

"Do you have any pictures?" Corrine asks, there is a look in her eye that I cannot disappoint, but I don't know how she'll take seeing me with the people that raised me.

"I have one. Are you sure you want to see it?" I make sure she knows what she is about to see. She nods that she does so I reach to my feet where I left my jacket and I pull the photo from the pocket. I hand it over and watch her cautiously as she slowly examines it. I can see that she thinks what I have been thinking: they don't look like the kind of people to kidnap a little girl. 

"These are the people that took you." It isn't a question, she just needs to say it out loud so she can believe it. " You carry this with you?"

"Well, I thought they were my parents. I don't really remember anything before I was, like, six years old. So I definitely don't remember being kidnapped."

"Do you still live near them?" Tears are creeping back into her eyes and I can hear them in her voice.

"No. They, um, they died when I was fourteen." I look back to the floor.

"How?" Corrine asks, so quietly that I can't be sure that's really what she said.

"How? How did they die, you mean?" I ask, just to make sure. Corrine nods.

"Mom!" Grace hisses, shaking her head.

"No, it's okay." I pat Grace's knee, "My mom was shot during a bank robbery. She hit the alarm that called the cops. My dad killed himself three days later. I guess losing her was just too much for him. They got married straight out of high school, but they had already been dating since they were in the eighth grade. They had never really been without each other."

"So he just killed himself and left you alone? How can he have been so selfish that he didn't even think about what would-"

"Mom! Stop it!" Grace cuts her off with a look so familiar it makes me laugh out loud. Three pairs of eyes are staring questioningly at me.

"That look. I look at Wade like that all the time!" I am still unable to stifle the giggle falling out of my mouth. But then the laughing dissolves on its own. The resemblance between me and Corrine, and between me and Grace. I can't deny it any more.

"I'm sorry that it took so long for me to come home." A tear slides down my cheek, and Corrine wipes it away.

"It doesn't matter. You're home now, that's all that matters." Corrine pulls me close and I breathe in her sweet scent. She smells like flowers and sugar and summer. She smells familiar, like home. No, a different kind of familiar. Like I actually remember smelling her before.

"What perfume do you wear?" I blurt out before thinking.

"I don't wear any." Corrine says, sitting back against the sofa and looking at me like I'm a puzzle that needs solving. "Why?"

"You just smell nice, that's all." I shrug it off, and I know that Wade is the only one to see through it. Then my phone is ringing. I pause before pulling it from the leather jacket and looking at the caller ID. It's Maggie, which means I have to take it. I excuse myself and cross to the other side of the room.

"Hey, Maggie." I sigh.

"Jenny! You need to come in." Maggie is always so direct over the phone. Would it kill her to make some small talk? 

"No. I'm taking sick days, I'm not coming into work."

"But you're not sick." 

"That doesn't matter!" I get defensive, knowing that I have to lie about what I'm really doing.

"Look this is important. Bring Wade, I know he's with you." She hangs up the phone before I can say anything else and I know that we have no choice but to go. I turn back to face the sofa and look into the faces of my strange version of a family.

"Wade, we have to go." I don't want to go right now, in fact, I want more than anything else to stay. "It was Maggie. We have to work."

We reluctantly gather our things and I almost forget about my wet clothes that I left in Grace's room. 

"Don't worry about those. I'll wash and dry them for you. You can come and collect them soon." Corrine uses my laundry as way to make sure I'll come back. Smart. Then I remember the most important part of me coming back.

"Corrine, you can't tell anyone about this. Not yet, anyway." I explain, hoping she'll accept it and move on. But there is no such luck.

"Why not? I have to tell the police, they're still looking for you!" How could they have led her on like this for so long?

"No, they aren't still looking for me, Corrine. I was declared dead, what, ten years ago? I can promise you that they stopped looking as soon as there was nothing left to look for." I don't want to be the one to break that news to her, but she'd have to find out soon enough. "Look, I promise I'll explain why, but not now. I have to get to work." 

A little more begging and Corrine agrees to stay quiet. I say my goodbyes to Corrine and Grace walks us to the door. I hug her tightly before we leave.

"I'll see you soon," I promise, "But I might be gone for a few days. I haven't forgotten about you, I'm just working, okay?" I smile as I release her and head back to the gate. Wade and I climb back over and head towards the car. The rain has let up and the air is unseasonably warm, so there's no need for me to wear my jacket. The car ride is silent, and I smile the whole journey. Until, that is, we pull up outside the Skyline building and head towards the elevator. This kind of urgency means that someone foreign has just arrived in the country. It means I'm being sent on a kill job.