stranger than fiction || s. stan

the fifteenth chapter

maeve

It was raining when I arrived to the storage unit across the city. A few foreclosure signs were hanging in the property and I was not the only person beginning to clear out their personal belongings. There were a few moving trucks parked in the lot and various vans scattered around. It was crowded despite the rain.

Sawyer splashed in every single puddle on the way towards my unit, where a warning sign hung on the big door. I wanted to get out of the rain as quick as I could, so I unlocked the lock and opened the door.

The unit smelt like mothballs and paper. But it was dry and cooler than the air the humid thunderstorm altered.

I was lucky there wasn't any furniture. The small unit we rented was only full of a few boxes of books, some clothes, and a few other personal belongings that once belonged to my mom and to Adam. Of course, it had once been full. But I had taken some furniture from it when I moved into my house.

Louis and I probably should have moved this stuff out when he visited last summer. At least then I would have some real help.

Sawyer set her Dora the Explorer umbrella down and looked around the mostly empty storage unit. "Is this a house?"

"No, silly." I said and squeezed her cheek. "It's called a storage unit. This is where I keep some of your grandmas things."

"Grammy?"

"No, not Grammy." That was the name she called my grandmother. "Your grandma was my mother."

"I don't know."

I smiled and started to look through one of the boxes, which was full of papers and jewelry. I must have thrown everything together when I moved this stuff in before I went off to college. Jesus, that felt like forever ago.

"Maybe I will play." Sawyer said.

I didn't say anything as I started organizing the stuff. It didn't take me too long. With Sawyer's somewhat sufficient level of help, I was able to bring a majority of the boxes and put them in my back seat.

I threw out a lot of crap; even though it hurt to do so. There was no point in keeping tattered clothes, old expired pill bottles - not that I would sell them anyway - and a broken lamp. I didn't even know how that got in there.

An employee helped me move the only piece of furniture in there, which was a stool my mother had painted. It was chipped but I wanted to see if I could fix it up. Maybe put a pot of flowers on it or something.

By the time everything was finished and I terminated the contract at the front office, Sawyer was beginning to whine and cry. She was tired and hungry.

I was too.

So I packed her up in the car and went home. After I made sure she had a plate of macaroni and cheese, I started to unpack my car and bring everything inside.

Just as I finished bringing everything into my room, my phone started to vibrate from my back pocket. When I took it out I saw it was my brother calling, and I smiled as I answered it.

"Hey little brother, how are you?"

There was some background noise and then the sound of a door closing before he spoke. "Hey big sister, I'm good. I just wanted to see if you did the storage unit yet?"

I moved the phone from one ear to the other and opened up one of the boxes. "Yeah, I have everything at my house. I was gonna go through everything and organize it."

"Sorry I can't be there to help. I hope it wasn't that big of a deal."

"No, it wasn't. Sawyer helped. Kind of. I'm gonna take this to grandmas house tomorrow so it'll be waiting for you when you do eventually come home."

He laughed, "I know, I know."

"Oh, guess who texted me this morning?"

"Someone famous?"

"The opposite, actually. Sora. I haven't spoken to her in months."

"Oh wow, I haven't heard about her in a while. How's she doing?"

"She's good. Well, her dad just died. But other than that good, I guess? She felt bad about the time that passed and how we hadn't been talking. Can you believe that?"

"You two were best friends. Did you like hearing from her?"

"Yeah, I did. I miss her and my years at Colombia. I told her I was so busy with work and my kid that everything else just seemed to slip away. She understood. I feel bad though, I do miss her."

"You guys used to have a lot of fun."

"Yeah, I couldn't even tell you the amount of times she'd hold my hair back when I puked." I said with a laugh as I sat down in my bed.

The box in front of me was full of papers and old notebooks, most likely work related. There were a ton of birthday and mother day cards. A few Christmas ones. Colored construction paper that dated back to the early nineties.

It made me sad to see it all.

"I miss her." I said quietly.

I didn't have to say anymore, Louis knew exactly who I was talking about. "I miss her too."

"It kills me that she wasn't able to meet Sawyer. That's what really gets to me. She never got to be a grandma." I said as I started to tear up. "I can still feel her hugs."

"She gave the best hugs."

I wiped my tearing eyes and forced a laugh. "Alright, alright. No crying. We had a lifetime of memories with her. Remember the water gun fight in the house? Grandpa was pissed."

Louis started laughing loudly. "That was hilarious. I had never seen him so mad."

A faded letter caught my attention and I narrowed my eyes at it. It was dated just before she died. A few weeks before. What was she doing writing a letter?

"That's weird..." I said.

"What is?"

"There's a letter in here. It's from a few weeks before she passed."

"Maybe it's a map to lost treasure."

I snorted. "That'll solve my problems. I'm gonna put you on speaker, hold on." Once I did that, I set my phone aside and grabbed the letter. On the front of it read a too familiar name. "What the hell?"

"What is it?"

I ignored his question and ripped open the letter, taking it out. The paper was old, faded by age, and the ink had smudged over time. But it mess of my mother's handwriting was too familiar.

Louis asked his question as I read over the letter, and then read it again. After the third time, I set it down with shaky hands and a tear running down my face.

"Louis... I know who my father is."