The missing pieces

The End

When we finally let each other go, we catch up on what we've missed and mum looks around the room and says, "What are you doing here?"

"Jay invited me over." I say, bluntly.

"Do you recognize him?" She smiles, coyly.

"No?" I say, phrasing it like a question.

"Jay Smith?"

"I know his name, mum."

"Right, stay here." She says walking into the hall. I sit on the floor twiddling my fingers. I can hear a bag rustling and I'm wondering what she is doing. She comes back with a photo in her hands and sits down holding it up to my face. I take it from her hands and see that it's me aged around five and I'm grinning crazily, looking into the camera, my arm over a smiling little boy, Jay. It all comes back to me, Jay- he was my first friend but he left when I turned 6 and I never saw him again. That's right we were friends for a year when we were both 5 but he went back to wales. How did I forget him? How did he forget me?

I hear the door open. "Lynny, look what  I got." Jay say's walking up the stairs and into our room. He stares at both of us in shock. "Claire? what are you doing here?"

"I needed to get something," my mother says "look at this picture." She signals him over. He looks at the picture, confused at first but then he looks at me. "Lynny, is that you?" He say's, pointing at the picture and I nod. "That's me." He say's but he doesn't seem too bothered about the picture and he looks at mum and say's "Is my mum coming back?"

"Yeah in a few hours." She say's.

"Wait...is Claire your mum Lynny, you guys look exactly the same." He finally realizes.

"Yeah, she is." I say, looking at the floor and then back up at her smiling face.

My mum gets up. I grab her arm "Mum, please don't leave me..." I plead. She looks slightly teary eyed. "I'll leave you kids alone for a while, I promise I'll come back." I feel too drained to be able to protest and I hear the door shut.

Jay's looking at me curiously and I go and hug him and feel the tears slowly leave my eyes. "It's OK." He say's, hugging me and stroking my hair.

"I can't believe she lived with you that entire time and I thought she was dead." I say, sadly.

"No wonder you looked so familiar." He say's, thoughtfully.

"What am I suppose to do now, I can't just leave Sarah and I can't pretend none of this just happened, Jay what I'm I suppose to do?" I ask desperately, letting go of him and sitting on the bed.

"I guess you could still live with Sarah and visit your mum at our house?" He say's turning around to look at me with pity.

"Yeah but I think I want her around with me." I say, unsure.

"Just do what makes you happy." He say's coming over to sit with me on his bed.

"But I don't know what will make me happy."

"Well what do you want?"

"I want mum and dad to be happy and I want all of us to live together and I want to erase the first 7 years of my life."

"Lynny, you need to be realistic, you can't just undo time." He say's gently, yet harshly.

I don't feel like talking anymore, I don't feel like doing anything anymore. I get into his bed putting the blanket around me. "Will you lie down next to me?" I ask.

He sighs and kicks his shoes off and gets into the bed and under the blanket, wrapping his arm around me. I'm looking at the door hoping that she won't walk in. I move his hands and get up to shut the door. I get back into my position. "Jay?"