Aubrey, the Star

39: galactic halo

Jameson

★

galactic halo - "spherical regions around spiral galaxies that contain dim stars and globular clusters."

The house had been quiet all day. Which wasn't uncommon. Except this time it felt like we were waiting for the other shoe to drop. My body felt like it was getting poked by needles - trying to keep me alert and on my toes. I just didn't know what that something was.

    Michaela and Thomas had fled to the opposite side of the house. Choosing to hide away in the greenhouse. My twin was probably talking her boyfriend's head off while he attempted to paint in peace. Getting lost together was their thing. I craved having a thing with Aubrey. Somewhere we could escape to or something we could do together and just be us.

    Mom was in the attic all day. Doing what? I didn't know. No one ever bothered to venture up to the attic because that's where Mom chose to stow away all the family momentos. The memories weren't bad. It just sucked since she'd been trying to erase Dad from her mind. Seeing him in every photo on every wall in the house wasn't much help.

    I walked up the narrow stairway, placing a hand on the wall to guide me. As a child, I could scurry up the steps with no problem. Michaela and I ran like mice all throughout this house. Fast on our feet and hard to catch. Now, I felt weighed down and heavy because thinking about the past brought on emotional storms that I barely could brave myself through.

    The attic is small despite the size of the house. Mom wasn't hard to find amongst the wreckage of boxes, old sports equipment, and pieces of family furniture collected through generations. I maneuvered through the manmade pathways, hearing Mom huffing as she shuffled through what sounded like photos. The day definitely wasn't good if it had her looking down memory lane.

    "Mom?" I called out, coming around a stack of boxes standing as tall as my towering height. She jumped, startled, and turned on her knees to look at me. The pale flesh on her cheeks were flushed and the blonde hair that I favored from her was in a disarray similar to my own. Mom looking unkempt? That isn't like her at all.

    "Hi, sweetheart." She smiled and turned to pick around through old scrapbooks. "How was practice?"

    I grimaced, thinking back on the grueling two hours I spent slaving over a leather ball and being yelled at by an overzealous coach.

    A sigh escaped me. "It was okay," I said. When I sat down beside her, she fell back on her knees and proceeded to flip through what looked to be Michaela and I's preschool scrapbook. I tilted my head, curiosity overwhelming me. "What's with the walk down memory lane?"

    She shrugged her shoulders, running a hand through her hair. "I woke up feeling very nostalgic today. Parenthood gets like that from time to time." She smiled sadly. "You're seniors in high school but I remember when I held you both in my arms after a 36 hour labor."

    "Don't tell me you have empty-nest syndrome now?" I laughed. She glanced at me with amusement in her eyes and shrugged her shoulders again. "Come on, Mom! We haven't even applied to college properly and graduation is still months away."

    "Time goes by faster than you think, Jameson. Just you watch."

    The scrapbook went to the floor and she picked up the elementary one that had yellow and purple handprints all over it. The artwork had been crafted by me and my sister in an effort to make the dull brown material "more pretty." Those were Michaela's words. I just went along with it to play in paint.