Chapter 6
301 Words
Chapter 6
‘Calm down, Lainie. Just breathe.’ My aunt squinted at the photo, her eyes still trying to adjust to the sudden brightness. ‘Yes, that’s your mother. I don’t understand what the problem is.’
To my suddenly suspicious eye, she looked kind of nervous. Her eyes drank in every detail of the picture.
‘The curtains. The curtains are the problem. What year was Noah given his sword for Christmas?’ It wasn’t that I was unsure, but I wanted to see if she would lie or hedge. She did neither. Instead, she burst into tears.
‘I’m so sorry, Lainie! I didn’t know what else to do. The last thing I wanted was to lie to you, and I tried not to for so long, but the truth was going to tear your life apart!’
I stood with freezing feet and waited for her to explain.
‘Your mum left us,’ she sobbed, one hand clutching her bed sheet. ‘She tried to stay, for you, but every time she came back it just made things harder for both of you. I took that photo knowing it would be the last time we saw her. You lot never like getting photographed. My brother used to laugh at that.’ She wiped a tear from the page, and then her finger traced the edge of the photo of my dad on the beach.
‘Is she still alive?’ I asked through clenched teeth. Feeling confused and angry, I just wanted her to come up with an explanation that would put my mother safely back in the grave, because if she were alive that would mean she had abandoned me.
Aunt Lily answered with the deepest of sighs, the gentlest of tears, and the barest of nods. ‘Pass me my Bible,’ she said. ‘And hop in here where it’s warm. I’ll tell you what little I know.’
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