“I Can See You Turn Away
When I Ask What For
You Say It Isn’t Anything
But I’m Not Sure
Something Underneath The Skin
Won’t Let You Be
And You Try To Keep It In
But I Can See”
“The Woman Before Me” By Trisha Yearwood
I was sitting at home waiting for my parents to leave. Jordan was asleep. Nick, Brian, Aj, Sariah, Faye, and Kyri we’re at the park playing b-ball. Kevin and Kristin had gone to his house to get a little rest. Howie and Laura had decided to swim in B’s back yard. Mary, Sarah, Madison, Lindsay, Krista, and Ali had all gone shopping. I had told Tania my suspicions and she had agreed that there was something kinda funny there, so we had stayed at my house talking waiting for my parents to leave taking Jordan and Kimberly to see some other family that had just moved about 5 miles outside of Lexington.
“Emily, Tania we’re gonna go now. We’ll see you guys in about 4 hours ok?” Dad said holding Jordan in his carseat.
“Ok.” Tania and I replied. I got up and told Jordan bye and they left. I watched to make sure they were gone before I turned back to Tania.
“Ok they’re gone. My mom always keeps most of the stuff from before I was 2 ½ up in the attic. So that’s probably where we want to start.” I said
“Ok let’s go.” She smiled. We walked up stairs to my room and into the closet where the door to the attic was. I grabbed the key and unlocked the door and opened it. We coughed as a thick layer of dust hit us in the face.
“Man Emily how long has it been since anybody’s been up here?” She asked still coughing.
“Just since last Christmas.” I replied. “And God said ‘let there be light.” I joked flipping the light switch. We giggled a little and walked up the stairs.
“Ok now where do we start?” She asked looking at all the boxes.
“I’m not sure but mom always marks the boxes so look for one that would say ‘baby things’ on it or something. It’d also be like back in a corner to where it wouldn’t be seen. We’re always up here every Christmas to get the decorations down so it’s probably gonna be quite a ways away from that stuff.” I said.
“Ok so where’s the Christmas stuff?” She asked.
“Right there.” I pointed to about 3 or so boxes. “So it’s probably back there and to this side.” I motioned to the right side away from the Christmas boxes.
“We’ll look over there then.” She said walking over there. I followed her looking at the names on the boxes as we went.
“Ok I’ll start on the right side and you start on the left side and we’ll work our way to the back.” I said as we made it to the far right side of the attic. She nodded and we started looking.
*10 minutes later*
“I think I found it!” Tania exclaimed.
“Let me see.” I said running over. I looked down at the small box, it was about a foot and ½ long, a foot wide and a foot deep, and sure enough it said ‘baby stuff’ on it. I looked at the identical box next to it to see it said the same thing. “Tania I think you hit the jackpot.” I said.
“I think I did too.” She smiled.
“Come on grab one of the boxes and we’ll take ‘em downstairs to my room.” I said. We each grabbed a box and took them downstairs. “Ok now which one do we open?” I said nervously. I really wanted to know if I was right but yet part of me was scared. I knew if my suspensions were right, everybody that I’d grown up with had lied to me for the past 18 years.
“Let’s open this one first.” She said grabbing the one I was carrying.
“Oh my god!” She exclaimed when she opened it.
“What is it!?” I asked moving one of the flaps away. “Oh My God!” I whispered. On the very top was a box that said ‘the girls and Kim’s outfits’ on it. That had to have the outfits that we had come home from the hospital in it. She gently grabbed it out of the box and handed it to me.
“Open it.” She whispered after I had stood there looking at for a couple minutes.
“Let’s see what else is in here first.” I said. She nodded and we looked back into the box. “Here’s a couple baby books.” She said.
“Yea.” I stated. ‘One, two, three.’ I silently counted in my head as I pulled them out. “There’s three of ‘em. Oh my god.” I whispered.
“Hey you ok?” She asked quietly.
“Yea. Yea I’m ok. Let’s go through the rest of it.” I replied. We went through the rest of the box it had a couple photo albums in it then we got to the bottom. There sat a box with ‘birth certificates’ printed on it. “Let’s open the next box before we start going though all of this.” I said. She nodded and grabbed the other box. I opened it and lying on top was a framed picture of two girls. That we’re about a year old, they looked exactly alike from their hair to their outfits everything was identical, except on of the girls had a small birthmark on the inside of her right arm. As I looked at the picture I began to remember. I remembered her so clearly but I still didn’t know her name or what happened to her. I just knew a big part of me was missing. “That’s me,” I whispered pointing to the girl without the birthmark. “But that’s not me.” I finished pointing to the other girl.
“How can you tell Emily?” She asked.
“I don’t have a birthmark right there.” I said. I pointed to the picture then to my arm to prove my point.
“Oh. Well I guess you got your proof huh?” She asked. She sounded kinda scared, surprised and upset but I’m sure I sounded the same way.
“Yea. I guess so but let’s see what else is in here.” I said. We went back to looking. We found another framed picture of the other girl and then a stuffed teddy bear that looked exactly like the one I had that Brian and Kevin had given me for my first birthday. We found some other little nick-nacks and stuff but nothing that really told us the name of the other girl. We sat there for a couple minutes after we had went through the second box before Tania spoke up.
“Why don’t we go through the other small boxes and the photo albums now.” She suggested quietly. I nodded my head and grabbed the box that had the outfits in it that was sitting beside me on the bed.