lift it from the stack. My mom and Aunt Midge. My mom must’ve been fifteen, or so, seeing as she wasn’t pregnant. That I can tell anyway.
While living on the streets, she didn’t keep any pictures from home, so I never really got to see what she looked like as a teenager, aside from the couple of school pictures hung on the walls downstairs.
Long, red hair hangs loose around her shoulders in lazy curls, and her bright eyes are framed by thick, dark lashes that look like she’s wearing mascara. She had an exotic beauty, and paired with her slim, developed figure, it makes sense to me that she’d draw the stares of hardened fishermen on this island. Like bagging their own mermaid.
Tossing it back into the box, I continue my search, and after about ten minutes, I find the yearbook buried at the bottom.
Any pictures your mother is in.
I flip to the index and search for her name, finding three pages where she’s listed. The first is her yearbook picture, in which she smiles between long, red, side-swept bangs. So young and vibrant back then. The second is a picture of her in choir, and in it, she wears a long, purple gown, with a black stole to match the school colors. The third is a National Honor Society picture.
I had no idea my mother did well in school. She never talked about it much, and neither did Aunt Midge. I stare down at her, where she stands amongst a small group on risers, and I scan the other faces, coming to a stop on one very familiar.
Holy shit.
Mayor Boyd stands at the opposite side of my mother, that too-white smile stretched across his face. The darkness of his hair puts him somewhere around forty, I’m guessing, which would make him the only adult in the photo. A mentor, I bet.
I flip back to the index to look up his name, and find him on a few pages, as well. A staff picture whose caption is ‘Government’, the National Honor Society picture, and a third: track, which he apparently coached. Below the picture is a list of names, and one catches my eye. Not pictured: Jennifer Quinn.
The woman in these pictures is nothing like the one I’ve come to know. It’s like looking at her doppelganger, or something. As I tuck the book under my arm, I catch the dimming light through the porthole window, telling me it’ll be dark soon.
I climb back down the ladder, fold it up, and push the door closed. When I spin around, a figure is waiting in the living room, and I let out a shriek.
My mother sits on the couch, flicking her cigarette into the ashtray on the coffee table. “Hey.”
“Hey.”
“Midge … she doesn’t know I’m here.”
“How’d you get in?”
“She gave me a key.” She reaches into her pocket and pulls out what looks like a wad of cash, which she holds out to me. “I just wanted to drop this off.”
I don’t accept it, but keep my feet planted where I’m at.
She drops the cash on the table. “Just thought it might help out.”
“Now, you’re suddenly interested in helping out?”
She bites her lip and scratches her head with her cigarette-toting hand. “How you been? Heard you, uh … got a job working at Blackthornes.”
Instead of answering, I let her keep on with her one-sided conversation. I have no interest in telling her anything.
“Midge says you been spending a lot of time with Lucian Blackthorne.” A smile creeps across her lips as she raises her cigarette. “Like mother, like daughter, eh?”
“I’m nothing like you.”
“You’re more like me than you know,” she says around a mouthful of smoke that she blows off to the side. Her gaze falls to the bracelet on my wrist, and I’d be willing to bet she’s calculating how much coke she’d score for what it’s worth. “That’s a whole lot of power for a girl so young. Be careful with a man like that.”
As if she has any room to advise me on men. “So, what is this? Redemption? You think a little cash is going to make up for dumping me on her doorstep?”
“I’m … just trying to make things right. Get my shit together.”
“Why bother? You’re halfway to the grave. Why turn around now?”
“I want … I want my family back. I want you back, Izzy.”
“Don’t hand me that bullshit. I know exactly why you’re here. You found out I was with Lucian Blackthorne and you