Discovery, huh? Okay. Note: the game is in the 4th inning as we speak. (9-2, pitcher at 81 pitches with 1ER, 1BB, 1HBP, and 7Ks.)
**
I was awake -- the time difference. The Beast wagged and wagged, goggling around the kitchen, eager with dribble. She dropped the Chronicle on the table and asked me if tea was all right.
Later that day, we would be dressed up; I had a pin with purple feathers on it and rhinestone barrettes. We would stand in the late sun in front of the church, chatting and laughing all in our bright colors, while bride and groom posed somewhere, tissues just out of camera range. Toasts, gourmet hors d'oevres, brightly-colored linens and lubricated conversation. My cheeks hurt with laughing, the men sweating through their tuxedo shirts to jazzy, obscure pop mixes. I chatted bossa nova and the modern Spanish novel, pleasantly drunk.
But that morning, she bustled back into the kitchen from I don't know where, set down tea at my elbow. "What are you reading?" she asked.
"Box score," I said. "Just checking how the team did."
She laughed. I looked up, startled, and laughed with her. "I had no idea the addiction was so serious," she said.
Nutty, I love that "eager with dribble" line.
Teppy, I was actually going to suggest discovery. This weekend was iconic.
Teppy, I was actually going to suggest discovery.
I try, whenever possible, to work ahead of the need.
Digging in a box of old pictures, I find a wallet. Orange, yellow and green. Stripey. Something from the 70’s. It crackles as I open it. Bits of 30 year old vinyl chip off. It’s like a time capsule. A bit of paper that had some note on it. A stub from the movies. A stray piece of a flower. A picture.
A beautiful young girl. Handsome young man. Prom, 1973.
Gram looks over my shoulder. “It was the only one she didn’t destroy. She just tossed the wallet in a box.”
I look again. And see my own eyes. On my father’s face.
Thanks. First drabble in a while.
Aimee, that was a heart-kick. I understand about the accidentally coming across the ones I'd thought destroyed.
I have the picture in my wallet now. Mom doesn't know I have it.
I wrote about a similar thing, not a drabble, just a locked memory entry. After I thought I'd destroyed everything we'd had together, I found one photo I'd missed, months later, and I reacted with a screaming meltdown during the course of which I smashed everything in my apartment and screamed my throat raw.
I wrote a song about it, and this weekend, Teppy found me the coat that I mentioned in the song, that he was wearing in that last picture I found.
Discovery. Dayum.
Family Discovery
There were rumors in the family of an evil deed, long ago done. My great-great-grandmother’s own horrific discovery. How could she have missed it? How had she had children with this man? How could she bring an innocent little girl to such a monster?
When Nana found out, she grabbed up her only daughter and left. A brave thing for a woman in the early 1900’s. Never looked back, never saw her sons again. They were more his anyway. The primal-like need to protect her daughter was fierce.
Strong women.
Finding out I was from them was my discovery.
