Mother's Day
The three adults climbing the stairs into the attic were as different as day and night. The oldest favored his father in looks and demeanor. He was a lawyer like his father only instead of saving the environment he was saving Politian's from their own worst habits. He was good at his job, he enjoyed it, and he loved the financial benefits that came with the job.
The middle child was more like their mother in the ways of kindness and nature. While his intelligence gained him multiple college acceptance letters, he chose a path no one ever thought he would enter. He lived the life of a traveling photojournalist. His job took him all over and he shared the best and the worst this world had ever seen.
The youngest took after her father in looks and attitude. She was the walking, taking, dimpled grinning female version of her older male counterpart. She did inherit one merit of saving grace from her mother and that was her ability to see things in a way others around her didn't. She could always find that one element others overlooked or choose to leave out.
"Why are we rooting around this dusty old attic?" Victoria asked her brothers.
Phillip turned to her and said, "Look, I know that mom never throws anything away. I just want to find a broken music box is all."
"Once again, why do we all have to be here? What is Mom going to do with a broken music box?"
"Mother's Day is only a couple of weeks away. I wanted to find the box, fix it, and give it to her as a Mother's Day present. I wanted Jamie to take before and after photos of it as part of the present. The only thing is Mom never throws anything away and I need help finding it."
"Where do you think it would be in all of this?" Jamie asked looking around the attic at all the boxes.
Victoria walked around looking at all the boxes and noticed how they were marked. "Mom is great at organizing. All the boxes are marked by year and what they pertain to. This should be an easy find if you know when she first had the music box."
Phillip looked at Jamie and asked, "Do you remember?"
"She was still dating Dean and it was right before we meet Alexi, so I am thinking late 1983 or so."
"Dean? Who's Dean?" Victoria had never heard of a Dean before.
"Dean was the first guy Mom dated after her and Dad divorced. Grandma kept trying to get Mom to marry him. He was a weather man at the Weather Bureau."
The three of them continued to search the attic looking at the boxes and the dates and information. Phillip was about to give up when Victoria said, "Fellas, here is a box marked IFF but it doesn't have any year on it. It's the only box without a year and it looks a hell of a lot larger than the other boxes."
"Vic that was where Mom and Lee said they worked before we found out what IFF really was. It wouldn't have files in it? It couldn't, most of that is still classified." Phillip explained.
"Well, only one way to find out." She pulled out a small pocket knife and slit the top of the box where it had been taped.
Opening the box all three felt like treasure hunters. They didn't know what they would find, but what they did surprised them all. The box was filled with photographs, journals, and other notable memorabilia.
"Hey, have either of you ever heard of Sandy Newcombe?" Victoria asked holding up an autograph football.
"No, Jamie, have you?" Phillip asked.
"I heard Mom and Lee joking about a Sandy Newcombe once while watching the Super Bowl."
Picking more items out of the box and setting them in front of her brothers Victoria picked up an older leather bound book. Opening the pages she began reading and then set the book aside turning from her brothers.
"What was that book Vic?"
"It was a journal that my grandmother was writing to Dad. It just seemed too personal to keep reading."
The three spent the next hour looking at the different items. They found a number of Opera tickets. They found an old photograph of a classic car.
"I know you know this car Phillip." Jamie said as he showed his brother the photo.
"Yeah, Lee had this car when he and Mom got together. It was a nice car, but only one person could ride with him in it at a time. Then he got the Corvette after this one. He kept the Corvette after you were born because he and Mom used it for work."
"He was dead set against getting a "family" car. He didn't mind having the family but the wild man inside him refused the "van plan" as he used to call it."
Laughing Victoria looked down seeing the smaller box at the bottom when she opened it she looked at Phillip and said, "Here is your music box."
Mother's Day arrived as Phillip and his fiancé were the first to arrive. Being one of DC's most renowned chefs, Carly, began to prepare a breakfast that Amanda declared, "Worthy of any breakfast my mother would have approved of."
Jamie and his girlfriend arrived just as it was time to set the table to eat. "Mom, happy Mother's Day." He gave her a beautiful bouquet of flowers with a note that read "To the World's best Grandma".
"Jamie, Ashlyn, congratulations. I am so happy for you." Amanda began to cry in the moment realizing that she was going to be a grandmother.
"Looks like you are going to be a Grandmother around Thanksgiving give or take." Ashlyn explained while Phillip and Carly were congratulating the father to be.
They were all gathered around the table and eating when Victoria showed up. "Sorry I'm late, Happy Mother's Day." She bent over to hug and kiss Amanda on the cheek. Taking her place at the table she glanced to the empty chair at the head of the table. It was always empty, no one ever sat in his seat, and chairs were just rearranged.
Amanda watched her daughter closely as she engaged with everyone. She laughed, joked, and cut up with her brothers. Congratulated Jamie on his impending fatherhood asking if that meant the baby was going to have a passport at six weeks or if Jamie was just going to come home and settle down.
"Babies don't travel well, I can attest to that from all of my travels. No, I actually got a job at the University in the photojournalism department and I will be starting in the fall as a professor. I have a few more assignments to cover before then."
"Wow, I never thought anything would get you to settle, no offense Ashlyn." Victoria exclaimed.
"None taken Vic, I never thought he would ever settle back here either, baby or not."
"Well, we have a lot to celebrate today; Jamie becoming a father, Phillip setting a wedding date, and being here together celebrating our terrific and loving mother."
"Here! Here! I will drink to that!" Phillip said raising his orange juice along with everyone else.
The day was filled with games and laughter and food. When it came time for Amanda to open her presents Jamie said, "Well, even though you already got your main present from us," handing her a small box, "I still wanted to get you this."
Amanda opened the box to find a Mother's Day ring with their birthstones along with her and Lee's names on the side.
"Jamie, this is lovely thank you." Amanda bent over and hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Phillip was next saying, "Okay, now this is kind of a two part gift and Jamie helped with part of it but it is all from me." He handed her the box that held the music box and picture.
"Phillip, where did you get this music box?"
"We went snooping through the attic at the house a couple of weeks ago. I knew you never through anything away and I always remembered that you had a music box that was broken and since it never was actually mailed then you must have still had it somewhere. Girl genius over there found the box and we found the music box then I had it fixed. They said they couldn't tell what song was originally played so I told them to put in a song you might like. I took a look at your play list on your phone and gave them some choices. I don't even know what they choose."
Amanda turned the winder and then tears filled her eyes as she heard the tune from Darlene Love's Today I Met the Boy I'm Going to Marry. She set the box down and hugged her son. It took her a few minutes to compose herself as she listened to the tune play fully.
"Mom, are you okay? Do you need to me to have them put a different song in?"
"Phillip, no this was the perfect song. That music box was how Lee and I met, so in reality the day I got that music box was the day I met the boy I was going to marry."
Victoria stood and walked outside after hearing her mother talk about the day she met her father. Everyone watched as Amanda stood and went after her.
"Victoria, Sweetheart, are you all right?" Amanda asked when she found her in the garden of roses.
"I will be. I just am having a hard time lately and I don't know why. I mean he has been gone for ten years. I mean I was sixteen when he, when he…" She couldn't go on.
"Do you think it matters how old you are when you lose a parent? I lost my Daddy when I was about your age. It doesn't get easier as the years go on. What do you miss most about him?"
"His laugh, it was deep and genuine. You knew that if he was laughing, really laughing, that he was relaxed and nothing was bothering him. I miss that he didn't see me graduate, I miss that he won't know this baby that we are about to have in the family, and most of all I miss his arms around me when I get scared."
"I miss all those things too and more. I miss fighting with him we had some really good fights. I miss teasing him about his cars and how women no matter where we went would flirt with him like I wasn't there. I miss looking in his eyes and having a conversation without saying one word. I miss that connection we had."
"Mom I know today is your day, I'm sorry for ruining it."
"Victoria, you didn't ruin anything." The two women looked up at the sound of Phillip's voice. "Jamie and I take for granted at times that we still have both our parents. When I asked you two to help me find the music box I didn't realize what all we would find. You see Mom and Lee had a very private life, even after he became a part of this family. Jamie and I were lucky to have your Dad in our life. Without him we wouldn't have you."
"We miss him too." Jamie said.
Amanda looked around her garden at her children and decided it was time for the mystery to come to light. Standing she said, "Tomorrow I want all of you to meet me at the house. I want to tell you the story of Scarecrow and Mrs. King."
TBC