xX 50th chapter, YAY! :) Xx
Lost memories
The box smelled faintly musty with a hint of dust that tickled his nose, a smell which he had come to know as the smell of age. It felt heavy and awkward in his hands, something that had more to do with its contents rather than the box itself. Its contents. That is why he had emptied out half his bedroom and closet looking for a box full of old memories that he could no longer see. He needed to know, he needed answers. And he finally had someone he trusted enough to give them to him. Well, that's if he ever got up the courage to call her. Sighing for what must have been the hundredth time he gingerly sat the box on his bed and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. His phone was on the bedside table, he had deliberately put it there so he had no more excuses as to why he couldn't call her. That was all well and good in theory but when it came to actually picking up the phone well… he was at a loss.
"Hey" she answered, sounding slightly out of breath.
"Hey yourself" he replied, butterflies dancing a tango in his stomach.
"You sound…different. Is everything ok?"
Of course she knew. And that was the whole reason he trusted her with this. She knew him better than she knew herself, a fact that he was infinitely grateful for.
"I need a favour"
"Hmm, that's nice"
"Please Annie?"
"Am I going to like this favour?"
"You're not going to hate it"
"I suppose. What do I have to do?"
"Come over"
"Well why didn't you say so? I'll be there in ten"
Annie didn't know what to expect when she got there but this wasn't it. She tried to think of a time when she had ever seen his apartment in a mess, any place of his really. Nothing came to mind. Yet there was stuff everywhere, boxes and clothes strewn across his bedroom floor in no discernible pattern, no logical order.
"What happened in here?" she asked.
"I uh…couldn't find what I was looking for" he said sheepishly.
She turned around and studied him. He looked…nervous. It was strange to see him like that, he was always so confident.
"What do you need me to do?" she asked gently. His shoulders relaxed slightly, a puff of breath escaping his mouth.
"The box on the bed, there's a photo in it that I need to find"
"Ok"
Once they were seated she metaphorically went through the papers and photographs in the box, describing each one to him before moving on. It was well after six o'clock before they found the photo that he had been looking for.
It was a rather plain looking one, taken in black and white and crumpled around the edges. There were two children in it, playing on a swing set. One was him, he had told her, and the other was his best friend who had disappeared two weeks after the photo was taken.
"Why did you want to see it?" she asked.
"Honestly I don't know. I have always had this feeling, like the answer was in that photo. No-one could ever find anything of course but… I don't know. There's just something there you know?"
She regarded him from her seat next to him. He looked sad but it was an old kind of sadness, one that someone carried throughout their lives. Like a part of them was lost and that itself had become a part of who they are.
"Maybe we can find it" she replied.
"I doubt that. Lots of people have seen that photo; there is nothing special about it"
"Yes there is, we just have to find it"
He smiled sadly. He knew he could trust her but it had been so long ago and he had been over everything a thousand times. But there was something different about the way she had said it, like it was… everything.
"It was a long time ago Annie"
"I know"
