As I wrote the letter, Bling went down the hall, claiming he had to get some laundry or

something. When I was done, I stuffed it in the envelope he gave me and wrote my home

address on it. Bling was still gone, so I decided to look around the apartment. There was a

beautiful view of the city through floor to ceiling picture windows. I walked towards the

elevator, and found the office. There was a picture of my mom sitting on the desk. Bling

said the computer hadn't worked in almost twenty-five years, so why was there a picture

on the desk of my mom from ten years ago? It was a picture of mom standing on a beach;

she was scowling, as if she didn't want the picture taken. But then, mom never really

liked having her picture taken. We had to beg her to join us in the picture that I brought

with me. I picked up the picture and looked at it closer. It was strange seeing my mom

standing, and she was dressed in all black, with a leather jacket. Setting the picture back

down, I opened one of the drawers. There was a box of printer paper in it, and an

envelope that looked like it came from a photograph developer. I opened it, sitting on the

desk chair; I started flipping through the pictures. One was of Mom and Dad, it looked

like the master copy of the one we have on the mantle, it hadn't been blown up, and Mom

was in it. It showed them from the chest up, in front of this building, Mom had the same

scowl on her face. In the next one, mom looked happy. She was standing in front of the

building where I had met Cindy. She had one arm around Cindy's shoulders, and one arm

around a geeky looking guy with dark hair. Kneeling in front of them was another guy. I

turned the photo over to see if there was anything written on the back, but there wasn't.

The next photo was of Mom sitting on a motorcycle. A beautiful motorcycle, I figured

this must be the one Cindy and Bling told me about. She wasn't looking at the camera, so

she must not have known it was taken. There was one more; it was of my mom and dad.

This one totally amazed me, because my mom had never mentioned what I saw in this

photo. It showed Dad, sitting in a wheelchair that looked an awful lot like the one Mom

uses. Mom leaned over behind him, her arms over his shoulders. They both looked at the

camera with huge silly grins on their faces. I had never seen my mom so happy. I stared

at the photo forever, until I heard a thump come from the hallway, I heard Bling shout

again. I stuffed the pictures back into the envelope, with the exception of the last one,

then put the envelope in the drawer. There was another thump, it sounded like something

hitting the wall! Bling shouted again, but I couldn't make out what it was. I thought I

heard another voice shout out too, but I was the only one in the apartment besides Bling,

or at least I thought I was. Giving it a minute to calm down before I went to investigate, I

went to the den to put the photo in my book bag. Bling shouted again, and this time, I'm

sure I heard another voice holler back at him. I ran towards the hallway as I heard

something else hit the wall. Opening the door, I listened again, I could hear Bling's voice,

but it sounded calmer, no longer shouting. It was coming from the room that Cindy had

snuck into yesterday. What, or rather who, was in that room? I heard Bling speak again,

then, just as I was going to investigate, Bling stepped out of the room.

"Nicolas, is your letter done? We should go mail it right away."

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, why?"

"I thought I heard you shouting."

"I'm sorry, the television must have been to loud, let's go, I want to stop at the market to

see if we can get something for dinner, too."

"Alright." I grabbed my jacket and we went out. But my thoughts stayed behind in the

apartment.

~~