So Much has changed
I rose silently from my bed and crept into the hallway. I slowly opened the door and stepped up the stairs into the attic. I stopped a moment as the stairs creaked to make sure I hadn't woken up anyone. When I was sure it was safe I continued climbing the steps. I found the large hatbox with my mother's and mine things in it and opened it. There they were just as I'd left them. Slowly I picked my mother's comb and held it up, examining it. So much had happened since the day August gave this to me.
I had started to go to the high school that September. I saw Zach there everyday and we started to date. I didn't have many friends for that reason. Zach left a year after I came to go to law school. He called everyday and wrote me lots of letters. We eventually took a break on our relationship, we both dated a couple of other people but it just wasn't the same.
I still lived in the Pepto-Bismol pink house till I graduated. Then I left to go to college. Not long after I graduated from there did I release my first novel and Zach and I got back together. Zach came to visit me every chance he could get. And one time he came and just asked me what I thought of marriage. What was I going to do say 'no, I don't want to marry you?' I don't think so. We got married in May, it was the perfect ceremony, and of course the black Madonna was there. June's little boy was our ring bearer and her little girl was our flower girl.
Zach and I bought a house next door from the Pepto-Bismol pink house. I still helped August with her honey business. Zach would help to, but he was usually to busy, he had his own law firm. Together Zach and I had four kids; they would sometimes help with the honey business too.
The Black Madonna honey business was booming. It seemed that as time passed more and more people came to accept that fact that there was a Black Madonna on the honey jar. How August loved to hear from people how they loved her honey. To her that was more rewarding than anything. When she passed away two years ago today, it broke my heart to continue the business without her. It just wasn't the same, not even the honey seemed to taste the same; but I still do it for her.
Roseleen passed away as well; about six years before August did. She was diagnosed with cancer, but she fought till the very end. I miss her too; nothing seems to be the same anymore without her. She was my mother for so many years and now I feel motherless again. The only one left is June. She lives with Neil and their two kids. She didn't move that far from the pink house and she still comes over to help with the honey and the kids.
I began to put back the various objects I had taken out, back into the box. I wiped the tears from my face and started back down the stairs. Two years ago today, August died; almost eight years ago, Roseleen died. It broke my heart to think of them gone; I loved them both so much. I checked on the kids, all sleeping peacefully in their beds before I returned to my own. I crept silently into my bed next to Zach. Thinking about everything, I tried not to cry for I knew that would wake up Zach. So much had changed in all these years and yet so had I.