Tin
"Remind me again why I'm here?" Sam asked as her and Freddie headed down to the storage units of Bushwell Plaza.
"Because you want to be nice and help your husband out?" Freddie suggested.
"No, that can't be it," Sam said.
"Maybe it will be fun."
"Yeah, cleaning out your mom's storage unit will be a real laugh," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "I can't believe you let her talk you into doing this."
"Come on, it won't take that long," Freddie told her. "Two hours tops."
"Two hours? You expect me to leave our eight-week old son up there with her for two hours?"
"She'll take good care of Jason," Freddie assured her. "She's great with kids!"
"Last week when she watched him she was reading him a book on the dangers of eating too much red meat," Sam pointed out as Freddie unlocked the storage unit. "If Jason grows up and wants to be a vegetarian, I'm blaming it on you."
"Fine, I'll take full responsibility," Freddie sighed. He looked around the cluttered unit. "Where do you want to start?"
"I dunno, just find a corner and grab a trash bag and shove everything into it."
"Sam, we can't just throw everything away," Freddie said, kneeling down next to a large box. "There could be some important memories in here."
"Whatever," Sam said, sitting down next to him. "What's in this box?"
"Um, let's see," Freddie said, rummaging through it. "There's a bunch of old records from when my mom was growing up, some old candles…oh, and what looks like either a dead mouse or a stuffed dog."
"Sure are some great memories," Sam said. She picked up a small tin box that was sitting next to her. "What's in here?"
"Open it and see," Freddie said, still cringing at the contents of his own box.
Sam took off the lid of the tin box and found a large pile of pictures. "Hey," she said, looking at a few. "I think these are you when you were a baby."
"Really?" Freddie said, scooting closer to her. "Wow, I think you're right."
"Aw, here's baby Freddie in his little crib," Sam grinned. "And here's one of you wearing those special little diapers your mom talked about."
"Okay, okay," Freddie said. "I get it. I used to be a baby. Alert the media."
"You know," Sam said, looking at the rest of the pictures. "Jason looks a lot like you used to."
"Jason's blonde," Freddie pointed out.
"I know," Sam said. "But other than that…you mean you don't see it?"
"I guess I do, sort of," Freddie shrugged. "I just always thought he looked more like you."
"He has your eyes," Sam said. "And your nose, and your smile. And look at this picture of you sleeping…Jason does that same thing with his fists that you used to do."
"Guess it's genetic," Freddie laughed. "Hey, where'd you find this tin?"
"Over here," she said. She pulled over another box that was next to where she had found the tin and looked inside. "This one has a bunch of your old baby stuff in it. Wow, I can't believe your mom kept all this for so long."
"Are you really surprised?"
"Well, no," she admitted, going through the contents off the box. She pulled out a doll. "Was this yours?"
"My mom wanted a girl!"
"Uh-huh," she nodded, smiling as she continued digging through the box. "Is this really a toy laptop?"
"Oh I remember that," Freddie said, taking the toy from Sam. "I got it for my third birthday. It used to make animal sounds when you pressed a button on the keyboard. But then my mom got worried that one of the keys would fall off so she took it from me."
Sam pulled out a worn blanket from the box. "Hey, this is in a bunch of those baby pictures."
"I had that thing until I was thirteen-I mean, six," Freddie said.
"Yeah, it looks like it," Sam said. "It's all stained and gross. Your germaphobic mother let her precious son carry this around with him?"
"She washed it a lot, which is why it's so faded," Freddie said. "The stains are probably from baby food that wouldn't come out or paint or something. Like I said, I had that thing for a long time."
"I used to have a blanket that I really loved," Sam said, fingering Freddie's old blanket. "It was yellow with a picture of a duck on it."
"What happened to it?"
"My mom used it to put out her bowl of soup that caught on fire when I was four," Sam answered sadly.
"That's-that's terrible," Freddie said.
"My mom actually felt pretty bad about it, which was surprising, seeing as she did sell my dollhouse to get money for a tattoo. She went out and bought me another blanket that looked just like my old one, but it wasn't the same."
The two continued to go through boxes of Freddie's old baby items for the rest of the afternoon. They had actually completely lost track of time, and it wasn't until Spencer came down that they realized just how long they had been down there.
"Your mother's up there wondering if something fell on you," Spencer told them. "How long have you been down here?"
"Four hours," Freddie said, looking at his watch. "Wow, that went by quickly. I guess we'll just come back and finish cleaning up tomorrow."
Him and Sam stood up and headed out of the storage unit.
"Wait," Sam said suddenly. She turned back and grabbed Freddie's old baby blanket.
"What are you doing with that?" Freddie asked her.
"For Jason," she said. "Every baby needs a blanket. He might as well have one that reminds him of his dad."
