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“I did,” she said with a smile. “We were very close. In fact, I have something for you.”
I straightened, feeling hopeful and curious.Thiswas a conversation I wanted to have with her.
“Jenny, can you please bring the box that’s on the guest bed?” Ms. Obscura called in the direction of what I assumed was the kitchen.
This place has a guest bed?I wondered if she spent overnights here with her sons. Or if it was for the maid. A brief flicker of jealousy flared through me. I didn’t like the idea of the attractive maid spending the night so close to either of the twins.
What the hell?I knew they’d been with other girls while I’d been here and it never really bothered me. Okay, maybe it bothered me a little, but not like this. I sort of wanted to knock the maid’s teeth in.
Jenny, the way too attractive maid, walked into the room and set a box down in front of Ms. Obscura.
“What is that?” Zach asked.
“Some things I saved from when I was in school,” she said.
For a moment, I saw a sweet, nostalgic gaze from Ms. Obscura. It faded quickly and she cleared her throat. “I thought Raven might be interested.”
“Yes, of course,” I said.
Zach reached across the table and grabbed a basket of rolls. He set one on his plate then passed the basket to me. Feeling obligated, I took one and set it on my plate. Then I took the basket and passed it to Matt. Our fingers brushed for an instant and a burst of electricity shot through my hand and up my arm. I gasped, caught off guard. It wasn’t painful. In fact, it was pleasurable. And terrifying.
Quickly, I adjusted my grip and set the basket on the table next to him.Note to self, don’t touch Matt again in public.
I turned my attention back to Ms. Obscura. She’d opened the box and pulled out a small stack of photographs. She flipped through them, a smile on her face. Then she looked up at me. “These are mostly from our last semester. I’m not sure why there aren’t more from earlier.”
She passed the photos to me and I took them from her. The top photo was a young Ms. Obscura and a red-haired woman in jean jackets leaning against a brick wall. I’d never seen a photo of my mom from before I was born. All I had seen were her wedding photos and a couple of photos of her holding me at the hospital. After my aunt passed, they were the only thing I went to look for in the apartment we’d shared.
But I hadn’t been the first to arrive and her place was trashed. The landlord had told me it was debt collectors looking for valuables. I told him to sell anything that was left to cover the cost of disposing of the junk. He’d assured me he’d keep an eye out for photos. I never heard back.
My eyes blurred as I flipped through the photos. My mom and Ms. Obscura were in photos at the pool in their bikinis, at an amusement park, and in their school uniforms. In another photo, my mom was surrounded by cats in what looked like ancient ruins.
“Is that why you take in all the strays?” Matt asked, pointing to the picture. “Raven’s mom seemed to love cats.”
Ms. Obscura chuckled. “That was in Rome. Cats everywhere. And yes, Raven’s mother was an animal lover. And they loved her back. She always said she was going to raise all the neighborhood strays like a crazy cat lady in her old age.”
I looked up at Ms. Obscura. She looked sad and far away. As if caught in her own memories. Then, she turned her gaze to me and smiled. “But I get to honor her even more now by helping you, Raven.”
“Does that mean you’ll stop taking in strays?” Zach asked.
“Of course not.” Ms. Obscura said. “But now you know why I do it.”
I smiled. It was nice to know that my mother’s memory had been carried by someone besides just me.
I turned to the next one and tears rolled down my cheeks. There were four people in this photo. My mom and Ms. Obscura with their dates. I recognized the face of my mom’s date right away. I knew they’d dated in college, I just never realized that when my aunt had referred to my mom and dad’s college days, she was talking about them beinghere.At the Academy of the Elites.
I looked up at Ms. Obscura as something occurred to me. If they’d met here, they’d had powerful parents to get them in. And if that was the case, why was my aunt practically destitute?
“Oh yes, the Yule ball. Your mother almost didn’t go with him, you know. He asked her every day for a month and she finally caved,” Ms. Obscura said.
I smiled. That wasn’t a story I’d heard.Of course it wasn’t. I didn’t know any stories. “Ms. Obscura, do you know who my grandparents were? My aunt just said they were dead and that was that.”
“She didn’t talk about her parents,” Ms. Obscura said. “I always sort of thought maybe they were dead.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling a bit defeated. That made more sense. If they were still alive, you’d think they would have come for me.
I passed the pictures back to Ms. Obscura. “Thank you for showing these to me.”
“Everything in the box is for you,” she said as she took the pictures and set them back in the box. “I imagine you’ll want to go through it all. It’s everything I could find that related to your mom.”
