Take a Picture to Hold the Memory

Chapter One

"Aly hurry up!" Millie called out, "We need to go this way, it looks like no one has been down here before!"

Ayala, staring off at the tree's canopy above them, waved Millie off getting ready to pull out her camera, "Hang on, I need to get this picture." She stared up at the canopy, admiring each leaf and how the sun penetrated each open space between the leaves, creating a shelter where they stood.

"Come on, " Mable jumped in, "we have seen this over a million times when we go down this trail. You must have a gazillion photos of that same tree!"

"Not with these colors! Don't you see it?"

Millie and Mable rolled their eyes in unison; they turned their heads and leaned against a nearby tree waiting for Ayala to take the photos she wanted so badly to take. Ayala spoke up as she lowered her camera to her chest turning towards her friends, "remember! Every picture holds a memory."

"Yeah, yeah" Millie blew her off, "Now come on! I want to see what is down here! There might be an adventure waiting there for us. I am curious to see what is down there!"

Millie and Mable started down the beaten pathway, Ayala chuckled under her breath as her friends started down. Reaching for her camera, she took candid pictures of her friends climbing over the fallen limbs hiding away this beaten path. She smiled. Then started heading down the pathway slowly behind them. Lifting each leg up over the fallen limbs, the grass ticking their knees. In the distance, tucked behind the forest where commercial roadways could never see as they cut across the town, rocks came into view, revealing a rather large waterfall falling into the river below. Millie, Mable, and Aly stared in awe at the majestic waterfall standing right in front of them, running the one question through their minds, how have we not seen this?

Millie and Mable looked at each other, then at Aly. All of them walked up closer to catch the mist separating from the waterfall. Aly, lifting her camera once more with her light blue camera strap draped around her neck, she snapped more photos of her friends, staring at the majesty facing them. The water reflecting the beauty of the sun-setting behind them. The oranges and purples in plain view. The mist providing a cooling sensation on their bodies...

DING

Ayala pulled her phone out of her pocket, looking at the time. She realizes, "OH SHOOT! J.Z! I totally forgot!"

Millie and Mable looked at her too, realizing what was going on. J.Z was back in town. J.Z, Aly's older, very protective brother, was coming home for the first time after being overseas. While he was gone, both had made a plan to meet for dinner at their local pizzeria place. It was getting too close to time for them to meet. Ayala spoke up, securing her camera a little closer to her body, "Last one to the car will be buying the next dinner!"

All three started running away from the waterfall towards the small parking area where their journey began. Continuing to laugh and joke, the whole way to the car. Everyone piling in, Millie being the last one in the front passenger seat, both Ayala and Mable laughed, "Guess who's paying for Tommy's!"

"Come on guys!" Millie whined as she buckled herself in, "That limb came out of nowhere and tripped me! I would've been first!"

"Yeah, right" Ayala poked, making Millie laugh too as Aly made contact with her stomach. She started the car and started to drive off, dropping off both girls to their homes.

With both Millie and Mable gone, Ayala stopped to drop off her camera at home, starting the process of printing the pictures she took at the waterfall. Pulling out a little light blue box, matching the strap on the camera, filled to the brim with all kinds of photos through the years.

Homecomings... Dances... Birthday Parties... Sleepovers... Games... Events... Heartbreaks...

All these photos crammed into this little light blue box, bringing back all these memories, of good times and bad. Ayala printed the photos taken of her friends, leaving them crammed with all these other memories they have shared over the years.

Ayala thumbed through the tabs within the box, pulling out a tab labeled 2013, 8th Grade. There, she pulled out a photo at the homecoming dance with all of them together, including some friends that went their separate ways. Ayala, dressed in a bright blue with hair all done up with mini silver leaves throughout a couple of braids. Ayala smiled, remembering that day vividly. Placing the photo back into the box, she continued to thumb through the photographs in the little box.

A couple of hours go by, Ayala, losing touch with reality, eventually came to and realized how much time had passed making her late to meet JZ. Swiftly, she got off the floor, shoving the little blue box haphazardly under her bed, and ran out the door. In that haste to meet JZ, Aly yanked the cord out of the camera, she placed it in its usual spot with the strap swinging. Pulling out her phone, she quickly sent a text to JZ, letting him know she was still coming.

***

Sitting inside the pizzeria, already seated with her drink getting to room temperature, Ayala was shocked that she made it there before JZ, being the military man, she expected him to be sitting there impatiently waiting. Aly had not gotten a text from him back about her being late. Ignoring the strange behavior, she sat scanning the building looking for him dressed in his uniform. 

The minutes soon turned into hours, still no JZ. Ayala started worrying. Pulling out her phone, still no response from the previous text, she started a new one preparing herself for the worse. Maybe something happened in the flight, maybe it was something as simple as that his flight was delayed and was stuck on the plane unable to respond, or he left his phone somewhere and was unable to be reached. Soon interrupted, the waitress spoke, startling her, "You are Aly, right?"

Ayala nodded her head. The waitress handed over a slip of paper that was crumpled up a little bit, as if it was pulled out of either a bag or a pocket. She took the slip of paper, opening it up... it was JZ. He came in?

She asked the waitress, "Did you see him? Did he come inside?"

The waitress shrugged, "I was just told by the hostess up front to bring this to you. It was a phone call I guess."

Straightening out the crumbled-up paper, Aly read, "Dear sister, I'm sorry this is the way you are hearing about this instead of me talking to you... But I am too afraid for you to see me in the state that I am in. There was an accident, I am alive, but I had to be discharged from service. I have been back home for a little while... Please don't be mad, I know that you would be, I would be too if it was the other way around. I promise one day I will have the courage to see you again, but right now I am not ready. Forgive me... JZ." He wrote.

Ayala, lowering the slip of paper from her face, started to cry. How could he do this to her? What happened? Was he okay? The questions ran through her head trying to put together where he was, where he had been staying. While being angry at him for not showing up, not even a text message for some help.

Throughout their childhood, JZ had always been there for her. Their father not being in the picture for most of her childhood, JZ was the closest strong male figure that she had growing up. Everything he did and became, she wanted to be the same, in her own way. The strongest man she ever knew was breaking down. And all she wanted to do was be there for him.

Quickly, she gathered up her things from the table and left the building in search of her brother, completely disregarding his wish to be left alone. "It would be the same thing he would do to me if I asked for the same," she thought.

Jumping into the car, the rain started to pour making it hard to see down the road. Something that had always happened in their hometown, Ayala leaned forward a little bit to see better, still no luck finding her brother. Up a hill. Through a gathering of trees cut down the middle. Turning a corner that she had made a hundred times, there in the middle of the road sat a deer. Ayala, with her quick thinking and reaction time, pressed on the break and swerved out of the way, trying to avoid the large deer, sending her over the guardrail, and slamming into the bottom of the hill 6 feet down. Her head hitting the steering wheel, knocking her out.