Mind of His

43. Freak Out

I still stared in shock at the picture. What was my mom doing with a gun in her hands?

"Woah," said Zayn at my side. "She really was a badass, huh?"

"Uh huh," I agreed nervously. She had a serious yet captivating look on her face and not much could be seen of the background due to the nature of the photo. The flash illuminated her face and some of her black outfit and hair. The picture looked like it had been taken in a way that the person behind the camera called her name and she turned around, then flash. "I - I didn't know she had a gun," I said. "I never knew there was a gun in the house."

Zayn glanced up at me, then back at the picture. "It's not entirely unusual, Fiona. I mean, it is legal in America."

"Yes, but it's unusual to me. I didn't think my mom would have or use a gun, but I guess, then again, I still don't really know her." Suddenly, something else on the page caught my eye. "It looks like something has been crossed out here!"

We both moved closer to the page to peer at it. It looked like a date had been crossed out with a sharpie. "The date isn't written in my mom's handwriting, so my mom was probably the one to cross it out. But why?"

"O' seven," said Zayn. "It ends in '07."

I tried to figure it out. What was significant about this date? Why had my mom crossed it out? I deducted that my dad had probably written the date; it looked like his messy handwriting.

"Maybe this was when she first bought it," Zayn guessed. He craned his neck to get a better look at it again. "That's a fuckin glock."

"WHY DOES MY MOM HAVE A GLOCK?!"

"Text your dad, ask your dad," Zayn urged, grabbing my phone. I did, in all caps, then I tried to center myself and continue looking through the book. This time, I didn't give a flying flip about the pictures of Lilly, and I and I only stopped at things I thought could be important. Zayn's eyes were glued on the page, and he once in a while checked my phone for any messages from my dad. It was cool to know that he was as invested in this as I was.

We came upon another rare picture of my mother. This one was newer, and she was seated at a computer, reaching out towards the camera as if to tell the photographer to stop taking pictures. Zayn and I moved so close to it to inspect the photo that our heads nearly touched. "If only I could zoom into what was on the computer," I lamented. There were a couple of papers laid out on her desk and a large cup of tea or coffee. By the looks of it, the picture must have been taken at night.

"I remember towards the time they got divorced, she was on the computer a lot," I commented, turning to the next page. "I never stopped to wonder what she was doing though. These were the times when we were rarely together in one house. I avoided my dad because he was always drinking and he rarely worked, Lilly was always out with friends or sports and whatnot, so I avoided being home too. My mom was either on the computer or out who knows where."

Zayn nodded, then I closed the scrapbook. Considering it had been twelve years that our family had been together, there actually weren't a whole lot of pictures and clippings. It was somewhat nice to know that my mom had spent the time and care to keep all of what we had though.

"He texted back, I think," said Zayn. I grabbed my phone and opened the message.

Dad: What made you think of that?

Dad: Yes, she owned a gun. She was good at shooting and practiced at a shooting range once in a while.

"Okay, that seems somewhat more explainable," I said, and Zayn agreed. "I still wouldn't have expected that from her though."