"Can you tell me more about my mother." I raised up and wiped my tears and she smiled.
"Your mother was the nicest out of everybody, I don't know how she got mixed in with your father." She shook her head.
"I wouldn't say she was religious, but she was a very spiritual person. She started to have a bohemian lifestyle." She chuckled.
"She traveled all the time, mostly to places surrounded with nature and she would document everything when she traveled." She continued and I smiled.
"Her energy was so pure." She added. "As a matter of fact she documented her pregnancy. Come on." She said and she lead me down to the basement but it looked like a mini apartment down there.
"When she needed space she would come down here and write. Your grandmother never touched her papers she put on the wall after what happened." She said.
"She wrote all of this?" I said looking at the wall as I walked closer to one of the papers to read it.
"Yup." She smiled.
"Can I take a picture?" I asked.
"Of course, actually there's a box around here somewhere with her stuff." She said as she scanned the room.
"Here it is." She said picking up the medium box.
"What's in there?" I asked.
"More pictures, her journals, and the videos she took when she documented her travels with nature and when she was pregnant, well the flash drive in the box has the files with the videos attached to it. Everything you need to know in that box." She said.
"Thank you so much." I hugged her.
"It's the least I could do, I know she would've wanted you to have it. But your father can't know about any of this." She said.
"I won't tell him, I actually haven't even seen him in two years so..." I trailed.
❏❏❏
Dayla and Nariyah texted me earlier that they had left so now I was home alone.
I took advantage of that and went up to my room to go through the box.
What I pulled out first was the stack of Polaroid pictures with a rubber band around them. The first picture caught my eyes immediately as I admired my mother's beauty.
Most of the pictures looked like they were taken when she was traveling but the last three pictures caught my attention just as much as the first one.
My father really lied to me all these years about what happened to my mother, but for what? What was his purpose for doing that?
I put the rubber band back around the stack before taking the flash drive out and grabbing my laptop. After the process, the folder with files of the videos popped up.
"I can't do this." I sighed closing my laptop.
I eventually opened my laptop again clicking on the video and pressing play.
"Is this on- oh it is." She cut herself off as she laughed.
"This is day one of being in Croatia, and so far I love it here. I'm at the Plitvice Lakes Park." She said as she flipped the camera around showing the scenery.
"It's so pretty, it look like a rain forest." I thought as the video continued.
"Quote of the day...Danger is real, fear is not, nothing more than an allusion you may or may not choose to entertain." She read out of her journal.
"Today I'm starting my shadow work prompt, and hopefully this camera can stay still while I sit it down." She laughed and she sat it down facing her and pulled out another journal.
"Okay." She took a long pause before she finally got the camera situated. "I came here with no electronics, just my camera and laptop, I just needed a break socially and mentally." She said.
"I just feel like I needed to find myself and take a break from everything. I recently found out that I'm pregnant but I haven't told anyone....I also found out that the person I was with was basically living a double life." She sighed.
"When I found out I left and now I'm here, on the other side of the world. I haven't answered his calls or seen him. I just need time to think everything through, and I refuse to cry because I've cried enough."
"There's more to life than just dwelling in sadness but at the same time I need to acknowledge the hurt I feel cause if I ignore it'll haunt me forever and I'll never get over it. I can't waste my time giving him the advantage to see me hurt. I can't waste my time searching for an answer on why this happened because it won't change the situation."
"I believe that Everything happens for a reason so there's no need for me to stress myself out when the best thing is going to happen for me and that's my baby." She smiled.
"I had to learn the hard way that in life, only you can be there for yourself. That's why it matters so much to be happy before you move on to a relationship....if you're sad or not doing good and you find someone to make you happy, you're going to become dependent on them to make you happy then when they leave you're back to how you were before."
"But anyways forget about the relationship stuff, that's not the purpose of what I'm doing." She laughed and I smiled as my phone rung.
Seeing that it was Makai, I answered it and put it on speaker after I paused the video.
"Hello." I said.
"Wassup, Come open the door." He said.
"You're here?" I flipped the cover off of me standing up.
"Yeah." He said. "Not really but I'm almost at your door.
"Okay, hold on." I said as I hung up and threw my phone on my bed and went to the mirror making sure I looked okay.
"Yo' ass gone get robbed, this shit wasn't unlocked." He yelled from downstairs.
"Can you lock it for me please." I raised my voice before I closed the laptop and put it on my nightstand.
"What you doing here?" I asked as he walked in.
"Damn you don't wanna see me?" He smirked before I laughed.
"I ain't say that, I'm just sayin' cause it was unexpected." I shrugged.
"You was busy?" He asked.
"No, I was just chillin'." I said. "Why?" I asked.
"I just wanted to see you, we ain't talked in two days." He said. "You in here watching porn or something?" He asked and I busted out laughing.
"No I was watching old videos." I continued laughing and he took off his hoodie and shoes before he laid down beside me.
"Move." He said.
"You move." I said and he grabbed my waist pulling me closer to him making my back touch his chest.
"Go to sleep." He said with his arm still wrapped around me.
"Makai it's four something I'm not sleepy." I said getting on my phone.
"If I'm going to sleep you going to sleep." He said.
"What you so tired for Anyways?" I asked.
"I ain't get home til' like 5." He said and I scrunched my face up.
"What- you know what I'm not gone even ask." I cut myself off and he chuckled.
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