Chapter 45: Hailie’s Song
Riley woke up cold on Christmas morning. It was hardly a surprise. It was going to take her ages to get used to living in the snow. As she rolled over, she realized that the bed was nothing but a pile of tangled sheets next to her. She spotted the alarm clock on the bedside table, heart shooting into her mouth. It was ten already!
Launching out of bed, she was surprised that nobody had woken her up. Quickly, she threw on some clothes and gave her hair a brush. She couldn’t hear anything coming from downstairs. Grabbing her bag full of presents, she slung it around her shoulder and headed out.
She couldn’t find anybody in the living room or the kitchen. She checked the pool, and the study and was starting to get worried until she heard a squeal of excitement come from the spare lounge. Turning around the hall, she opened the double doors.
Hailie was sitting in the centre of the carpet, directly underneath the ‘happy birthday’ banner. There was a Christmas tree in the corner, but all the gifts were untouched. Alaina was sitting with Marshall on one of the sofas while Kim had a camcorder out, aimed at Hailie, who was opening what looked like a birthday present. It was a huge box.
“Morning!” Riley chirped as she stepped in. She met Hailie’s eye, “Happy Birthday!”
Hailie thanked her and immediately went back to unwrapping the box. Riley bent down and placed all her presents under the tree, apart from Hailie’s birthday present. She sat down next to Marshall as Hailie tore off the wrapping and screamed. She looked overwhelmed with excitement as revealed a pink, plastic cycle with sparkles all over it.
“I wanted this one!” She yelled. Kim and Marshall both had the biggest smiles on their faces. “Mummy said I couldn’t have it!”
Marshall chuckled, “We wanted it to be a birthday surprise!”
Hailie tried to open the box but couldn’t. Marshall leant forwards and started to remove the staples, holding it together. Hailie was so excited, she was dancing around the room.
“Hailie? Do you want to open this one while you wait?” Riley offered her gift out. Hailie thanked her and tore it open, much easier than the huge box. She seemed just as excited as she opened the boxed Barbie doll. It was beautiful, with a huge white dress and a red wrap.
“You got the Holiday Barbie!” She exclaimed, before showing Kim the doll. “Mummy! This is the one I showed you in the store!” Riley was filled with joy, seeing Hailie so pleased with her gift.
Alaina seemed itching to get to her Christmas gifts, “Is that all of Hailie’s? Can we do Christmas now, mummy?”
Kim lowered the camcorder for a moment, “Okay, why don’t you grab one?”
Alaina ran off to the Christmas tree to find a gift with her name on it as Marshall finally got the huge box undone. Hailie was standing around, impatiently waiting for him to remove the plastic layer. As soon as he got it off, she squealed and grabbed the rider and jumped on it, peddling it out of the living room and down the long hallway.
“Be careful!” Kim called out, a laugh in her voice. Alaina was tearing open every present with her name on it, pure joy on her face. Wrapping started to pile up all over the floor. Riley giggled as Hailie peddled back into the living room, hair messy from the breeze she’d picked up from riding so fast. She dumped the bike and grabbed a softly wrapped gift and ran up to Marshall.
“Daddy! This is for you! Open it!” She stood at his feet, expectantly as he tore it open. A huge smile crossed his face as he held up an oversized white T-shirt with a picture of his face on it and ‘We love you daddy!’ written in red block letter underneath.
“I love it! Thank you!” He kissed her on the forehead and she ran off, finding her own Christmas presents.
Riley reached out and grabbed a small present and held it out for Kim. She looked surprised and took it. Suspiciously, she opened it and revealed a gift-card to an expensive candle store. She seemed genuinely moved, “Oh… thank you. I didn’t expect you to get me anything.”
Riley offered her a smile. “It’s no big deal. Marshall said you liked the store. And I thought you deserved it.”
Kim held her stare for a moment before excusing herself, quickly. Riley didn’t know why she left. She knew it was hard on her and had wanted to do something nice so Kim didn’t feel excluded. It wasn’t fair to leave her out of things. Especially Christmas.
Marshall was giving her a look, “See that big, thin present against the wall?” Riley frowned and stood up and spotted it, half shoved behind the tree. Stepping over Hailie, she managed to make out her name on it. She looked back at him and he had a cheeky smile. “It’s yours.”
It took a minute or two but she managed to shuffle what felt like a giant picture out of the present pile and sat beside Marshall. Tentatively, she tore off one corner and slowly ripped off the rest of the festive wrapping. She grew in a gasp as she saw the canvas artwork before her.
It was a picture of her and Marshall, but taken from behind. He had his arm around her and they were walking in the snow. She remembered it clearly. They’d gone out the first time it snowed because she’d never seen it before. They’d just taken a walk, it hadn’t been far. But it’d been so magical. The photo captured even the tiniest of snowflakes as they walked down the snow covered road, leafless trees branching overhead.
“It’s beautiful,” She said, breathlessly.
Marshall nodded, “I noticed you don’t have any pictures up in your apartment. Thought this would be a good start.”
“How did you take this?”
He smirked, “It wasn’t an accident. I knew it was going to start snowing and you hadn’t seen it before. So I asked one of the photographers from my record company to come out and take a few sneaky photos without you knowing. It turned out really nice.”
She felt nothing but pure joy rise in her and she started to laugh. She couldn’t wait until he found out what she’d gotten him for Christmas.
“What’s so funny?” He asked, curiously.
Riley stood up and grabbed her present for him. It was a medium sized box. Handing it to him, she watched as he tore off the wrapping and opened the box. He raised a brow when he saw the scrapbook album. Reaching in, he pulled it out and opened it to the first page.
Stuck neatly onto the first page was a picture of him and his uncle Ronnie. They were both dressed in 70’s clothing, looking quite young, pulling ‘I really don’t want to be here’ smiles for the camera. Marshall stared at the page for almost a whole minute without saying anything. Suddenly, he flicked through all the pages quickly, revealing ancient photos of him and Proof, his family, his friends. It was sorted by year so by the time he reached the half way mark, he turned to a photo of him and Riley. They’d taken it in early autumn, when he’d taken her out to the river.
The second half of the scrapbook was empty, aside from a post it note she’d left that read ‘for you to fill’. He raised his eyes to hers. “Where did you get all of these?”
She sighed, remembering how much of a hassle it had been. “I did a lot of digging. Proof and some of the guys from D12 had some photos, some were around here. I talked to Nathan and he got some off of your mother. And I- have to apologize.”
“For what?” He seemed baffled.
“I lied to you,” She admitted. “Remember when I told you I had that job in Missouri?” He nodded, slowly. “It wasn’t a job. I went to visit your grandmother to get some photos of you and Ronnie.”
He sat back and breathed a sighed, turning back to the first page. “You went to a lot of trouble. Thank you.”
The expression on his face made it all worth it. He’d never had one place he could look that held all of his memories is one. She’d done her best to paint a picture of his life, all the places he’d been, all the things that he’d done. It was beautiful to see how much he truly treasured it.