It Was You From the Start

Now, this distant father was in the living room of my old home, picking up the last of the boxes, and handing it to a mover to put it on the truck.

"This is the last of the, Lor." He said to me. My tiny dog, (Just pick a kind) Toby, growled. I always hated when he called me that. I sighed and hushed Toby.

"That's great, Dad. Just great." I replied not looking at him at all.

"Okay, then, I'll be in the car. The truck just left. The things you wanted with you are in the car."

"Okay, Dad."

"I'll, um...give you a few minutes to take a last look around and we'll head to the airport."

"Okay, Dad." I said, sounding annoyed. I probably shouldn't have said it that annoyed, but I was annoyed with him. He turned on his heel and left towards the door. "Take a last look, Toby. Everything will be so much different. Especially with Mom gone." I felt a tear run down my face after it escaped from my eye. I quickly wiped it away. I walked up the stairs to my Mom's old room, to take one last look.

Even though it was empty, I could still see everything in the room, exactly the way it was supposed to be. I could still see her bed in the middle of the rectangular room. Two windows and two nightstands on either side of the bed. Dresser off on the right wall and the vanity on the left. I pictured a time when I was five and scared of the thunderstorm. I ran into her room with my teddy bear. She then took my hand, led out of the room, down the stairs, and sat me on the couch. She walked to the movie shelves and pulled out a video tape. After popping the video into the VCR, she pushed play and sat next to me on the couch. It'd taken me a minutes to recognize which movie it was, but then the song started. She played the scene from The Sound of Music with the "My Favorite Things" song. I smiled up at her and she started singing along with Maria. She had the greatest singing voice i had ever heard. That was one of the greatest nights of my life.

Toby, still in my arms, started fussing around. "Toby, stop." He started growling. "Fine." I put him down. "Do whatever you want to. Just leave me alone." He walked to one of the floor boards and started sniffing it. "Toby, no." I walked to him. "If you need to use the bathroom, go outside." I knelt down beside him, and noticed something in the floorboard. There was a whole in it, just big enought for a finger to slip through. "What the-" I put my finger though the hole and pulled the board up, placing it to the side. Under it were two books: one that was ratty and beaten up, and another that looked brand new. I picked up the older one adn sat down to look through it. As I skimmed the pages, I recognized whose handwriting it was.

My Mom's.