She left the bedroom through the door to the living room and walked into the kitchen, where she opened a drawer and removed the key. She handed the key to him, and he kissed her forehead before slipping out the back door and descending the stairs to the backyard.
Callie watched him stride across the grass toward her shed. She turned away when he slid the key into the lock and entered the bathroom connected to her kitchen. Pushing open the door, she examined the small room. It was exactly as she’d left it, right down to her toothbrush sitting in its cup.
She used the bathroom before returning to her bedroom. Standing in the doorway, she examined her things and the room with a lump in her throat. She loved Lucien, and she was excited about the next journey in her life, but she’d been happy here even if her landlord was a bit of an ass.
With a sigh, she wiped the tears from her eyes. She would be happy at the compound too.
She strode over to the closet, opened the doors, and removed the clothes hanging. She set them neatly on the bed. Next, she opened her drawers and emptied the contents. Lucien returned as she was using one of her sweaters to wrap a horse.
She took one of the rugged, black containers from his hands and set it on the bed to remove the yellow lid. He placed the other two on the floor. As if she were handling a newborn baby, she tucked the wrapped horse carefully inside.
She used more of her clothes to wrap the horses and as padding between each of them. When she finished, the containers he’d brought her were full.
“I’ll get you some more,” he offered as he set the last picture he’d removed from the wall on her bed.
“Thank you,” she said.
She started enveloping the pictures in her clothes while he left the apartment. When she got to the photo of her and her mother, she lifted it to study it. She only had a few memories of her mom, but they were of a vibrant woman whose laughter was full of life.
Her most vivid memory of her mother was from the day this photo was taken. It was one of the rare times her mother was sober, and she’d arranged to visit Callie after months of being away. They went school shopping, got manicures, and had their hair cut and styled. Then they got their picture taken at this studio in the mall before going for ice cream.
Callie remembered her eyes crossing when the woman behind the counter handed her the biggest strawberry sundae she’d ever seen. The whipped cream oozing off the side of it covered her hands by the time they walked to one of the picnic benches next to the building.
Her father would never let her eat the entire sundae, but her mother handed her a spoon and told her to enjoy it. Excited by the idea of all that sugar, she managed to polish off every last drop. Her mother laughed when Callie sat back, put her hand on her belly, and burped up ice cream and strawberries.
It was one of the best days of her life. She laughed so much, and she felt free and happy as she rode beside her mother in a red Mustang convertible her mom borrowed from a friend.
The wind had whipped through her hair as they rode with the top down. With the radio blasting, they sang together at the top of their lungs. When they went up and down hills, Callie threw her hands in the air and yelled like she was riding a roller coaster.
The sun was setting when her mother brought her home, covered her with kisses and words of love, before promising to return in a few days so they could do it again. Callie climbed into bed with a stomachache, but she was happier than she’d ever been. She’d rambled on about her amazing day as her dad tucked her in and kissed her good night.
For the first time in her life, she would have both her parents around all the time. Her mother had promised to come back soon; she’d never done that before.
However, she never returned, and that was the last time Callie saw her alive.
A month later, the pictures they’d taken arrived in the mail. Angry her mother had once again abandoned her, Callie threw the photos in the trash. Most of the photographs were of silly poses and funny faces, but this one was the two of them beaming at the camera with the joy that only those who didn’t know what lurked around the corner could have.
After her father died, she discovered he’d rescued the pictures from the trash. While packing away his things, she found them tucked into one of his dresser drawers, and knew he’d kept them for her.
Her mother died two months after the photos were taken, and when she looked back now, the memory of that perfect day no longer angered or saddened her. She was glad she had the opportunity to have the memory of her mother. It was the only good one she had as most of her time with the woman was a blur lost to her younger years.
She was also glad her father had realized that one day his angry, six-year-old daughter would want pictures of her mother and saved them for her. It had taken her years to understand her mother hadn’t abandoned her because she didn’t love her. She did love her.
She recalled those hands cupping her cheeks as kisses rained down across her face and words of love poured from the woman. There had been something desperate and hopeful in her mom that night, but she’d been too young to see it.
She’d meant to keep her promises, but, in the end, her addictions and demons won.
Callie set the picture down and blinked away the tears in her eyes when Lucien returned with some more of the containers. His gaze traveled from her to the photo and back again.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“She was beautiful.”
“She was.”
“You look like her.”
Callie smiled at him. “Thank you.”
He cupped her cheek in his palm, and she turned her face into it to kiss him before pulling away.
“Tell me about her,” he said.
Callie wrapped the photo in a turtleneck as she told him the story of her one perfect day with the woman and her father’s foresight to save the pictures. When she finished, he hugged her as he cursed himself for not bringing her here sooner.
Yes, these were just things, and her life was far more important than them, but they were all she had left of her former life and her parents. No wonder she was so impatient to return for them.
“I should have brought you here sooner,” he said.
“It’s better we waited. I needed to have these things back, but I do not want to fall into the hands of the Savages again.”
Lucien rubbed her neck as they stood together for a long while.
“We should get going,” she said.
He reluctantly released her. “Maybe on the ride home, you can tell me more about your dad.”
She grinned at him. “I’d like that.”
He couldn’t help but grin back at her. “Good.”
When she started packing the next container, he lifted a full one from the bed. “I’ll bring the rest of the empties up and take some of these down to the SUV.”
“Okay, thank you.”
He left the room, and Callie listened as the door clicked before turning her attention back to packing. She finished encasing the picture of her and her friends at Burning Man. She wanted to call them and tell them she was safe, but she couldn’t answer the influx of questions that would follow.
She planned to write to all of them. She had no idea what she would say, but she couldn’t leave them hanging. If something happened to one of them, and she never knew what became of them, it would eat at her for the rest of her days.