Nana’s attic

Ever since I was a little girl , my paren I used to love it but now that I’m 17 I take the car and head to the beach. There’s literally never anything to do at my grandparents house . It’s the same ole same watching game shows or soaps. My mom sits and nods at everything my grandmother says. My grandmother was diagnosed with dementia five years ago. She calls me Zoelle even though my name is Danielle. I know that she can’t help it but it annoys me because I miss her. She use to bake the best desserts . listening to her childhood stories about living on a farm is missed.We were so close she and I .For some reason my mother didn’t like it . My grandpa stays outside all day doing random things . I’m sure he’s heart broken that the person he’s been with for 53years barely remembers him. As we arrived at my grandparents as usual I open my hand for the keys .”Nope not this time “ my mother says.I walked inside the house and I noticed that my grandmother Camille wasn’t in her favorite chair. “Nana!” I called out to her but received no answer. The pit of my stomach ached. I thought the worst . “Nana!” I called out once more . “Zoelle im up here Sweetie”. She was up in the attic. My mom was going to flip. I climbed up the ladder and found her in a dusty rocking chair. She was holding a medium sized box with roses on it. “Nana , what are you doing up here?” I asked her.”I need you to take these my dear and get them developed “She asked . She didn’t know that it was 2022 . I don’t even know if you can still get film developed but I took it from her then told her that I would help . The smile on her face was priceless . I had to convince her to ask my mom if I could use the car . But of course she wasn’t budging.“You’re not using the car and that’s final!”She yelled . Shrugging my shoulders I headed outside. There was always a solution to every problem. I snuck my grandma’s bike from the shed and headed into town.My mother and I don’t get along at all .You would have thought that she was my step mother . No one died or anything to make our relationship change . That’s just the way things are. My father is always away on business. His job has always kept him away from us . I rode all the way into town looking for a place to develop the film. She had so many that needed to be developed. There was an old pharmacy plus grocery store ahead so I went inside and asked if they developed film . “Yes we do , fill out the paper over there and you can pick them up tomorrow “. While I filled out the paper envelope.I noticed a guy looking at me behind a shelf . Even when i looked back at him , he kept staring. I’m a brown skinned gal from Houston and when someone staring at you they mean business. I walked over to him . He was this tall lanky guy with olive skin and a curly top fade . “ Can I help you ?” I asked him . “ I should be asking you that since I work here “ he said smiling . This guy was acting strange .Now he stood there smiling and staring.”Ok .. good talk?” . As I walked away he followed me outside. “Hey wait , I’m sorry I’ve just never seen you here in town before “.” Well now you have “ I said then walked away. My mother was blowing up my phone “Hello? Yes mom I’m coming back , No mam I didn’t “. She hangs up on me as always . We will probably never have a proper relationship. My adopted sister who is my mothers pride and joy could never do any wrong.To make things even more inter,she looks just like my mother . My dad is Mix raced ,black and white and my moms this beautiful dark skinned woman. I came out with long wavy dark hair ,carmel skin and green eyes . My adopted sister on the other hand has kinky tight curled dark hair and dark brown skin . We get along just fine but my mother also hates that.When getting back to my grandparents house . My beautiful 7year old sister was waiting for me arms folded on the porch.”Mom is pissed at you “ she says . “ I really don’t think a kid your age should be using the word pissed”. “Well that’s what mommy said while in the kitchen”. “Moms an adult she can say what she wants ok “. “Yeah , ok but it scares me when you make mom mad “. “It’s all good ok no worries “ I said smiling at her . Walking inside the house my stomach was in knot . There were times when I’ve been late coming home and my my mother would greet me with a kick in the stomach or a punch in the face . I’ve been in the hospital a couple of times but of course never have I told anyone the real reasons for my injuries. My father know and tells me that thats just her way of handling things while he’s gone . “Where the heck were you!” She yelled . “Nana needed me to drop something off for her is all “. “Drop off what!?”.My Nana looked at me and nodded her head no. “It was a note for the young guy at the pharmacy “.”Well what did it say?”. She asked . I shrugged my shoulders the walked away . I’ve never seen my mom act like that .The next day I went to the Pharmacy to pick up the developed pictures . I didn’t want to look at the pictures to be nosy but I did.When walking I ran into the guy from the pharmacy.”Whoa! Sorry “ He said . “ No that’s my bad , I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going”. All of the pictures fell to the ground . We bent down at the same time to pick them up . My heart dropped when seeing what was on them. “ Why are you in these pictures?” I asked the guy .” This is weird”he said . I was in the picture also with him . We had a little girl standing by us which looked like my sister . The only difference is we were older . The more photos we looked at . The worst it got . “ Who are you?“ I asked . He told me that he didn’t know how to tell me without scaring me . But my mother wasn’t my mom ,she was my older sister . My sister wasn’t my sisters she was my daughter and my Nana was my mom . “ My name is Kyle and I’m your husband “. 

I did know what to say. “ How was this possible? I’m only 19”. He told me that my older sister put a curse on me so that I wouldn’t get any inheritance. My mom aka Nana has a stash somewhere .He told me that I was actually 27 years old and we lived in Colorado with our daughter. The only way for the curse to be broken was for us to have sex .” Ok dude now your just making stuff up “ I said. He told me that he wasn’t being fresh . He begged me to believe him so that we could have our family back . “Zoelle , please” He begged.I finally agreed. We went to his house and had sex . I fell asleep in his bed then woke up laying next to a much older man . Getting up I walked to the bathroom to see a women much older than 27 in the mirror. My husband Kyle had the photos laid across our dresser . In the photos we were much younger standing in front of the pharmacy. life’s full of memories that pictures tell so well .