By Chance

It was so cold inside their apartment that Rafe and Luisa both struggled to get out of bed. Luckily for them, it was the Christmas holidays and neither of them would've been late for work, so they snuggled for an hour longer before they got up. The living room of the apartment looked like a storage facility. The boxes and bags on the floor and on the couches were filled with all of Rafe's belongings. He and Luisa had been dating for more than a year and had finally decided it was time for him to move in with her. His old apartment was way too small for the two of them. 

  After enjoying a hearty breakfast together, they continued unpacking his boxes. Neither of them could stop talking about how happy they were that they were finally living together. Both of them had high hopes for their relationship and loved each other so much that they believed they were meant for each other from the start. It was still too early in their relationship for either of them to mention the M-word but both of them could hear wedding bells in the back of their minds. It was only a matter of time. 

  Rafe opened what felt like the umpteenth box. This box had 'Mom' written on its side. He was busy taking a bunch of small sentimental items out of the box when Luisa saw what was written on its side.

  “Mom?” she asked as she pointed at the box.

  “My sister gave me this box after our mom passed away. She said she filled it with stuff she knew our mom would want me to have.”

  After he started working and moved out of his mother's house, Rafe used to visit her and his only sibling – his younger half-sister – once a week. He helped them financially as best he could and did whatever they needed done around the house. When his mother passed away, he and his half-sister were shattered emotionally but it made their bond stronger. She lived alone in the house and he did everything he could to help her so that she didn't end up falling for the first guy who promised to take care of her. He feared she might walk the same life-path as their mother and end up getting married and divorced twice just to end up alone with kids to take care of. There had been men who'd been interested in her in the past. None of them ever passed the big brother test. She thought he was overprotective and controlling at first until she realized that he was right about all of them.

  Luisa stood next to Rafe and put her arm around him when he took the old family photo album out of the box. Before he could open it, one of the photos fell out of it. 

  “Wow. Can't remember the last time I saw this,” he said as he picked it up.

  Luisa noticed that a small piece of the photo was missing. When she asked, Rafe said that his mother had told him that she'd cut his father out of the photo. What was left of it only showed baby Rafe sitting on a blanket on the front lawn and his mother standing next to him. Although the part of the photo next to baby Rafe had been cut off, Luisa could still see part of the small old house in the back of the photo.

  “Where was this taken?” she asked.

  “At the house my parents lived when I was born. I can't really remember anything about it. Hell, I can't even remember my dad. I was too young when they split up too remember anything. I know in what street the house is. My mom talked about the street and the friends she and my dad had there a lot. It's way on the other side of the city. I've never been back there since my parents split.”

  “Have you ever contacted your dad?”

  “No. We heard he passed away four years back. He never bothered to contact me or my mom for all these years, so we didn't go to the funeral.”

  Luisa kept staring at the photo as she said that it was a pity that she never had the chance to meet his mother. When she looked at the back of the photo, she saw that there was a date written on the back of it: 15 December '93.

  “This is freaky,” she said. “The date on the back of this pic is the same as today's date.”

  “Seriously?” he said before he looked at the back of the photo. “Wow. That is freaky.”

  “I'd like to go see your old house.”

  Before he replied, she could tell by the expression on his face that he was hesitant. 

  “I don't know,” he said. “I don't really see a reason to all the way to the other side of the city just to go look at the outside of a house.”

  “Ah, come on. I'd like to see it. Maybe seeing the house will make you remember something.”

  He thought about it for a moment before he agreed that they should go. Early that afternoon, the two put on the warmest winter wear and left the apartment. The drive to the other side of the city felt like an eternity. It was snowing and the streets were filled with people who braved the cold to do Christmas shopping. 

  When they reached the corner of the street where Rafe's old home was, he slowed the car down and looked at the small convenience store. The outside of it sparked a vague memory in his mind. They drove slowly down the street and looked at every house they drove past. Close to the middle of the street, Rafe spotted the house and parked in front of it. He and Luisa stared at it for a full minute before she asked him if he could remember anything about it. 

  “Not really. It looks familiar, but that's about it. I can't remember what the inside of it looks like, or what the – ”

  Rafe paused when he saw the mailbox next to the front gate. It wasn't so much the sight of the big red mailbox that caught his attention or sparked a memory. It was what he saw on the mailbox that had him staring at it in silence.

  “What is it?” Luisa asked.

  “The mailbox. No. It can't be. My eyes must be playing tricks on me.”

  “What do you see?” she asked before she leaned closer to her window and stared at the mailbox. At the top of the mailbox, she could see the big 29 – the house's number – and in the middle, she could see a word but she couldn't read it. It was only when they got out of the car and stepped closer that she saw Rafe's last name on the mailbox.

  “How...? How is this possible?” he asked.

  “Maybe the folks who live here now didn't bother to change it or take it off. Or maybe – ”

  She turned and looked at him. He knew her well enough to predict what she wanted to say.

  “No. He can't still be alive and living here. I might not have gone to the funeral, but we heard from two of my uncles that my dad had passed away.”

  “Maybe we should go knock on the door and find out,” she said.

  Rafe was so shocked by the suggestion that he couldn't reply. 

  “Maybe your dad got married again and you have another half-sister or brother you never met.”

  As much as Rafe wanted for them to get back in his car and to go home, what Luisa said flooded his mind with questions that he needed answered. He scraped together the courage to open the front gate and began walking towards the front door with her by his side. The cold from the snow on the lawn couldn't take away the warm feeling he felt bubbling inside him. Walking up to the front door, he felt like he was home. He knocked on the front door and felt Luisa taking him by the hand and squeezing it. 

  Inside the house, a man named Tiago came down the stairs thinking it was his wife's sister at the door, who was going to stay with them for the Christmas holidays. When Tiago opened the door and saw Rafe, the shock of seeing a face that looked exactly like his staring at him left him at a loss for words. The twin brothers stared at each other for a moment before Rafe said their parents' names out loud. Tiago covered his mouth with one hand and tried to fight back the tears. When he saw Luisa crying and saw the tear dripping from his brother's eye, he couldn't fight it anymore. 

  He invited them into his home. As much shock and anger as the twins felt deep down inside for their parents keeping them a secret from each other for all these years, that didn't stop them from sitting at the kitchen table together, enjoying a cup of hot chocolate together, and starting to get to know each other.