To My Everything

TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of sexual assault, abuse and murder.

On the hottest day of the year, Nora and her twin brother, Seth, found something unusual in their grandmother’s basement. The only reason they were there in the first place was because she had asked them to help her go through all of the things she had accumulated over the years. Combined with the fact that the basement was the coldest room in the house, Nora and Seth were more than happy to oblige.

Most of the boxes laying around the basement had a bunch of albums filled with photographs. Their grandmother, Mary, was the kind of person who captured everything on camera, no matter how mundane or trivial the occasion was. Nora always imagined that if her grandmother were a teenager now, she would post everything online. That was just the kind of person she was. It was nice to have all of these memories in a single place, though, so Nora was glad that her grandmother liked taking so many pictures.

Sitting next to her brother on the basement floor with a couple of open boxes in front of them, Nora rifled through the albums out of sheer curiosity. Her and her brother would occasionally stop at a specific page to show the other a photo they though was interesting. There was one, however, that looked totally out of place. As Nora flipped through another page, a photograph slid down and landed on her lap. It hadn’t been placed inside the album properly, so it immediately caught her attention.

“Check this one out, Seth.” Nora set the album aside and lifted the photograph so they could both look at it.

He snagged the photo out of her hand and frowned at the picture. “Who is that person with grandma?”

She took it back from him with a glare. “Maybe if I could see the picture, I’d be able to tell you.”

“How would you know who it is if I don’t?”

“Because I’m grandma’s favourite, and she tells me everything.”

“Yeah, right. You’re nobody’s favourite.”

Nora stuck her tongue out at him before taking a closer look at the photo. It showed a young version of their grandmother—probably late teens or early twenties—standing next to a young man who looked around the same age. They had their arms wrapped around each other and beamed at the camera. Despite it being in black and white, Nora could see that the guy had blond or light brown hair in contrast to her grandmother’s darker hair. He was also quite handsome. Beautiful, even. He almost looked like an angel.

“Wow, I never knew grandma had such hot friends,” Nora said.

“Maybe they were more than friends, before she met grandpa,” her brother replied.

“I don’t know, this picture doesn’t scream romantic to me.” She paused for a moment. “And didn’t grandma and grandpa meet when they were fifteen? She looks older than that in the picture.”

All Seth did was shrug. He grabbed the photo out of his sister’s hand. He looked at it, his eyes narrowed, and then flipped the picture to reveal writing on the back. Nora leaned over to get a closer look at it. It read To My Everything, and the date was written on the top left corner. July 1972. There were no names.

“Still think this isn’t romantic?” Seth asked, looking at her with a dubious expression.

“Okay, so maybe you’re right. I think we should ask grandma, though.”

Just as the words left her mouth, their grandmother had appeared behind them with a plate of freshly baked cookies. She smiled down at them.

“Ask me what, sweetie?” she asked, setting the plate down next to a nearby side table.

Seth handed the photograph over to her. “We were wondering who the guy in the picture is. He doesn’t look like grandpa.”

Mary took it with a confused look, but when she looked down at the picture, her eyes widened in shock. Many emotions seemed to flit across her face. After the initial shock, she wore a warm yet sorrowful expression, the nostalgia clear on her face. Nora wasn’t sure if she was imagining it, but it also looked like she had tears in her eyes.

“Oh my… I didn’t know I still had this picture,” she said.

“Who is he, grandma?” Nora asked.

Still looking intently at the photograph, Mary slowly sat down on the couch beside them. She didn’t seem to hear either of them, and so Nora and Seth shared a look. They all sat there in silence for a moment until Mary let out a shaky breath. Setting the photograph on her lap, she looked at her grand kids with a rather intense stare.

“This man… no, this boy… his name was Jonah. He had just turned eighteen here. And then, only a few months later, he was murdered.”

“Whoa, hold on, someone killed him?” Seth asked.

Nora elbowed him. “What happened? If you don’t mind telling us.”

“Of course I don’t mind,” she reassured. “It’s been so long since this happened, yet sometimes it feels like yesterday. I just need to figure out where I should begin.

“Jonah and I were best friends. We met when we were children and were inseparable, even though we came from very different backgrounds. Jonah didn’t have the best family life. He had a terrible relationship with his father. His mother was very sick and passed away when he was three, and his father took up drinking soon after. I only met him several times, but he was always drunk when I saw him. He was very unkind to Jonah. It seemed like he blamed him for his mother’s death, even though it wasn’t his fault. He hated him so much that he… abused him. In every way imaginable.”

“I’m so sorry, grandma. That’s horrible…” Nora said.

Seth shook his head. “I can’t even imagine anyone in our family doing that.”

Mary nodded, her eyes downcast. “Jonah was strong. He hid his abuse very well, and on really bad days he would just not come to school. I found out about it the hard way. Jonah begged me not to tell anyone. I respected his wishes, although there were many times I wished I had told someone… Because his father wasn’t the only person who would abuse him. That was only the beginning.

“I don’t know all the details, but his father ran with a bad crowd. I never really knew what he did for a living, but these so-called friends of his would visit his house often and supposedly do business there. Whenever these people were at his house, Jonah would be in an even worse mood. He tried to stay away as much as he could, but whenever he couldn’t… I think you can imagine what happened.”

“Did they abuse him too?” Seth couldn’t help but ask.

“Yes. Physically and sexually. I didn’t need to see it to believe it. Like I said, Jonah was different when these men came to visit. He acted more paranoid and recoiled whenever someone tried to touch him. When he wasn’t acting anxious, the look in his eyes was… haunting. He closed himself off to the world. He couldn’t trust grown men. He hated and resented almost anyone he met.

“That was why he didn’t have many friends. He had me… and later on, your grandfather. You remember that I met him when we were fifteen, right? That was when Jonah met him, too. And you know grandpa. He’s the kindest soul on the planet, so I think that was why Jonah learned to trust him. They became good friends, and eventually more than that.”

“What do you mean?” Nora asked.

“They were more than friends, my dear,” Mary said with a smile. “Before your grandfather and I became a couple, he and Jonah were in love. They kept it secret, of course. I was the only person who knew about it.”

“So when did you and grandpa get together? I thought you guys started dating when you first met,” Seth said.

“No, we only started our relationship when we were nineteen. We got married two years later, and had your mother only a year into our marriage.” Mary took on a sentimental expression. “After Jonah passed, we took comfort in each other. I always fancied your grandfather, but I didn’t want to come between him and Jonah. I’m glad my feelings were returned, but I knew that Jonah would always have a place in your grandpa’s heart.”

“You two were always so cute together, grandma. I know it’s only been a year, but it’s still so hard to believe that he’s gone,” Nora said.

“Yeah, it’s hard to imagine that grandpa loved anyone else,” Seth added.

Mary laughed. “You two are too sweet. Thank you.”

“Wait, you never told us what happened to Jonah! You said he was murdered?” Seth asked, breaking the silence.

“Ah, yes.” She paused, the smile on her smile vanishing. “Well, Jonah managed to get his father in jail. Your grandpa actually helped him gather the evidence. Unfortunately, not long after the fact, one of his father’s business friends went after Jonah and killed him. I won’t go over the details, but they were angry that Jonah had brought the evidence to the police. They didn’t want to get caught too. I think his father also owed them something, but I’m not too sure. Either way, what they did to him was horrific. They all ended up in jail in the end, thank goodness.”

“Holy crap. That’s… I don’t know what to say,” Seth said.

“Me neither.” Nora shook her head. “Those men are disgusting. Every single one of them.”

“Agreed.” Their grandmother looked angry at the thought. “Jonah was such a bright and handsome young man. He would have done amazing things, but those pigs took that away from him. If only he wasn’t born in such terrible circumstances.”

There was a long moment of silence. No one said a word or looked at one another. Nora thought about her grandmother’s story, and her heart couldn’t help but break for Jonah. It wasn’t fair that someone who looked so happy and kind could die so young. She and Seth were sixteen, and she couldn’t imagine their lives ending only two years from now. There was so much that she wanted to experience in life.

“So why does it say ‘To My Everything’ on the back of the photo? Did Jonah write that?” Seth finally asked.

“Yes, he did. Jonah always said that your grandfather and I were his everything because we were the only two people he ever trusted. We were each other’s whole world.” Mary suddenly smiled down at the picture. “He was our everything, too.”

Nora felt tears prick the back of her eyes, and she stood up and flung her arms around her grandmother in a tight embrace. She returned the hug, her head resting on her granddaughter’s shoulder. They stayed like that for a few seconds before Seth joined the hug too. Once they had all pulled apart, Nora noticed that everyone had tears in their eyes.

“I love you both so much,” Mary said, wiping her eyes. “I wish your grandfather could see this. Neither of us knew we still had it.”

“Us too, grandma. Us too,” she agreed.

Nora was glad that she and her brother had found this old photograph. It was crazy to know that something so small could hold so much history. Nora had almost declined helping her grandmother today, but she was glad she didn’t. Such coincidences didn’t happen often. Nora hoped that she would remember the story about Jonah for a long time. Because someone that special deserved to be remembered.