“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what?”
“That we kept a photo album!”
Tony laughed at his daughter’s exaggerated rage. The two had been enjoying a quiet evening by the fireplace until Tony had mistakenly mentioned a few photos he kept of when Roselyn was young and her mother was still alive. He scratched his head in a gesture of discomfort. “I wouldn’t really consider a dozen pictures an album. I just never thought it was worth mentioning.”
Roselyn looked at her father thoughtfully. They had never kept secrets from each other, but Tony had never said a word about his wife since her death over ten years ago. Roselyn felt as if she was stepping into an unknown, almost sacred, part of her father’s mind, and it was important that she do so today. She wasn’t sure why, but a part of her mind was telling her that there may never be another night like tonight. However, she chose not to burden her father with this strange feeling of hers.
One of many secrets she would later regret keeping.
But for now, she was content to spend the night talking by the fireplace. “So are you going to show me the photos or not?”
“I guess if you really want me to, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Our family was never a fan of taking pictures, so these are basically all the photos I have since my childhood.”
“Anything’s better than nothing.”
“I guess so. Here.” He handed a very thin album to Roselyn, who immediately flipped to the first page and paused.
“Is that…?”
Tony glanced over her shoulder and nodded. “Yeah,” he said distantly. “That’s your mom. You look just like she did when she was your age.”
Roselyn couldn’t deny it. Looking at old pictures of her mother was like looking into a mirror. One picture that would stay in her mind for all eternity was from their college graduation ball. Her mom was in a gorgeous white dress while Tony stood beside her wearing a wrinkled tuxedo. “I can explain the tux,” Tony said defensively. “Her original date stood her up, so she called me and told me she wasn’t going to go. I ended up begging my dad for his suit and I picking a lily from her yard before showing up at the door. She didn’t stop laughing at me all night.”
“You two look like you’re getting married.”
Tony laughed. “Me getting married in a suit like that? Never. But,” he said as he flipped the page, “I did ask her to keep that dress.”
Their wedding picture was almost an exact copy of the previous picture except for Tony’s apparel. The two made a picturesque couple and written on the bottom of the photo were the words “Tony and Linda-Roselyn Bretta.”
Recognizing the questioning look in his daughter’s eyes, Tony explained, “I’ve always liked the name Roselyn. I remember in high school I was talking to your mother about names and she said she also would have liked to name her daughter Roselyn if her parents hadn’t given her the middle name first. I just told her to do it anyway. Once you were born, we didn’t have any doubts in our mind what your name was going to be.”
Her curiosity continued to grow and more questions were biting at her tongue. “How long did you two know each other?”
“Forever. We were neighbors as kids and knew each other for basically all of our lives. We went through elementary school, junior high, high school and even college together. We got our hearts broken by others countless times but we were always there for the other to cry on. It wasn’t until the ball that we realized we had been looking everywhere but right in front of us. We used to talk like this a lot, too. Almost every week during high school, we spent the night at one of our houses. Of course, you know that people don’t sleep at sleepovers. It’s a lot like how you and I used to talk. It was rarely about anything important. It was those silly little conversations about nothing at all that made it so much fun. I always believed that it’s nice to have someone out there that you can never seem to run out of things to talk about even after so many years. Even after you were born, we didn’t run out of things to talk about. I don’t think you remember it, but we used to sit by the fire with you and talk until you fell asleep. We tucked you into your bed and just kept talking.”
The truth was, Roselyn did remember. They were the only memories she had of her mother, and something in her heart told her that this would be the last memory she would have with her father.
Never again would there be another night like tonight.
