Holding my breath as much as possible, I slowly crawled towards the stale and cold, dusty heaps of discarded objects and cartons filled with old belongings. Looking around, I felt lost.
Where do I even begin?
I pondered, stopping for a while to take a glance at all of them.
Moonlight peeked through the broken glass window of the attic. There were cobwebs all around and the air smelled musty.
I turned towards the window side, where there was enough light to see properly, and crawled towards a carton that looked exactly like any other here. Well, at least it had a tag to let me know what was to be expected inside.
Jean's old clothes the tag read. It's my sister's old clothes. I sighed, realizing it'll obviously not have anything related to me. The next carton read Rebecca--- mom's stuff! Huh! Where the fuck is mine?
I turned to look at the items next to those cartons and there was our broken TV, a music player
which mom didn't let Dad send for repair to the shop because she said that it was already a too old model, so a new one would be better, and I guess she wasn't totally wrong though
, my childhood study table with one broken leg
don't look at me, I didn't break it!
and few other things covered with sheets.
I turned and crawled on my hands and knees to the other end of the attic, and found a few more cartons and... Umm, what is this? A chest? Wow! Didn't know we had this chest right here?
Should I open it?
I'm skeptical about what it has but whatever it is, I guess my coming all the way up here should be worth it.
I found the key to the chest on the floor near one carton and carefully unlocked it. The lock clanked and opened. Keeping the lock to the side, I pushed up the upper part and was astounded when I saw the chest was full of my and Jean's childhood favorite toys and other things. I remembered each of them as I ran my hands over them, smiling at the sudden warmth I felt.
Those were such amazing memories. I whispered to no one and smiled wider. Moving and turning the things one by one, I found more of our cute memories flowing out of it at that moment.
"I should take some of the things downstairs and show them to Jean. I'm sure she'll be really happy seeing them again."
That's when something hard touched my fingers, already covered enough in dust from the other objects.
Is it what I'm thinking it is?
My eyes widened in expectation and I gently pulled out the thing from below and gasped instantly.
Tears threatened to come out as I felt the familiarity of the touch, and whispered "Eve & Jon", reading the title on the old cover of the book in my hand.
How had it still managed to survive all this time up here? I- I really thought I had lost it... until now...
I grinned wide, with tears lingering at the corners of my eyes. I raised it up and blew the dust over it.
Delicately I turn the cover to reveal a messed up handwritten page with the quote "Till death do us part". I ran my fingers over the quote which was dimly visible under the light of the stars in the dark attic and wondered, but aren't we already parted?
I sighed.
Shrugging it off, I turned over the page and there -- was our first entry. I smiled, remembering that day, and wished he had been with me right now, both of us laughing it all off. I had always admired his smile and when he used to laugh at things I said, I felt special. I always had.
Maybe... now he had my replacement and maybe he doesn't even remember what we used to have. Or maybe... he's even in love with someone else and I'm just a long-forgotten memory to him. Who knows!
My heart ached at the thought but I shook my head and looked down at the first entry. But it was too dark to decipher my own handwriting. So I slammed it close and tugged it under my arm. I bent forward and closed the chest.
As I was crawling towards the ladder leading downstairs, a small head popped up. I jumped back with a light squeak, as a cute 'boo' came along with the head. Getting herself successful in scaring me, she giggled while struggling to maintain her balance on the ladder.
I narrowed my eyes, "You seriously think that's funny?"
"Your- face...", she laughed more. She looked cute though, with the little light partially glowing her face at an angle.
"Did you come up to call me? Well, I was coming down anyway," I said, moving towards her.
"Oh yeah... Fine, come on." She nodded like an obedient sister and climbed down herself, after gesturing for me to come along.
I climbed down carefully with the diary secured under my arm.