Chapter 2

 

Sonny’s POV

 

“Abby, where are you?” I called from the front door, as I quickly untied my rain soaked shoes and threw them in the laundry room, once I had taken them off.

 

“Abby?” I called once again in frustration, knowing my younger sister had been told time and time again to come home right away from basketball practice.

 

“Sonny?” a mocking young voice called from the living room.  I rolled my eyes and walked into the room, quickly masking my worry with a look of pure irritation.  But before I could open my mouth to respond, the phone rang, and I answered after the first ring, as Abby scowled at me.

 

“Hello?”

 

“Hey Sonny!”

 

“Hey, Hallie, what’s up?”  I greeted, as I walked into the kitchen with the cordless phone and sorted through the mail.

 

“Nothing much; you would never believe what Mom told us today.”

 

 I quickly lost interest in my friend’s conversation, until she said the words your dad, and I felt the blood actually drain from my face.

 

“Sonny, are you alright?” I heard Hallie ask sympathetically, knowing that talking about my father was difficult for me, even though I truthfully didn’t know much about him.

 

“Yeah.  I need to get going now cause I think I heard Mom’s car pull into the driveway.  Talk to you later, Hallie.”  I quickly ended the call and hurried into the living room to place the phone in the right place.

 

“Sonny, where you going?” I heard Abby ask.  I didn’t answer and just started to walk up the stairs to my room.  I needed to think about how I was going to approach my mom on what I had wanted to talk about.  All I needed was some time to myself…  

 

***

 

Several hours later, after supper was finished and our whole family, minus Abby, were in the living room, I decided now would be the best time to approach Mom and Dad about what Hallie had told me.  As I looked over at my mom and the man I had called ‘Dad’ for the past fourteen years, I started to have second thoughts.  

 

My mom was lying on the couch with her head in Dad’s lap, as Dad looked on with a tired expression on his face.  I had known Mom had not been feeling too well lately and was stressed by her job at a local doctor’s office as a receptionist, and Dad was equally stressed, if not more, with Mom being sick and with his job as a lawyer.

 

“Mom, Dad?” I spoke up, hesitantly, from the chair I was sitting in to their left.  I waited until both of them had settled their attention onto me before I started speaking.  “I have something to ask you guys.  I know we have discussed this before but I want to know more about it.”  I looked at Mom and saw what looked like fear in her eyes, and it was then I knew Mom probably had figured out what I wanted to discuss with them. 

 

It was about that time that Abby decided to come down the stairs, and she sat down at Mom’s side.  I looked at my sister and realized for the first time in awhile how different we really looked.  Although we both shared a lot of mom’s facial features, Abby had light brown hair and greenish-blue eyes, much like her father, with the same build as our mom.  I, on the other hand, had dark, thick brown hair that was cut short and green eyes, with a muscular build that was a lot like Chad’s from countless hours of us both working out in the gym in the basement.

 

“Honey?” I heard my mom’s voice ask, but I didn’t reply until I received a not so gentle slap to my upper arm, compliments of Abby.  “Sorry Mom,” I apologized, and when Abby wasn’t look I gave my mom a pleading look, silently asking her to please ask Abby to leave the room.  I sighed in relief as my mom understood and asked Abby to go upstairs and finish her homework, and surprisingly, with no complaining, Abby went back to her room.  I didn’t speak until I heard her door click shut.

 

Before I started to speak, I overheard Dad asking Mom if he should leave and let Mom and I discuss this in privacy.  I shook my head ‘no’ when they both looked over at me, and then I was ready to discuss this.

 

“Hallie told me that her and Jess found some pictures of you and my real Dad in their attic this afternoon, and Julie told her a few details about what happened to Dad, and I want to know more about him and me,” I blurted out, coughing uncomfortably as I saw Mom and Dad’s expressions.  “I’m sorry,” I apologized.

 

“There is nothing to be sorry for, Sonny.  You have the right to know.  We were just waiting for the right time to tell you more about it, and I guess this is a good time as any,” Mom explained, as she scooted off the couch and sat on the floor in front of the coffee table.  I watched as Mom unlatched the doors and grabbed two thick books and several photo-albums and placed them on the couch.  After that, she climbed back on the couch and placed the items in her lap and signaled for me to come and sit beside her.  Once I was sitting comfortably by her side, she opened one of the thick books and stopped turning the pages when she came to one that was marked with a little piece of paper.

 

“This is my junior year book,” Mom explained.  “And this here is my picture.”  I smiled at Mom as she pointed out the picture and cringed. 

 

“It’s a good picture, Mom,” I reassured her. 

 

“Uh, yeah.  Whatever,” Mom said.  She turned the page, and I noticed that the look in her eyes turned to sadness, but there was a gentle smile on her lips.  “And this here is your father.”  I looked closely at the picture and realized how much I looked like my father when he was my age. 

 

“You can look at this later if you want to, but there is more I want to show you.”  I nodded in agreement and placed the book in my lap.  Mom then picked up another yearbook, and I looked on in confusion, as Chad started shaking his head ‘no’.  Mom just smiled and started looking through the book finally stopping on a page about halfway through the book.  “And this here is Chad when he was younger,” Mom stated, as she smiled at Chad, who was staring at the picture in mock anger.  Mom then closed the book and gently placed it on the coffee table and picked up an old leather photo album. 

 

For the next twenty minutes, we looked through the photo album and Mom stopped every few minutes to explain a picture. 

 

Then Mom gently took a beautiful white photo album out of a white box and sighed deeply before opening the book to the first page.  “This is mine and your father’s wedding album, but you can look at that later if you want to, also.  This album here is the one I wanted to mainly show you.”  I nodded and placed the book in my lap on top of the yearbook, which I had placed there previously.

 

“The pictures in this album were taken right before your father died.  Some of these were taken at the military base your father was stationed at, and some were taken at Brian’s house, just a few days before your father died.”

 

I looked on sympathetically as Mom’s voice trailed off, and she gently placed the book on the table and stood up, giving me a slight smile as she walked towards her and Dad’s room.  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset her,” I told Dad.

 

“I know you didn’t, Sonny.  Even after all these years, she misses him terribly.  I don’t think she will ever get over what had happened.  It is still hard for all of us who knew him to accept that he is really gone and is never coming back,” Dad quietly explained, as he moved over to where I was sitting and looked at the pictures over my shoulder. 

 

“How did you know my Dad?” I asked as I looked at a picture of my mom, my father, and Chad in front of a Red Grand AM. 

 

“Well, I met your Mom when we worked together, and then I met your Dad, and we all became best friends, and we remained friends even after they got married.  Then a little while after you were born, your mom and I started dating, and we got married when you were almost two.” I nodded, barely remembering my mom’s wedding, although I have been told plenty of times that I have an excellent memory.

 

The next picture I stopped at was a picture of Julie’s husband Josh, my dad, and a small blonde haired girl, dressed in a cat costume.  “Who’s this?” I asked my Mom, who had since then returned. 

 

“That little girl is Hope.  That was taken the night your father and Josh were stabbed, and Hope was kidnapped.”  My eyes widened when Mom said that.  Although Mom had never specifically told me how Dad had died, I had always assumed it was by a car accident or something.

 

By the time Mom had finished telling the story of the events from that horrible night, I shivered involuntarily, thinking about how horrible that must had been, for not only Mom, but everyone else involved. 

 

Mom then opened the last album she had retrieved from the pile under the coffee table and smiled slightly.  From the first page, a picture of Mom, who was obviously pregnant, and Julie, holding a young baby, smiling for the camera, caused me to smile back at Mom.  I had found out at the same time we discussed my dad the first time about the difficult time Mom had having me and Abby because of her medical condition.  The next few pages were of my grandparents, some of Mom’s friends, and Mom and Dad together. 

 

Then Mom stopped at a page a few pages into the album and I felt Dad shudder and I looked closely at the picture.  There in a hospital room, Mom lay in a hospital bed with Dad by her side and Grandma Hunter holding a baby and standing behind Mom and Dad with Julie were a couple I recognized as my father’s parents; Grandma and Grandpa Williams.

 

“What happened in this picture?” I asked, almost afraid of the answer but my curiosity was getting the best of me. 

 

“This was taken right before Abby was born.  Even after your father had died, his parents and I remained close,” Mom explained, and I nodded, but wanted to know why Dad shuddered when he had seen the picture.  Mom turned the page to another picture.  I could tell Mom was also pregnant in this picture, and Dad looked really worried.

 

“I had a difficult time carrying Abby to full term.  Before I got pregnant with Abby, doctors told us that it would be difficult for me to become pregnant because of the medication I was on, but that was the same thing doctors told me before I got pregnant with you, and I was stubborn and wanted another baby so I didn’t listen.  I finally got pregnant, and it seemed that from the beginning there were problems.  When I was at five months, I was ordered to stay in bed, and I continued to have problems so I was admitted to the hospital.  As it slowly grew closer to my due date, my doctor told me that we had to make a decision.  He said the delivery would probably be too stressful for my body to take, and I would probably die before or during delivery.  He said that I had the choice of delivering and probably dying or being slowly taken off the medications they were giving me to help keep the baby from being miscarried and delivered too early, and the baby would probably die because they predicted there would be too many problems with the baby for it to survive.  And while your father was at work, I made my decision quickly - I decided that I would go ahead and try to deliver to give the baby a chance at life.  So about a month or so later, I went into labor and died on the delivery table, but they managed to bring me back, and Abby was born a little prematurely, but other than that she was miraculously fine.  After two weeks of staying in the hospital, I was finally released and got to go home,” Mom continued to explain, as she flipped through the pages, smiling gently at some pictures of Abby and I from when we were kids.

 

“Well, son, I hope that you found out what you wanted to know,” Mom said, as she struggled to keep in a yawn, as she smiled tiredly at me and closed the last photo album. 

 

“I did, Mom, thanks.”  I drew Mom into a hug and gave her a goodnight kiss on the cheek, which she returned.  “You better get to bed and get some rest so you will get better soon.”

 

Mom nodded and slowly got up from the couch and walked to her and Dad’s room.  Dad stayed behind a couple of minutes, looking through the last photo album again before he also got up from the couch and said goodnight before going to bed. 

 

As I sat alone in the darkened living room, I started to look through the wedding album, smiling to myself, as I looked at how happy everyone looked in the pictures.  I quietly placed the books on the table and stood up and walked to the kitchen to get a bottle of water and, on my way up the stairs, I picked up the books and placed them on the bed in my room before checking on Abby, who I found fast asleep in her room with the lights and stereo still on. 

 

After turning off the lights and the stereo, I waked back to my room and settled under the covers, falling into a peaceful sleep almost immediately.  I felt like a big weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.  But little did I know another nightmare would soon begin again. 

 

***