THE OLD CHEST WAS buried under dust and cobwebs in the attic. Gwenn coughed into her elbow, waving her free hand in front of her face when a cloud of gray puffed out. When her vision settled, she wrapped her fingers around the metal handle and pulled the heavy, dark wood out of its place. It creaked and groaned, scraping over the floors.
Gwenn knelt over it, wiping away at sticky webs and dust over the hasps. She scrunched up her face at the grime, but lifted over the top, squeaking over the unexpected movement. After she inhaled another gray cloud, a collection of old blankets and trinkets greeted her from inside.
A faded yellow rattle lied on top of a stack of white blankets. The pellets rolled over inside of it as she twisted and took it out. The blanket left behind, folded neatly into a tiny square, rose from the rattle's absence. She reached for it, tracing the scrunched mustard-colored knitted edge, and pulled it out of the chest by the closest corner.
An embroidered sunflower gleamed up at her from behind the last fold, near the end of the blanket. Gwenn studied its tight stitching, feeling the roughened yarn underneath her skin.
A baby's blanket.
"Did you find everything you needed? Your father is loading up the car." Steps followed as her mother climbed the stairs up into the attic. Gwenn turned as her mother stopped at the entrance, perched to the side as she caught her breath. An easy smile formed on her lips, brightening up her slim face. "Are you ready?"
In response, she held up the baby's blanket.
Her mother's smile transformed into a frown. "Did you open it?" Before Gwenn could open her mouth, her mother rushed over, skipping over half-opened boxes and long forgotten Christmas ornaments. She knelt beside her over the chest, eyes wide at its state.
"Was I not supposed to?" Gwenn asked, holding up the blanket between them. Her mother studied the blanket for a second too long before shaking her head.
She reached for the other end, twisting the sunflower to her view. "This was the blanket you came with," she whispered. Gwenn tightened her fingers around the edge she held. "You were so tiny, wrapped in this. And now here you are, about to move into your first apartment."
Her mother grew misty-eyed, staring between the blanket and her, as if picturing the moment she was delivered into the arms of a couple who had fought tooth and nail to become parents. Once they held her in a bundle, the rest of her background melted into nonexistence, a new history bestowed over her as a newborn.
"Was this courtesy of the adoption agency?" Gwenn asked, bundling the corner she held in between her thumb and index finger.
"No." The blanket slipped from her mother's grasp, landing over her thigh with a soft caress. "Your biological mother gifted it to you."
Gwenn picked up the entire blanket, bunching it in both of her hands. Its material, roughened over two decades, scratched at her skin. She marveled at it, trying to picture her biological mother.
She came up blank.
A familiar stir in her stomach made her shift in her position. The want transformed into a need in the span of a second, sending her into a mental frenzy. She needed information. Her eyes drilled holes into her old blanket, memorizing each stitch and fiber on it, as if it held the answers she yearned for. As her one connection to the woman who gave birth to her twenty years prior, she hoped for anything to lead her into the direction of what she needed.
"You met her, right?" Gwenn shook the blanket in her hand, capturing her mother's attention. "My biological mother. What was she like?"
Her mother's jaw clenched, a move Gwenn knew a little too well. The fire coursing through her body, asking for more information, dwindled down into the smallest spark of a flame. In its place, a cold swipe of anxiety halted any other words that wanted to stumble out of her mouth. She did everything she could to not awaken the beast beneath.
YOU ARE READING
Forever Luminescent
General Fiction"Just shine like you always do." Gwenn Davidson has always known she was adopted, but after clearing up her stuff for her first move out of her parent's house, she finds an old blanket gifted to her by her birth mother that triggers an avalanche of...
