The Photograph (Eastbrook 1)

Chapter 6

“Rachel, we are leaving for church,” Nana said from the hallway.

“What?” Rachel mumbled, turning over in bed. The clock read 9:41 a.m. She rolled back over and closed her eyes for fifteen minutes. Rachel usually went to church with her grandparents on Sunday mornings, but every once in a while, Nana let her sleep. 

Rachel’s foggy morning brain cleared as she ate her bowl of cereal; she realized she’d have a perfect opportunity to search the attic. Papa and Nana would be gone for another hour or so at church. She swallowed her remaining bites of cereal, threw on a sweatshirt, and pulled the attic ladder down. 

She poked her head in the attic; it was in the same dreary condition: dark, damp, and full of cobwebs. She paused before continuing the ascent. Searching this mess would take at least an hour. She needed to make a plan and get started.

Rachel decided to move from one side of the room to the other, opening every box along the way, hoping to find a secret tucked in one. She walked to the opposite side and started with four boxes labeled Christmas. After a quick survey of their contents, she moved them aside along with the costume box. The next row contained a few boxes labeled Robbie; Rachel was confident the secret was hiding in those. 

Her father’s dress blues and cammies rested in the first box. The second box housed more of his Marine clothing gear. Trophies, ornaments, plaques, a small globe, and a few other sentimental objects filled the third box. She pressed forward. 

An unlabeled box was the next in the stack; she opened to find it filled with baby clothes. At first, she thought the clothes were hers, but she realized her mistake when she recognized one of the little dresses was the same as one in a picture hanging in the house of little Aunt Kate. Rachel closed the box, wishing she’d brought a marker to label the boxes. 

Rachel turned right and opened two boxes of seasonal decorations for the house. Rachel was halfway through the attic, but her motivation was waning. She’d thought the Robbie boxes would have something important.  

She moved the boxes of decorations closer to the ladder and started on a new row of boxes. Books filled the next box she opened. She took the books out one by one, digging to the bottom of the box. A large blue hardcover book lay on the bottom of the box. She recognized the Badgers logo on the front. She opened to the first page and read the notes written to her father. 

Robbie, What a fun senior year, let’s live it up this summer before you go to boot camp. Brad. 

Robbie, you are such a fun, kind guy. I’m glad we are friends. Kelly.

The words hit her hard. From everything she knew about her father, he’d been a great guy—the kind of guy everybody liked and wanted as a friend. Rachel felt her eyes tearing up, so she closed them. She took a deep breath, closed the yearbook, and put it aside; she didn’t want to read all those notes. They made her too sad. But maybe the yearbook would have a clue somewhere in the notes to her mother. They could have met in high school. 

She reloaded the box with books and looked around the room. Four to go. She recognized the next box; it was the box of loose photographs and photo albums. Rachel decided to check the remaining three boxes before going through the picture box. 

The next box contained more books. Rachel looked through the titles one by one again. She found an old copy of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, but nothing related to her mother or father.  

Rachel opened another unlabeled box and saw a quilt resting inside. She took the quilt out of the box and unfolded it to reveal a beautiful pattern of red, white, and blue stars with January 29, 1991 woven into the center section of the quilt. Under the quilt, Rachel discovered four folded American flags, along with a few teddy bears. She was surprised to see Buddy, her favorite stuffed dog that she’d carried with her everywhere as a kid. She smiled and hugged Buddy until she was ready to continue digging.