Washed at Sea

Chapter 5

"Oh! You look really pretty in this one. And young."
Kamali was looking through a stack of old photos she found while her mom was arranging the stuff in the cupboard.
"No wonder that dad came after you."

"I was not that pretty. I really don't know why your dad came after me, and why you know that single piece of information."

Kamali shrugged at that. Sure, she couldn't remember anything about herself, but she found that she remembered small snippets of past incidents. Not of hers but of others. Mostly through dreams and some of them she couldn't even remember.

She looked through more of the photos until she came across one that immediately caught her attention.

It wasn't overly special in anyway but she feel drawn to it. And it felt familiar somehow. But it was simply a family photo.

There were six people in it. There was her mother and father and herself. She looked about 15. And there were another couple. The woman held a striking resemblance to her mother. And there was a boy too. Who looked around the same age as her.

"Hey mom! Who are they?" She called her mother, who turned to her and held her hand out to take the photo from her hand.
Kamali watched as her mother looked at the photo in her hand.

"It was your aunt, uncle and cousin." She had a small smile on her face, but there was poorly disguised sorrow in her voice.

"Why did you talk about them in past tense?" Kamali asked. She found herself being a lot observant lately. It was about a week since she found out about the tsunami. And she had fussed over every small thing.

"This is another thing that Is as going to tell you later sweety... But I don't think I can keep It from you now."

Her mother answered startling her. She hadn't expected more secrets.

"They died in the tsunami. The four of you were at the beach when it happened. And only you survived. Me and your dad were at the rest house at the time. That's why nothing happened to us." Neeta rubbed her face.
"You always liked to hang out with your cousin a lot. Who is exactly the same age as you. It was a miracle that you survived."

"How- how are we related exactly?" Her voice broke because of the information she just heard.

"Your aunt was my elder sister. And of course that was her husband and son. The son's name was Kamal. We wanted to name you two similarly."

Kamali just nodded. She didn't want to go through the photos anymore. She left them where they are and went to her room. She laid on her bed and stared up at the ceiling.
She felt like her mind was racing a hundred miles per hour and yet so still at the same time. She didn't know if she was thinking or not. The information was too grave and heavy to handle. She stayed that way until her father came home that night.

-^-***

Pizza was something that could cheer anyone up at any time. She decided it the instant the aroma of I filled the house.

Her dad had stopped by this pizza place on his way home and has decided that they were gonna eat pizza for dinner.
'No regrets on that.' Kamali thought as they sat at the table together eating away.

She had to admit that the pizza momentarily made her forgot about her cousin and his family,but when she did remember it left a bitter taste in her mouth.

She knew she wasn't to blame. But still she felt guilty. It seemed that her parents knew what was going on in her head. And they assured her that it was not their fault and told her not to close herself off. She accepted it and it helped to know that her parents would always be there for her.

That night when she slept she got a sense of recognition. She felt like she knew why the photo felt familiar to her. It was not because she might've seen it a hundred times before. But because she felt that she saw it... in a dream... before she woke up at the hospital.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Word count: 719

Date published: 05/07/2019

This is a little short than my other chapters. But this was only the amount I could write. I'll try to keep the chapters roughly the same length. Hope you enjoyed the story!

Don't forgetto comment and vote!

Love yourself and everyone close to your heart!

-CPR🎶-