Chapter 48: XXII. The Video-1

"You'll stay with me?' Until the very end,' said James." J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ---- Chapter XXIII – The Video Mom and I spent the day together on Sunday, without our phones. On a normal day, she had the tendency to check up on work on weekends even though she had them off. The beauty of working in a clinic meant that she had set hours, and on call doctors took care of any emergencies, but being the concerned person that she was, she couldn't help herself. I, like any other teenager, probably would have spent the day texting my friends and talking to my boyfriend, but I didn't. I sent Shea a good morning text to reassure him and then I left my phone in my room. It was important to Mom that we have time together, binge watching whatever trash she found recorded on the DVR and eating food that contained approximately forty-three different preservatives. In her mind, we were starting fresh. In mine, I was starting the long road towards forgiveness, adjusting to my new normal, and accepting that my life had taken this path without any of my knowledge. Mom didn't mention Dad, and I didn't bring him up, but I did notice an addition to our collection of family pictures on the mantle when I came downstairs this morning. My mom had about every class picture framed and displayed them proudly. Couple those with annual mall Santa pictures, vacation shots, and a picture of us at Mom's college and med school graduations. The addition, however, didn't feature me for a change. It was of my parents. It seemed weird to even think of them as a plural. But I had parents, it was a thing now, and my dad was acknowledged in this house. The picture was their wedding photo, and I just about cried when I saw it. I had waited for Mom to got to the bathroom to practically leap on it, to study it in great detail for the two minutes she would be gone. They looked so incredibly young. Mom was rocking the late 90s off the shoulder ball gown, while my dad looked incredibly handsome in what was probably his prom tux. Their smiles practically touched their ears as they looked at the camera, while holding onto each other. They looked like high school sweethearts, and nothing could ever break them apart. I had quickly retrieved my phone for a second, snapped a photo of them both and had set the picture as my wallpaper. My phone would have to be unlocked for anyone to see it, so there was no way Mom would know. I just wanted them with me, as lame as that probably sounded. Mom ordered in take out for Sunday night dinner, and we finished watching a show where the couple all got married when they first met each other. I actually got super into it, but I suppose anyone would if they'd watched seven hours of the show in a row. When it was time for bed, as we both had school and work in the morning, Mom thanked me for the day. "It felt nice to just hang out with you, Sara. We haven't done that in a while." "It was nice to hang out with you, too, Mom," I replied with a small smile. "I promise, the truth from now on, okay? I won't ever lie to you again." With that, she kissed my cheek and retreated into her bedroom. I went in the other direction and wandered into my own room. I picked up my phone and checked my messages and social media. I only had one message from Shea, responding to my text this morning. I had a feeling he was trying to restrain himself. On the other hand, I had elevenmessages from Cece. Now that I knew, it seemed she was desperate to talk to me. Something told me we wouldn't be learning much in Spanish in the morning. I replied to them both, before noticing something on my pillow that hadn't been there earlier when I'd come to grab my phone. It was a CD case. "Saraphine" was written on the front, in handwriting I didn't recognise. I put my phone down on the nightstand and picked up the CD case. Underneath my name was a yellow post-it. In my mom's handwriting was "play me x". I opened the case to see a blank DVD, so I immediately grabbed my laptop and opened the disc drive. I placed the DVD inside and waited for it to pop up on my screen. I clicked on it immediately when I saw the notification, and a video started to play. A shaky camera was directed at a bassinet. The baby was me. I recognised myself from the infant pictures my mom had of me. "Holy shit," came a male voice from behind the camera. "Oh, fuck," he cursed again. "Don't listen to me, Saraphine!" he pleaded, a hand appearing on screen as he attempted to cover one of my ears. This was my dad's voice. I was listening to my dad's voice. My jaw was wide open with shock. But in a weird way, I felt like I already knew his voice. Maybe in some way, I'd committed it to memory. The camera fumbled a little more as he appeared to be setting it up on a tripod, the lens pointing towards my bassinet. "Amanda!" he called, but in a hushed voice so as not to wake me. "Honey, how do you attach this thing? Oh, never mind, I got it!" And just like that, the camera steadied and the picture wasn't all over the place anymore. I heard Mom laugh. "Are you okay?" she asked from somewhere in the room. "Don't you dare break that thing," she warned humorously. "Why, you going to spank me?" he teased. "Jesus Christ!" Mom cried. "When Saraphine watches this she's going to think her parents are perverts." All of a sudden, my mom appeared on screen. She was standing behind my bassinet, bending over and looking up into the lens. She looked so incredibly young. She was only a couple of years older than I was now. "We aren't perverts," she assured me, and I couldn't help but laugh. "Alright, I'll leave you to it. I've got tonight's Charmed taped, so I'll go watch that and then it'll be time for her nine-thirty feed. I love you, baby." "Love you more, hon." I was going to cry. I was going to cry over hearing my parents talk to each other. Her Southern accent was much more prominent then than it was now. She sounded like a regular Southern Belle. Mom kissed me in the bassinet, then left us alone in the nursery. Then my dad appeared on screen, taking a seat behind the bassinet, one hand resting on my blankets. He looked just like he did in the photos that Shea had. Incredibly young, and cheerfully happy.