Kashi had been putting off the mystery for too long. Now that she'd made amends with Carr, and updated Sierra on everything, she could try to do some more research, starting with looking into the photos that were in the envelope.
She grunted as she shifted on her bed. Sierra and Carr both gave her looks of concern. "Guys I'm fine," she batted her hand in their general direction. "I'm just curious about these photos. I mean, I see the resemblance to dad, uncle Hudson, and now Hughes… I'm thinking these were my dad's. I mean, they were in his barn after all. Maybe I can show the photo to him and ask him about it. I won't say where I found it. Maybe he'll ask about it in the barn."
"Yeah, I mean, you hide your photos out there, right?" Sierra prodded.
Kashi nodded, leaving her bedroom to go ask her dad. She hobbled down the stairs, one step at a time, wincing every time her foot hit the stair. Her chest and stomach was covered in one massive bruise, purple and yellowing from the healing. The bruising on her face was getting better at least. But her poor truck was toast. Completely smashed in on the side. She hated that Felix had to see the crash. It would scare her too.
It had been years since the death of her stepmom but at any mention of a crash it brought the memory back. Felix had been little but it affected him a lot too. She'd been a great mother to both of them despite being related to them only by her father's marriage. Kashi had been in first grade when she first experienced bullying. Her father and stepmom had taken her shopping and bought her new clothes for her first day of school. The blue skirt had been Kashi's favorite and she couldn't wait to wear it to school. But when she'd arrived, another girl had the exact same skirt. Kashi thought it would be fun to match, but the other girl had different ideas.
"What a copycat," sh'd said to Kashi. "Nobody likes a copycat. You're not going to have any friends. They'll be afraid you'll copy them." She pushed Kashi over. Her blue skirt ripped. And on her first day of first grade, she cried in the corner of the room with a skinned knee and a ripped skirt.
The rest of the day wasn't much better. The little girl called her a crybaby right before Kashi went to see the nurse with a hall monitor. And to make matters worse, the nurse opened the box of princess bandaids and it was empty. She had to use a red one. Kashi hated red.
She was waiting inside for her stepmom to pick her up. Swinging her legs back and forth from her seat in the chair, she sighed heavily, fighting back the tears that were coming into her eyes. The mean girl was sitting with her friends in a circle. They were laughing as if they hadn't made Kashi cry today. All the other kids had friends. She started to cry again.
"Kashi, honey." her stepmom placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Where did you come from?" Kashi wiped the tears from her eyes. I didn't hear you come over." She looked up to lock eyes with her.
"What's wrong Kashi?" Her stepmom's voice was sweet and soothing. It was like the river that they went swimming in sometimes, peaceful and cool.
"It's nothing. I just… fell."
Kashi's stepmom gave her a glance, noting as Kashi looked at the other girls. "Let's go get some ice cream."
Her stepmom always got Kashi to tell her what was wrong. That time was no different. It was one of Kashi's favorite memories of her. She was such a good person.
Kashi made it down the stairs, and saw her dad in the kitchen, leaning over a newspaper, a glass of water in his hand. She coughed to make him turn to look at her. "Hey, you could've shouted if you needed something sweetheart." He said with a smile. "What's up?"
"Oh I just found this old photo," she gave it to him, "I was curious about where it came from."
He scanned it over, nodding. "Oh yeah, I've seen this photo before. Did your uncle give it to you? He always was the sentimental type. This was from the time I almost cut that deal we talked about." he chuckled, in unusually good spirits, "Man I miss those times. I still had a full head of hair."
Kashi couldn't help but laugh despite the wonder growing inside her. If the photo wasn't her dad's, was it her uncle's then? But why would he put the photo in her dad's barn when he had his own? Why would he put it in a barn at all? Kashi kept her photos in one because she'd been a kid and needing to find a cool hiding spot had been on the top of her priority list.
It took her a moment to climb the stairs to her pink bedroom, but when she made it up...
"So you think it's your uncle's then?" Carr asked, lifting Kashi up onto the bed, gently. Sierra laid beside her, flopping down with all the grace of a fish out of water.
"I mean, probably. It's just kind of bizarre, you know? I can't believe I grabbed the wrong envelope. I stopped putting mine in there because I was afraid that if the owner came back to grab them, they might get my envelope."
"What if we put them back and waited to see who would come get them. We can use a game cam or something." Carr suggested. "Your dad has a few in one of his small sheds that he's not using."
"I guess that could work," Kashi mused, tugging on her pink comforter. "It's not quite dark out, do we want to go do that now?"
"You can barely walk without grimacing," Carr laughed, "I'll go do it. I know where everything is."
Kashi heard him exchanging a few words with her dad before he said goodbye and walked out the door. She smiled. She was happy to have such good friends. Maybe they'd finally be able to figure out who exactly Jeremy Hughes was and how he connected to the envelope that was in her dad's barn. Potentially, they could save her uncle from something dangerous. If she was really lucky, maybe she could make her dad and his brother friends again.