The next morning at breakfast Nicole noticed how tense her mother was, not the kind when you're scared, but the kind of tense when you're trying to hold in a laugh. As Nicole cut into her banana pancake she finally asked her mother what made her look so tense so early in the morning.
"Oh, honey I found the cutest pictures of you and Eva last night. After you brought her up I couldn't help it. And since it's a weekend we can spend the whole day looking at cute pictures of you two!" Her mother seemed genuinely excited to look through her daughter's embarrassing phases. "Doesn't that sound like fun?" Juliana could see Nicole's disappointment at such a dull activity, but Nicole wasn't about to disappoint her mother.
"Of course it does. I'm just nervous to revisit all of those awful years."
"It wasn't that bad, was it? You always came home fairly happy. Well I guess I'll get to see." Juliana left the table calling for Nicole to follow her to the attic. "Now, it's a bit dusty. But I'm sure you'll be fine."
A bit dusty was an understatement, as her mother opened the ceiling ladder a cloud of lint and cobwebs fell. She coughed as it cascaded over her, cobwebs getting caught in her hair. "I'm gonna have an allergy attack." She coughed as Juliana climbed the steps and more dust came off of it.
"Oh, you'll be fine you wuss, get up here."
"Is it too late to opt out? Or am I now required to help you get the boxes? And why do you even have physical copies, shouldn't they all be in the photo storage." As soon as she poked her head into the attic her mother flicked her forehead. "What was that for?" Nicole asked, hoisting herself the rest of the way up.
"Of course it's digitized brat, physical pictures are just so much better." She squinted at Juliana through the dust, waving it away from her in the process.
"If you say so, can I wait at the base of the ladder and take boxes. Or are we looking at these pictures in the stuffy crawl space?"
"It's not a crawl space, you can stand in it, see?" Her mother stood up, and all Nicole could focus on was the creaking under all the weight.
"Yes, now get down before the ceiling breaks." She pulled on her mom's arm, bringing her back to the floor, and the creaking stopped. "Please, can we look at the pictures on solid ground." Juliana nodded, still shocked at the creaking.
"Yeah, that would feel a lot safer. You go down there, you weigh more than me and I'd prefer you not fall from the ceiling along with me." Nicole gawked at her mom, was that a comment on her weight. "I didn't mean anything negative, you're just taller, and more muscly. Now get down before it caves in." Nicole obliged, slowly climbing down the ladder and waiting for the first box to come down. As one box after the next came down Nicole realized how lucky she was to have such a caring and invested mom. Especially knowing that she had to raise Nicole on her own the first few years. Even with two jobs she tried to be there for Nicole all the time.
When all the boxes were down Nicole dusted them off before taking them to the couch where Juliana would join her. The two sat close next to each other and began taking the photo albums, inside, out. The first one was of her kindergarten graduation here Eva and her had not yet met. In one such picture, obviously taken by a third party Juliana was in tears holding Nicole very tightly. They went through the next few years where she and Eva had not yet me, until finally they arrived upon it. Fifth grade, Eva had transferred from another classroom in the middle of the year, meaning most of the pictures didn't have her in them. But the ones that did felt somehow brighter to Nicole. Something about the carefree nature of their friendship made her happy, even if currently her and Eva were at an uncertain point in their relationship.
"Look at this one, I remember hearing about this from Christina. I can't believe you cut her food for her." Nicole looked at the picture and sure enough there she and Eva were at the lunch area. Nicole held the plastic knife and was sawing away at what looked like a chicken breast.
"Well she kept ending up with jagged pieces and complaining about it, so I got tired of it and did it for her. She brought this up the other day actually."
"Really, it seems I'm not the only mother revisiting her baby's past. Oh, and this year you'll be going off to college." Juliana teared up at this thought. "Your father would be so proud of you, Chris and I are proud of you. So take your time to enjoy this last year, alright?" Nicole nodded, placing her hand over her mothers and squeezing it. "I'm fine, just the thought of all you've done with your life, even when it was hard on you." She sniffled, pulling a tissue from the box next to her. "Anyway I'm going to go make lunch, pita bread and hummus sound good." Nicole shrugged, still looking through the old pictures. "Alright then, if you find any especially cute ones come show them to me." Nicole took her attention away from the pictures for a moment and looked at her mother.
"Thank you for being there mom." They had a lovely moment where the both of them thought of all the times they had been there for each other. "I'll continue to make you proud, I promise." Juliana nodded before heading to the kitchen, her eyes welling with more tears.
Michael, I hope you know how much your little girl has accomplished. And how much she will continue to grow, she's following you, so please guide her well. Juliana thought while pulling out the supplies for their lunch.