•Elia
No way! It was my mom's journal
And not only that, every stack of book on this table was one of her journals. She had a lot of them. All the hurt I felt from being kept in the dark by dad turned into different emotions at once. Curiosity being the leading emotion.
Why did he hide this from me? Was there something I wasn't supposed to know? Is this what she would have wanted? Should I confront him about this? Would he tell me the truth? I don't even know whether he's ever told me anything true anymore.
But what I'm sure about now is that I wanna know my mom. Who she was, where she came from and everything she believed in. I was gonna read every single one of her journals, and her written works as well.
"The girls have not left yet ma'am" I hear someone's voice nearby
"I guess they're in the room, I'll go see them"
That's grandma's voice. Didn't she just leave?
She must be heading to my room. Lita and I glance at each other before we both begin to scramble out of the room but I make sure to grab at few of mom's journals before leaving. I notice that Lita grabbed a few as well. Guess she knows exactly how I wanna spend this night, or maybe the next few days.
We both quietly and cautiously leave the library and head in the opposite direction of my room.
"Where're we going?" Lita whispers as if grandma could hear her all the way from my room
"I wanna hide these books. There's a secret compartment in my library, let's keep it there in the meantime."
After hiding the books in my library, we were heading to go meet grandma, but we met her on our way out.
"I had a feeling you girls would be here." Grandma says, "Is she forcing you to read dear?" She turns to Lita
"No granny, I love books a lot so, I demanded she showed me her library" Lita smiles
"Don't bore yourself reading all day. Aren't you girls going out today?"
"First off, didn't you go out?" I ask her
"Ah yes, I came to tell you guys to take the chauffeur. I'm going with the butler so he'll drive me there"
"Oh, no need granny. We ain't going out anymore" Lita replies her. I love that we're both always on the same page
"Don't tell me you want to stay home and read all day" She arched her eyebrows
"No, Lia still gotta show me around. A tour of this place is gonna take all day. It's like a castle" Lita says gesturing around her with her hands
"Alright, I'm taking the chauffeur then. Have fun girls," She turns to me, "If Elia gives you trouble, just give me a call dear" Lita nods a little too fast. Grandma gives us both a look before she finally heads out. Once she's gone, we both breathe out at the same time.
"Should we go back there?" Lita asks
"Not now . I think we should be careful from now on, I don't know what they'd do if they find out I went in there. I will confront them about it, but after I read all of mom's journals." I don't know if grandma is in on this with Dad. It is most likely, and knowing that just makes it hurt the more
"Well in that case, we'd have to do that before your dad gets back" I nod slowly
"Lia, are you okay?" Lita has a look of concern on her face
"Well, I feel like I have been lied to my whole life. If I hadn't stumbled upon this , I'd still be kept in the dark. I'm beginning to think everything they told me about her was a lie"
I try to sigh away the heavy feeling in my heart but it still remains.
"I understand how you feel. I'd be bummed out if I found out there were memories of my mom being kept from me by my dad too. But maybe they had a reason. They have to" Lita places a reassuring hand on my shoulders
"They better " Lita nods in agreement
"You'd probably get some answers from there" she points in the direction of my library and I nod.
…
When we brought out the journals, I noticed it was in sequential order, all dated and numbered. We had her 1st, 3rd, 7th, 8th, 13th, and 27th journals, and two of her written works. We were in such a hurry, we didn't notice. I'm guessing mom was a really organized person.
"I'll go get the rest, you can start reading the first one" Lita makes her way to the door but I stop her.
"Wait, what if my grandma has access to the library? If she goes in there she'd notice these are missing" I hadn't thought about this before cause so many things were going through my mind.
"Didn't you say your dad is the only one who has access to it? And he keeps the keys hidden,even from granny"
"Yes. He said he had important confidential work stuff there and no one should disturb him ,but clearly he wasn't being honest about that. I don't know if he told grandma the truth or not, but I know I shouldn't do anything carelessly, else I might lose this chance to get to know the truth." I pick up some of the books and Lita follows my lead without even having to tell her. "They went to such lengths to keep this from me. Imagine what they'd do if I found out"
"They might realize it's high time you knew and open up to you" Lita says optimistically.
"Probably, probably not. Let's not take any chances"
"So, what do you wanna do?" She sighs
"How about we take the first journal-" I drop the first journal on the table- "One of her written works-" I pick up that book and drop it on the table as well- "And return the rest for now"
"And whenever we get the chance, we pick up another batch" She completes my sentence and I nod in agreement.
"She might not notice if there're only two or three books missing, hopefully"
Back in the library, we carefully return the books back in their rightful places. I give Lita a look when she picks up one of the novels.
"I'd read her novels while you read her journals, we'd get through them faster. This is the sequel to the book we left in your library. I'm a fast reader". She smiles
I'm glad she's helping me with this, cause it won't be easy when my dad gets back so we need to hurry.
I return her smile.
"Thank-"
"Girl, if you wanna thank me, I'm gonna break up with you" she cuts me off.
"What is wrong with you?" I laugh through my sentence.
"We're besties. Friends, you can thank. But thanking your bestie for doing something that's expected, that's just wrong. I might not be able to forgive you"
She folds her arms and looks away dramatically like I just broke her heart.
"I was going to say thank goodness you're a fast reader, drama queen" I roll my eyes.
Of course that's not what I was going to say. I was going to thank her for going along with this, along with me.
"Much better. Now let's get out of here before granny gets back".
After everything, we brought all the books we planned to read into my room.
Lita settled on one of my hammocks while I settled on the other. She had already started reading.
I pick up the first journal and open the first page.
15/05/1998
15th of May, if dad was telling the truth, that's mom's birthday. Judging by the entry, it's true.
Turning 15 on the 15th! I'm so exited! Not only do I love birthdays, but this one was special. Today is the day I get magic!