ASSIGNMENT:
You or your character find a forgotten letter or card from someone important in your life--whether good or bad. What does it say? How does it affect you or your character? What is done with it?
RESULT:
Lauren wasn't even sure why they had a junk drawer. What was the point of having a place to hold all the crap you didn't really want and couldn't be bothered to find a proper place for? But she was determined to use this way too brief nap time to reclaim the drawer. There were important things that could be put in there, like spoonulas and slotted turners. Lauren was certain that once those items found a home she would also figure what the hell to do with them.
Loaded down with a Target bag full of who knows what, Lauren headed for the couch to sort through the contents of her wayward drawer. She decided the best way to start was with piles. A pile of batteries, another of loose change and bobby pins, and the biggest of all, a pile of paper and receipts. It's always best to get the worst over with first, and with that in mind, Lauren attacked the paper pile.
About a third of the way through Lauren found the postcard. It was tattered around the edges and the top right corner was missing completely. It looked like it had been taking refuge in the drawer against a never ending storm of life's minutiae. With the drawer stuffed to its breaking point there was no way to tell how long it had been hiding there. The blank side was facing up and it only took an instant for Lauren to register the PostSecret address scrawled across it in Randy's tight, angular writing.
She was frozen. How could she flip it over and invade his secret? Was it something she knew about, like the fact that he still slept with a piece of his childhood blanket? Or was it something else, something he had not been able to share even with her? It couldn't be. Randy told her everything. Lauren turned the card over and first saw the black and white picture of a 1950's family. A dad with his arm around a mom holding a baby, all smiling broadly in front of brick, ranch house. The dad actually looked a bit like Randy, dark hair, dark eyes, and olive skin.
She felt the catch of regret looking at the happy family, how badly she wanted that for herself. As she blinked away the tears crowding into her eyes, the words came into focus. The first word had been torn off with the missing corner, but she didn't need it to get the message. There printed on strips of paper that had been taped over the picture was a nightmare.
"...got another woman pregnant and I'm scared to tell my infertile wife. I'm afraid she'll be more upset about not getting my baby than she will be about my infidelity"
The noise that escaped her lips was completely involuntary. It was like the exhalation of breath when you've been punched in the stomach. As the postcard fluttered from her hand the monitor jumped. Aaron was waking up. A couple of days a week Lauren watched her neighbor's son. She was working two jobs just to stay in her house and give Aaron whatever she could. Poor thing's husband had left when she was about 7 months pregnant, so Lauren liked to help as much as she could.
As she pushed open the study door sweet Aaron was standing up hanging onto the edge of the pack-and-play. She paused to stare ot this gorgeous, smiling baby. The baby she had wanted so badly for so long. The baby with dark hair, dark eyes, and olive skin.
