Finding Kylie (4 page)

Chapter 4

              Chastity finished packing her mom’s favorite pieces of jewelry and clothes, but still needed to pack an overnight bag.  She wanted to keep her mother’s perfume, night crème, and hairbrush.  All of Kylie’s personal effects were neatly folded and stacked. 

             
ZZZip
.  The last suitcase was full.

             
Just like old times mom ... packing up all of your stuff.   Except this time, you’re not coming with me.  I’m on my own. 

             
She sat down in a daze and stared into her mother’s closet. 

             
I guess what I don’t sell in the garage sale; I can give to charity ... especially your shoes.  I wouldn’t wear them even if they fit. 

             
She laughed to herself and began the task of cleaning out her mother’s shoe rack.  Kylie’s closet was full of size eight and a half shoes, in all sorts of styles and colors.  Her mother may not have spent much money on herself, but when she did ... it was on shoes.  She always said,
‘A good pair of shoes can make your day and a bad pair can break it’. 

             
Chastity smiled, and began to stack shoeboxes into a garage sale box. Her mother had at least forty pairs. 

             
She could have shown Imelda Marcos a thing or two.

             
She lifted the last three boxes, and noticed that one felt significantly lighter than the others.
 
She took the box lid off and was stunned to see it full of newspaper clippings, which were yellowing with age.

             
“Oh my gosh,” she gasped.  “She hid these!
”

             
The pages were dated in the 1980’s. 

             
“
This would have put her in high school!”

             
Dumping the box onto her mother’s bed, she frantically spread all the clippings out. 

             
“Tell me what I want to know,” she whispered, frantically rifling through. Chastity found nothing but articles highlighting her mother’s high school football team, which listed stats and player information. 

             
“Football?  Why would she hold on to these?
”
She asked herself. 

             
Determined, she looked for a common anomaly and noticed they highlighted one player in particular, John Mikale.

             
She looked to his photo with instant recognition.  His face … his smile seemed so familiar.  She was so amazed how close she imagined what he’d look like. 

             
“John Mikale ... this has to be him!  Surely there’s a reason she saved these.  He could be my father!  There has to be more. Letters, maybe?  Something!” Her eyes scanned the room.

             
She’d thoroughly gone through her mother’s room while packing.  After finding one hiding place, she was sure there could be another.
 

             
If I were my mother, where else would I hide something? 
Chastity clasped her hands and looked into her lap. 
Think, think, think.
 

             
In efforts to relax, she rolled her head back and forth and began a mental checklist.  She had already gone through her night stand and closet.  She also packed up her mother’s dresser.

             
Dresser!  That has to be it.  Mom was always picky about letting me help her pack that up. 

             
She leaped to the drawers and began pulling them out one by one.  She pulled the fourth drawer out and stacked it on the floor. 

             
Bingo!

             
Behind it lay the payoff she’d been looking for.  Slowly, she pulled out an old yearbook and three worn composition notebooks, which were bundled together. 

             
Chastity stared, with disbelief, at the things that could potentially unlock the mystery she’d been trying to solve her whole life. 

             
“Okay, I can do this.  Which one do I start with?”
 

             
She lay down on the rattan rug to begin her research, and lightly traced the edges of the cover, with her finger. 

             
“1980 - Moore Lions.  Why haven’t I ever seen this?”

             
Upon opening, the yearbook creaked as if it hadn’t been read in years.  The pages were full of notes from classmates, which she took joy in reading. 

‘
Hey Kylie, Have a great summer!  Don’t forget me when you’re off to college!  Stay sweet! Love always, Russell’

              Chastity sat there in disbelief. 
College … my mom never went to college!
 

‘Hey girl, you’ve arrived ... senior year was awesome!  Thank you for always being so sweet.  Good luck in the future.  Choir wouldn't have been the same with out you.  Love always, Alexis’ 

              Mom sang?  How come I never knew? 
Chastity turned the page to read more.

‘Well good lookin’ I am going to miss you.  Your smile always made my day.  Don’t forget about me when you go off to make it big.  You’re going to be a star!  Love always, Jamie’

              A star?  Mom, what happened?  You seemed to have it all ... talent, looks, and friends ...  Why all the secrecy?  Why would you run from this?  Who are you?

             
Chastity thumbed through the index of her mother’s yearbook, searching for the pages, which her mom could be found.  She found a total of twelve pages that ‘Kylie Wayne’ was catalogued on. 

             
First, she looked up her senior picture, and saw a beautiful girl, with a large beaming smile. 

             
I didn’t see my mother smile like that very often
, she thought. 

             
Some one had drawn hearts around her picture and written on the space above it.

             
‘Ain’t she a beaut?  Don’t break too many hearts this summer!  Love, Julie’ 

             
She could hardly believe the amount of people that seemed to have loved her mom, and couldn’t understand why she’d want to hide from her life in Oklahoma. 

             
In flipping through the yearbook, she saw that her mother was involved in a variety of activities, including honor chorus, basketball, and track. 

             
The next page she looked up was dedicated to the football section.  She smiled as she thumbed through. 

             
I bet she was a towel girl – that’s what I’d do if I had a crush on a player. 

             
True to her thoughts, there was a picture of her mom and Cheryl in the background of the football’s team photo.  They were indeed the team’s towel and water girls. 

             
Go Mom!
  She giggled.
  And what is with Cheryl’s hair?
 

             
Cheryl’s bangs were standing straight up and swept to the side. 
I wonder how much hair spray that took! 

             
Chastity couldn’t contain her laughter.  Now she knew why her mother teased Cheryl so much about her look, back in the day.

             
Overall, her mother seemed to have a typical senior year - lots of parades, floats, and civic and athletic activities.  She wasn’t the prom or homecoming queen, but she seemed to have everyone’s attention. 

             
What happened that would make her want to forget this?  Why did she never want to return home?
 

             
The answers had to be in her mother’s journals, but they would have to wait … as it was almost time for lunch and she needed to get downstairs.

             
Completely drained, Chastity tried fighting her heavy eyelids, but this week had begun to take its toll.

             
I’ll just rest for a few minutes before going downstairs. 

             
S
he laid her head in her arms, and closed her eyes for a quick nap.

Chapter 5

             
Throbbing pain was the first thing Chastity felt when she awoke.  She pressed her fingers to the back of her neck, and cursed herself for not grabbing a throw pillow while she napped.

             
She glanced to the clock on the wall, and groaned.

             
“Oh, man, it’s 4:30.  I completely missed lunch. Cheryl’s probably is wondering what happened to me.” 

             
Chastity knew she should feel guilty for leaving most of the hard work for her friend this afternoon, but didn’t.  She had discovered more about her mom and links to her own past in the last day, than she had in her whole life.  It justified having her undivided attention.

             
However, there was no putting off going down stairs, to get some food, and check in on Cheryl.  It wasn’t fair to leave the brunt of the house to her. 

             
Maybe I can find some Tylenol in the kitchen
, she thought massaging her neck.

             
Her mom usually kept a drawer, near the refrigerator, with all her medications inside.  The first thing she noticed when she rounded the corner was how bare the kitchen seemed.  She looked to the window over the sink and saw that curtains and valance were gone. 

             
Her eyes then darted to the freezer, which was usually adorned with magnets, from all the different places they’d lived, like Virginia, Texas, Arizona, and of course California.   The freezer door was completely empty and void of any of their travels.  Everything on kitchen countertops was also packed away.  It was like every trace of her mother was slowly slipping away.

             
She ran her finger along the countertop, noticing that Cheryl had scrubbed them all down.  They were spotless.

             
Everything seemed so sterile, which was nothing like the way it would be if her mother were still alive.  Chastity leaned against the counter in awe.   She knew if her mom could see this, it would make her sad.  No matter where they lived, this was her mother’s favorite spot.

             
The kitchen is the heart of the home little Chaz
, is what her mom always told her. 
It's where we come for home cooking, heart-to-heart conversation, and making sweet memories
. 
Memories for just you and me.
 

             
From all the moving they’d done, her mother never lost her southern hospitality.  Chastity sat down to let her own memories of mom in the kitchen roll over her … the times they’d cooked together … the times Chastity almost caught the kitchen on fire … and of course her mom’s famous pies and cookies. 

             
It was their bonding time and something she’d always miss.  She wasn’t sure what she was going to do now without her mom and their time in the kitchen together.  If she sat long enough, she could almost smell her mom’s home made chocolate chip cookies. 

             
Chastity opened her teary eyes, and whispered, “I miss you.”

             
She made mental note to keep all of her mom’s recipes, especially the one for her famous chocolate chip cookies.  When she turned to grab the recipe files, a note lay on top of it from Cheryl, which read: