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Adoption Day : 4.12.2125

Dear Diary,

It is officially adoption day, I wonder if I’ll have better luck than I did last year. I’ve been trapped in this prison for my whole life, and I just turned twelve last month. Ten years in this place, and I want nothing more than to have my freedom away from it. I just want to get out.

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“Can you believe it’s already been four months since you became our daughter Meghan?” My parents look back at me happily.

“I know! I can’t believe it!” My mind wonders back to those ten years in the home, and I couldn’t be happier than I am right now. It was a nightmare living inside that place.

“We’ve arrived.” My dad takes me out of my thoughts as we arrive to our first destination. It was the start of our annual tag saling trip, I know what you’re thinking… boring. But actually, it’s a lot of fun and I’m constantly finding new things to add to my collection. Look at me sounding like the Little Mermaid.

“Ooo Meghan, look at this!” My mother calls me over to a box she found on the table. “I know how much you love your photography, why not add a new camera and some photos?”

I picked up the box and instantly fell in love. The box was a unique worn out brassy material, and it had a rose pattern engraved to the lid. Inside the box were a bunch of old pictures from different sceneries. But there was one picture that caught my eye. It was of a family; A mom, dad, and a little girl, maybe just a year old. There was something oddly familiar about them though.

“Mom, I love it. Can you please buy it for me?”

“Of course dear.” My mother smiled at me before giving the women money to pay for it all.

After what seemed like hours going by, we finally returned home and I couldn’t wait to try out my new camera. I looked through the box of pictures one last time and came across a photo of the beach. I picked it up and looked it over carefully once more before placing my hand over the beach….

When I open my eyes, I’m sitting before crashing waves on a sandy shore. The sun is setting at just the right angle to make this moment unforgettable. I snap a quick picture and then put my camera back down on my blanket.

“Mary, I found wood for a fire.” I turn and see a boy running towards me with a stack of wood in his hands. He was beautiful. Tall, tan skin and blue eyes that you could get lost in. I quickly snap of a picture of him without noticing. As the boy got closer, and I could see more of his face, I realized how familiar he looks. When his eyes met mine, my heart starts to race and I can feel the color coming to my cheeks.

“You’re beautiful Mary, you know that?”

Wait… has he been saying Mary the whole time? I look down at myself and realize this isn’t my body. I pick up my phone and look into my reflection…

It wasn’t me.

I look for the next picture, and sure enough, the picture of the boy is in there.

“What just happened?” I asked myself quietly. “Where was I?”

“Meghan, it’s time for dinner.” I hear my dad call from downstairs. I hurriedly put the pictures back in the box and put the box under my bed before heading downstairs. At the table, I couldn’t eat. I was still in shock from what just happened.

“Meghan? Are you okay? You haven’t said or eaten anything.” My mom looked at me with a concerned look on her face.

“I’m okay mom, I just feel a little sick. I think I’m going to go lay down.

“Okay dear, let me or your father know if you need anything.”

I excused myself from the table and went back upstairs to my bedroom and tried to think of a million ways that I’m not crazy. No matter how hard I try, I can’t convince myself.

“I’m definitely going crazy” I mutter to myself. I take the box back out from underneath my bed and look through the pictures again. I found the one of the family again. I pick it up, and once again place my hand over the picture…

“1...2...3…” *click* “Okay, your picture is done.” The photographer smiled at all of us.

I was so happy, but I couldn’t quite tell why. I went to call out for my mother but I somehow forgot how to say mommy. I quickly turned my head and knew that I was not in the arms of my mother, I was in the arms of a stranger. But she seemed familiar. When I turned to look at the man standing next to us, I knew I had seen his face before but where? I did the only thing I knew how to do… I cried.

“Awe, darling it’s okay. Mommy’s here.” The women began to rock me until I stopped crying. “It’s okay my love.” I didn’t want to stop crying, but something inside of me felt better when she started talking to me.

After a long drive, we pulled into the driveway of a house that I hadn’t seen before… but appeared to be familiar.

“We’re home Meghan.”

Home? This isn’t my home.

The women came around to my side of the vehicle and took me out of the booster seat that I was sitting in. When we got inside, the women took me into the bathroom with her and held me up to the mirror.

“Look at my beautiful girl…”

I felt a sting in my hand and next thing I knew, I was sitting back on my bed.

I place my hand over the picture again…

 “You are so beautiful.” The women caressed my cheek before kissing my small, smooth forehead. The women roamed through the house before coming into a big room with a lot of pictures on one of the walls. I put up my hand and attempted to point. “You want to see the pictures darling?”

She walked over to the wall and the pictures that hung there, I knew I’ve seen before, but why is the memory so vague? My eyes scanned the wall and I noticed a picture of the beach, and the man from another one.

“Let’s go see daddy” The women spoke before walking towards the backyard. She slid open the glass door, and I saw my reflection for a split second...

I came back to reality just as a scream erupted from the woman's mouth.

“This is getting too weird. Those two people, they were from the beach scene. The beach picture was on their wall. Who was that women because she was not my mother. And he wasn’t my father. Why did they seem so familiar...”  I put all the pictures back in the box and close the lid. I pick the box up and run downstairs.

“Where is she?”

“Who darling?” I was met with those warm brown eyes that made me feel at home.

“My mother.” I demanded

She seemed surprised by my outburst and got up to leave the room. When she came back, she had an orange envelope in her hands. I took the envelope from her and ripped it open. Another picture fell onto my lap and with the sight of blood, I felt nauseous. “Mom?”

I placed my hand over the picture, scared for the truth behind the lie…

I wasn’t in the arms of the women anymore, instead the arms of a different woman in a black uniform. I looked around trying to find the women, but instead my eyes met the red scene. It was the man… and he was dead, lying in a puddle of his own blood. I couldn’t help but to cry.  

“Meghan honey, everything will be alright.” The woman reached for me and just as her hands came to meet my sides, she was pulled away.

“Officer Brown, take the child to our house for now. Just for her safety.” A familiar man’s voice breaks the tension, he turns and looks back at the woman. “You’re under arrest mam.”

The woman then looks at me with sorrow in his eyes. My eyes immediately shifted back to the woman, she was now being held to the fence with her hands behind her back. I looked back to the ground where the man stayed, still lying limp.

The woman holding me began to walk to a car that was parked in the front of this house. I turned my head fast, searching for the women again.

“I DID THIS FOR YOU MEGHAN! I DID THIS ALL FOR...”

I turned and looked in the eyes of the woman holding me, and something about those brown eyes made me feel safe. Made me feel at home.

I turned back to the car just in time to see the door close, with the woman in handcuffs.

I was met with my reflection once more…