Behind Blue Eyes
Copyright© 2025 by DB86
Chapter 14
Robert was relieved when he entered his building apartment in New York and found his father’s things were gone.
They unpacked and did the laundry. Robert was busy making phone calls most of the day.
That evening, they had dinner in silence. Neither of them wanted to say anything. Robert was giving Benji his space to process what had happened.
Benji played with his food more than ate it. “Can I go to my room? I’m not hungry.”
Robert nodded. He wasn’t hungry either.
After he locked everything up and turned off the lights, Robert entered Benjamin’s bedroom and found him under the covers poring over the album Janice had given him.
He sat down next to his son. “Do you mind if I look at this with you?”
The boy shook his head. Robert reached for the album propped against his knees and opened the cover.
For the next minutes, he was treated to a trip down memory lane. It was all there. Janice had preserved every conceivable memory of their love story. She’d saved everything. The effort she’d put into its photographic presentation, not to mention the tiny mementos she’d placed under clear plastic, astounded him.
Robert remembered she liked to take pictures, but he’d had no idea she had this sentimental side. His incredulous gaze took in the halves of a pair of football game tickets, his old student ID picture, a postcard they’d bought during a motorbike ride, a program from a concert they’d attended, a napkin from a friend’s wedding reception, and every card or note he’d ever written her.
Each item had a history, one that worked his heart over.
There were photos of Janice posing sideways. One had a caption: “Today I’m eleven weeks along.”
Everything had been given a date and a time. The next pictures showed her at each stage of her pregnancy, with notations about what the doctor said at each medical checkup.
“Today, I’m six months along.” Her flat stomach was now a round mound. More pictures showed her at seven and eight months. She’d even managed to take a photo of herself two days before the delivery.
Stunned, he turned to the next page and saw a photograph of the private clinic where Benjamin had been born. Janice had even put in a picture of the doctor, which she must have taken at one of her office visits. She included a chart of her weight and blood pressure, the first time the doctor detected the baby’s heartbeat. Everything to do with the baby and its progress had been noted, including her feelings.
The last pages showed the pictures that his father had sent Janice every year. Below them, Janice had written short comments like “You have grown up so fast,” or “You’re such a handsome boy.”
On the inside back cover, she’d put in a one-page letter under clear plastic. It had been signed and dated one day before she’d gone into labor.
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