By: Micah Morris
Age: 17

The pictures were buried deep in an old trunk in the attic, where there was no chance of an accidental discovery, or so Toni thought. She had nearly forgotten about those awful, wonderful pictures, and on this stormy, summer afternoon, with her work piling up, those pictures were the last thing on her mind. Thankful to finally have some time to herself, she wasn't about to waste any of it.

"Mom!? Mom! Where are you?" A young girl bursts into the den. "Oh, Zoe, not now, what is it?" "Look I found it." "What, found what?" Toni asked as she continued with her work. "The key, the key to that old trunk up in the attic, the one you thought was lost." "That's nice," Toni looks up at Zoe, "can we do this later? I'm really busy right now."

"Sure, Mom..." Zoey sounds hurt that her mom isn't excited about her find, but Toni doesn't even notice, she's too engulfed in her work.

"I guess I'll talk to you later Mom."

"Uh-huh, hey Zoey, try not to make too much noise, OK?"

Zoe absolutely could not wait to open that old trunk. Quietly, she went up to the attic and opened the trunk. Inside she found old family albums and scrapbooks, and other memorabilia, but clear down at the very bottom she found some newer pictures. These pictures looked more recent, like they weren't any older than 10 or 15 years old. Not at all like the other one, these were even in color.

The next morning, at breakfast, Zoe presented the pictures to her Mom. "Mom, Do you know who these people are?" she asked.

"Where did you find these pictures at?" Toni replied.

"They were in that old trunk in that attic. Remember last night I told you that I found the key?"

"Zoey, I really wanted to shield you from this for as long as possible... I guess now is as good a time as ever. Well, you remember that I told you I was married once before right?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, that man in the pictures is my ex-husband, and your biological father..." The shock of this news took Zoey's voice away. "I'm sure he would love to meet you if you wanted to. Would you like to meet him, Zoey?"

Two months later

"Hi, Zoey. How are you?" Marc asked Zoe as he walked up to her and Toni.

"I'm all right, How are you?" was Zoe's only reply.

"I haven't seen you since you were just a baby. I can't wait to get to know you."

"Yeah, me either."

While Marc was trying to make conversation with Zoey, she sure wasn't trying very hard to make him feel welcome.

"Zoe and Marc got along really well today, what a relief," Toni thought at loud. Although Zoe is only 12 she can be quite a hand full. Lately Zoey has been showing more and more of her dad's Characteristics that before.

"But Mom, don't I deserve to know why you divorced him if he's my dad?" Zoey was full of questions.

"Yes you do, but I had hoped to wait until you were older, at least old enough to understand. But I guess you're old enough..." Toni went on to tell Zoey about how her dad had treated the two of them when she was really little and how he had beat her. But Toni was sure to tell Zoe that he never, never was mean to her, or hit her.

On Zoey's first weekend that she spent with Marc, things went pretty smooth. Until Marc and Zoe didn't agree upon what was an appropriate volume for her to have her stereo set at in her room. "No, I don't want to turn it down." Zoey's shouting from inside her room at Marc just annoyed him more. "I'm not giving you a choice here, either you turn it down or I'll turn it off."

Toni can feel the tension building between the two of them with every visit. While Toni has feared, what she now knows is real, for Zoey's entire life, she just always thought (prayed) that it would never happen.

"But mom, he used to beat you... He's a jerk, I want him out of my life. He's never nice, he's always just an as..."

KSHISS... "ouch! Mom, what was that for?" Zoey cries as she asks what she did wrong.

"Don't you every let me hear you talk like that again!"

As the tension builds and Toni won't tell Marc what's wrong and no one picks up the phone to talk it out, the situation spins out of control. How did he know that he'd hit a patch of ice. Every inch of his body, and mind were screaming "No time to waste, get control of the situation!" Slow down, don't slam on the brakes! Marc, you don't need a head to head combat.

"Marc?" "Dad, wake up, please wake up." "Zoey stay here, while I go out into the hall to talk to the doctor." Toni and the Doctor walk out into the hallway. "You're very lucky that he wasn't killed in that accident, Ma'am."

As the doctor tells Toni about Marc's injuries, and that's he's going to be paralyzed from the waste down, at least temporarily, she just stares straight ahead. She doesn't even hear a word he says. She just stares ahead, not even bothering to correct the doctor.

"not husband...ex-husband." is all that Toni can manage to say. She is in shock.

"Mom will he be all right?" Zoey had come out into the hallway.

"Yes, Zoey, your daddy will be all right, he might even walk again," the doctor answered Zoey's question for Toni.

"Dad, did you hear that? The doctor said you can walk again." Shouting as if she's six instead of twelve, she runs back into Marc's room.

"Oh, good you're awake."

"Man, what a nightmare that was!"

"What honey?" mumbles Toni as she tries to make sense of what Marc is saying.

"Oh, nothing, I think I'll go check on Zoe." as Marc walks out of their bedroom, he smiles when he sees his little girl sound asleep in her crib.

"Goodnight Zoey. I love you."