Marcus watched her for a moment, then reached out and put his hands on her arms. “But there is one place we can go.”
Thirty minutes later, Marcus rolled opened the metal door of an enormous storage unit. Unlike the long, well-lit hallway they’d just walked through, the heavy-duty steel room construction was dim and had only a single uncovered lightbulb. Boxes upon boxes of treasures were stacked up in the front, nearly covering the furniture Liz could tell was hiding in the back. The room truly had to be the biggest the facility owned.
Liz treaded carefully, glancing at Marcus behind her. She roamed through, pushing aside some boxes. Stopping beside a big, polished wooden chair, she ran her finger across the arm rest and rubbed off the fine, grainy dust with her thumb.
“Wow,” Liz whispered.
Marcus shrugged and followed behind Liz. “Yeah, we just didn’t want to let some of it go.”
Liz pulled the chair to a pile of boxes and sat down.
“Here, let me.” Keys dangled from his hand and he swiftly ran his hand across the seam of the first box.
As they went through the boxes, Liz found all sorts of treasures. A pair of white and gray bunny bookends, a dozenPrecious Momentsfigurines, and at least two small wooden boxes of silver coins and medals. It was odd that the contents didn’t seem to have any type of category. Everything seemed like it was thrown together without thought.
“What’s this?” Liz pulled out a vintage hand-held radio device or mini television. She held it up to him.
Marcus rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh wow. Ha. That’s an old mini travel television. You used to sneak into my room after everyone’s gone to sleep and we’d stay up and watch shows under the covers.” Marcus blushed and reached for his keys. Liz smiled up at him, while he distracted himself opening up another box.
“Let’s see what else we’ve got here,” he offered. “Ah, here’s something you’d find interesting.” He pulled out a red shoe box. The cover was creased and slightly crushed on top.
“What’s that?”
“It’s your sacred box,” he grinned, teasingly.
“I have a what?”
He shrugged. “It’s just stuff that’s important to you that you kept in one place.”
Liz took the box and flushed. “I’ll just look at this later.” She placed it on the floor.
They couldn’t go through all the items in one day. By the time Marcus was rolling down the gate to their unit, Liz was relieved to leave. There was only so much she could take in one visit. But she planned on coming back when she had a clear head and go through this stuff again.
“Thanks so much for bringing me here today, Marc.”
“You’ll get your memories back soon, Liz. I know you will,” he said quickly as if it was something that he felt had to be said, not as though he truly believed it. But then swore she saw something in the way he looked at her in that moment that almost made her think he was happy to have her the way she was.
She brushed it aside and placed her red box on the floor, then flung her arms over him.
After being frozen for a short second, Marcus returned her embrace and held her tightly for a long moment.
At the apartment, Liz moved aside the coffee table in the living room and carefully emptied the contents of the red box onto the rug. She made a fresh iced tea lemonade for herself and leaned back on the sofa before reaching for the first item.
But where was she to start? Nothing was in order.
After shuffling through, Liz found that she wasn’t very organized. Letters, photographs, postcards, concert tickets and similar artifacts were muddled randomly. There was one frail purple envelope that looked as though it would tear if picked up too quickly. It was thick with a stack of folded letters. Too thick for the weight it was intended for.
Deciding to start with the far back, Liz pulled out one letter. After reading the first one, she realized they were from her mother. She slowed her pace in reading them. Most of them noted small updates made to the house and random mentions of Liz’s father and brother. Then she would get to the end. Where her mother would say words of love that would make any daughter cry. She didn’t read them all. Her heart and mind couldn’t handle more than the few.
Liz then pulled together all the items that were about Matt. Her chest tightened, as if she were about to perform complex surgery. There were concert tickets, a few photographs, two postcards, destination maps, their wedding announcement, and other keepsakes that didn’t remind her of any times. Just an insight into their time together. All seemed to make sense except for the two postcards. There was nothing specific enough in the message. He looked like he was away somewhere. She looked at the post stamp. Ireland?
Nothing better than a good old-fashioned postcard to let you know I miss you. Have you gotten my texts? emails? Can we talk soon?
Then another one behind it, cryptic.
I’m sorry. I’m coming back. You’ll have to let me in.
Liz slipped those away. It was clearly before they were married. Whatever it was, she was sure it worked out.
