Violet shook her head. “I can’t believe Momma gave you something like that.”
“Neither can I.” I couldn’t even imagine where she would have gotten it.
“Well, what else is in there?” Violet sounded excited, her giddiness infectious.
I pulled out the next item, what appeared to be an old savings account passbook. I opened the cover and read the inside page. “Dora Middleton.” I turned to Violet. “I guess we found out who Dora is.”
“Well, not really. We found her saving account book, but I don't remember any Middletons in our family, and look,” she pointed to the address below her name. “She lived in Shreveport. I don’t recall any family living in Shreveport.”
“Shreveport’s not very far, Violet. That doesn’t mean anything.” But she was right. I didn’t remember any of our family living in Louisiana, either. I opened the book and checked the balance. I felt like I was snooping in someone else’s business, but reminded myself it belonged to me now. “Violet, there’s twenty thousand dollars in there.”
She took the book out of my hand. “Why on earth did Momma give this to you?” she asked in amazement, then raised her face, wide-eyed. “It has Dora Middleton’s name on it. How could it be yours?”
I shrugged and looked inside the book. “The last entry was in 1986.”
“The year you were born.”
We were silent for a moment, staring at the book. My right hand felt heavy from the unaccustomed weight of the ring.
“There’s more in there,” Violet said.
I pulled the papers out of the box, attempting to wrap my head around the fact I might own twenty thousand dollars. Unfolding the papers, I read the top line. “The Last Will and Testament of Dora Colleen Middleton.” I stopped to see Violet’s reaction. “Why is the will of someone neither one of us know in a box left to me?” And by Momma, no less. That part surprised me the most.
“I don’t know,” Violet said in a gasp. “Read it!”
“Blah, blah, blah…and to Rose Anne Gardner, my daughter…” My voice trailed off in shock. “My daughter?”
Violet jerked the papers out of my hand and scanned down to my name. “How can that be?”
“I dunno…”
We looked at the will, trying to make sense of it.
“Aunt Bessie said one day I would want answers and she would tell me what she knew.” I looked into Violet’s blurry eyes. “Do you think she knows about this?”
She wiped a tear trailing down her cheek. “How could she not? The big question is how did we not know? You know people in this town can’t keep a secret to save their life.”
“Is she your mother too?” I asked. Did this mean we weren’t sisters?
Violet bit her trembling lip. “No, I have pictures of Momma holding me in the hospital. I never thought of it before, but I don't recall ever seein’ any of you in the hospital when you were born.”
I slowly shook my head. “I don’t understand. This doesn't make sense. Could I be adopted? Do you remember anythin’ about when I was born?”
“I’m only two years older than you. I don’t remember anythin’ about when you were a baby. But I do remember spendin’ a long time at Aunt Bessie and Uncle Earl’s farm. I never really thought about it before. During the wintertime and spring, I think. I remember snow…” Her words sounded like they were tumbling off a ledge as she fell into her memories.
“I need to call Aunt Bessie.” I stood up to grab my cell phone out of my purse.
“Rose, wait!”
The anxiety in Violet’s voice stopped me.
“There’s a picture in here!”
I spun around to the image Violet held in her hand, an old color photo slightly discolored around the edges. A woman held a tiny baby, her face radiating so much happiness it permeated from the photo. The baby’s face was clearly visible, in spite of the blanket wrapped around its body.
“Rose, that looks like you,” Violet said in awe.
The baby’s cheeks and eyes looked a lot like the pictures of me when I was one and two. I peered closer at the woman’s face. The way she smiled, the way one of her eyes squinted a tiny bit more closed than the other, the curve of her chin. Before Violet turned the photo over and read the back and confirmed it, I knew this woman was my mother. I’d seen the same face in the mirror only a few hours earlier.