Bearly Familiar

by Lilly Wilder

  “She asked us to take out all her old photo albums, because she wanted to look at them,” the nurse informed her.

  Rene smiled. Her mother never asked for this. She was hopeful that she remembered something or someone that she normally didn’t, so Rene quickly scribbled her name in the old, faded notebook, then rushed to her mother’s room.

  The door was closed. She knocked gently twice, knowing that her mother didn’t have a habit of replying to knocks, but Rene didn’t want to startle her by barging in through the door. She pressed on the door knob slowly pushing it downward, then sliding the door open, just a little.

  The room was quiet, as usual. The big window allowed more than enough sunlight, as it oozed through the open curtains. A big, comfy armchair was positioned right next to the window, and to its right side, a small coffee table, covered with dainty lace. The whole room seemed to belong to a different era. The furniture was old and outdated. The carpet slightly worn out. The bed, made of full wood, was immaculately made. One small embroidered pillow decorated the covered pillows.

  Her mother was seated in the armchair by the window. A light sweater was thrown over her weary back which leaned forward, as she gazed into a book that was lying in her lap. Rene figured it was either the Hemingway book or the photo album she asked for.

  “Hey, you,” Rene walked in, smiling at her mother.

  “Milena!” her mother lifted her gaze. “How nice of you to come see me!”

  Rene approached her and gave her a warm hug. Her mother didn’t smell like she remembered. She lost that fragrance ages ago, a mixture of homemade cookies and washing soap. Strange, but it always smelled so clean.

  “How is everyone?” her mother asked. “Are you taking good care of Rene?”

  Rene sighed. It was always difficult, even though it happened every single time for the last half a year. Her mother believed Rene to be her sister, Milena. In her mind, it was about 15 years earlier, and Rene was just a little girl, who was left with her auntie until her mother got better. Rene bore a striking resemblance to her mother’s sister, Milena, so it was no wonder that her mother made that mistake.

  “She is fine,” Rene assured her. “Constantly asks about you.”

  “My little darling,” her mother’s eyes teared up a little. “I hope I’ll be better soon and go home. I think I’ve had enough.”

  Rene turned around, looking for a place to sit down. She went to the corner of the room, and got the chair from there. The obvious lack of any mirrors in the room didn’t surprise her. They got them all out, ever since her mother saw her own reflection and had a panic attack, kicking and screaming at the orderlies, who were just trying to calm her down. Now, that she wasn’t able to see her own reflection anywhere, she could continue to believe safely that she was 20 years younger and so were all those around her.

  “You just focus on getting better,” Rene smiled gently.

  No matter how many times she had to do this conversation, it never got any easier. She used to hope that her mother might remember her and, a while back, that happened a few times. But, lately, she was always Milena and time seemed to stand still in her mother’s world.

  “What have you got there?” Rene eyed the photo album.

  “Oh, this?” her mother gleamed, turning to the first page, as Rene placed the chair next to her, and sat down. “It’s my old photo album.”

  “Do you want us to look at photos together?” Rene asked.

  “Of course,” her mother nodded.

  The first photo was black and white. There were two little girls, with long pigtails, holding hands. Behind them, there was a big house, and a tree to the side. Rene recognized that as the farm where her mother grew up.

  “Remember when we used to play in the barn?” her mother asked. Rene just nodded. “And that old swing? See, when this photo was taken, papa still hadn’t put it up. He had a broken leg that summer.”

  Rene remembered all of these stories, but not because she was there. She had heard them so many times before, when her mother would talk to her as if she were her sister and they were reminiscing about the good old days.

  The next page revealed a bunch of people sitting around a long table with food and drink. All those people were smiling, and one was secretly feeding the dog scraps under the table.

  “Here is your uncle feeding Snippy,” her mother pointed at the man who was feeding the dog. “He always did that. He thought we didn’t notice. We always did, but none of us would mind.”

  Her voice was kind, trailing off at times, as if she was getting lost in her own stories. Her eyes would light up for a moment, life fire from some long extinguished flame, illuminating her present with glimpses of the past. She had no future. She had no present. Only the past, which was everything to her and Rene would do her best to keep it that way.

  Her mother kept talking about the photos that opened up before them, belonging to a life once led, a life that never ceased to exist. Her mother’s finger trailed those familiar faces, following those familiar lines, those familiar smiles, remembering what caused them.

  All of a sudden, Rene saw a face she thought she recognized. She leaned in, trying to see better. The photo was black and white, and the face was a little blurry, so she wasn’t sure. But, her heart seemed to be. It was beating wildly. Her throat was parched, she couldn’t swallow properly.

  “Who is this?” Rene asked, pointing at the face.

  “That?” her mother adjusted her glasses, focusing on the photo. “I can’t tell.”

  “When was this taken?”

  “I’d say, about 30, 40 years ago.”

  Rene thought about it. If her mom said 30, 40 years, that meant 50 or 60. But, that man looked just like Hyde. Were they related?

  “Can you tell me anything about this photo?” she urged, knowing that she couldn’t rely on her mother’s memory for any current events, but her mother still remembered things from 20 years ago clear as day.

  “Let me see,” her mother adjusted her glasses once again, even though Rene knew it was just for show.

  She needed to change them, but she wouldn’t let anyone tamper with them. The frames were a gift from Rene’s father, and it was one of the few things she had to remember him by. During the night, she would put them in a special box and place them carefully on the night stand then put them on again once she was up.

  “This was my mother’s friend, right here. And the woman next to her was… I think her sister in law. She was married to the local butcher and they always had fresh meat.”

  Rene smiled. She didn’t mind sifting through her mother’s usual ramblings about the times past to hear something she wanted to know about. Even though the butcher wasn’t particularly entertaining, she knew it meant a lot to her mother to talk about those things.

  “And this man here?” Rene pointed at Hyde’s look-alike once again.

  “Very handsome, isn’t he?” her mother smiled. “He does seem familiar. Maybe a friend of your father’s?”

  “Do you remember a name or anything about him?”

  “I’m trying to remember, but no, nothing comes to mind,” her mother shook her head sadly. “Is it important?”

  “It could be,” Rene nodded. “Do you think maybe I could have that photo?”

  “Why, of course!” her mother exclaimed glad that she could help at least this way. “Here.”

  She already got the photo out of the album and offered it to Rene.

  “I’ll bring it back next time I come visit you.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” her mother assured her. “They just sit here in the album, wasting away. If you use it for anything worthwhile, then that photo has real value and it’s a shame to put it back with the others.”

  Rene’s eyes teared up. She sometimes forgot how eloquent her mother used to be, how she enjoyed it when her mother would make up bed time stories instead of relying just on the usual ones. When she was older, they�
��d invent stories together, about princesses who became knights, princesses who saved the prince instead of it being the other way around. All the strength she felt within herself, she had her mother to thank for.

  “What would you like us to do now?” Rene wondered. “Read a little or maybe take a walk outside?”

  Her mother glanced outside. There was very little sun now in the sky. Dark clouds threatened to bring rain down and ruin this pleasant afternoon.

  “Maybe we could take a little stroll?” her mother suggested.

  Rene looked out the window.

  “Are you sure? It might rain.”

  “Rain is good,” her mother smiled, getting up and putting the photo album on the coffee table. “It helps things grow. It purifies. It makes us feel brand new.”

  “I forget how positive you are,” she smiled, kissing her mother on the forehead. “Let’s go for a walk, but just in case, we can take an umbrella.”

  Chapter 12

  Rene was eager to talk to Hyde and show him the photo she had found. It was highly unlikely that he’d recognize anyone in the photo, but maybe he’d know the name of that ancestor. His father maybe? The resemblance was striking. She was sure that this man was somehow related to Hyde.

  She called him up on a day when she knew Parker was at his mother’s place, and rushed over. She wasn’t surprised to see Jesse there as well. The guys were lounging in the living room, there was a bottle of white wine already opened and their glasses were half full.

  “Hey! There she is,” Jesse shouted as she walked into the room, holding Hyde’s hand. “The most beautiful girl in the world!”

  She smiled, walked over to him and gave him a peck on the lips.

  “Did you know that we missed you?” Jesse wondered.

  “Yes, that’s true, we did,” Hyde confirmed, sitting down on the sofa and patting the place next to him.

  She didn’t want to show them how glad she was to hear that, because every day that went by without them being together, felt like a whole year.

  “Oh, before I forget,” she remembered the photo she got from her mother and got it out of her purse. “Here.”

  Hyde took it and glanced at it.

  “What’s this?” he wondered.

  “I got this photo from my mom’s album.”

  At first, Hyde didn’t quite see what he was supposed to be looking at. Slowly, the look on his face started changing. He peered into the photo, and Rene could see that he was finally looking exactly where she wanted him to.

  “Can you see it?” she asked him.

  “You say your mom had this?” he looked up, then at Jesse.

  “What’s wrong?” Jesse asked.

  “Her mom has a photo of me,” Hyde explained.

  “What do you mean, of you?” Rene didn’t understand. “Isn’t that your father? Or some relative?”

  “No,” Hyde shook his head.

  Jesse took the photo and inspected it closely. He looked at Hyde, then back at the photo.

  “Shit, this really is you,” he said.

  “How can that be you?” Rene asked, shocked. “That photo is 50 years old, at least.”

  “I might be a little older than I seem,” Hyde revealed. “Jesse, too. You see, we age slower than normal humans. We’re not immortal, but we do live longer.”

  “But, how do you know my family?”

  “Who is your mother?” he asked.

  “Magdalena Olsen. Her maiden name was Marcovici.”

  “Wait, was she Timotei’s daughter? And her mother’s name, Gheorghita?”

  Rene tried to remember the names of her ancestors, and was grateful to her own memory that she actually listened when her mother was talking about her family in the old country. But, those names sounded so strange, so foreign that she was barely able to remember any.

  “Yes, I think so,” Rene nodded, those names sounding somewhat familiar.

  Jesse turned pale as a sheet. Hyde pressed his palm against his lips, as if trying to prevent himself from talking. It was obvious that this new piece of information wasn’t something they expected to hear.

  “What’s going on?” Rene was growing increasingly nervous.

  “This might sound crazy and all, but your grandfather belonged to Culore’s clan, the man who is trying to kill me and my son,” Hyde started slowly.

  Silence filled every crevice of the room, threatening to tear them apart. It was too much to take in all at once. It sounded too unbelievable to be true. Was it mere coincidence? Or maybe fate playing with them, because she’d grown bored of other mortals?

  “That… can’t be true,” Rene shook her head in disbelief. “That’s ridiculous.”

  Her mind was filled with thousands of questions, none of them having a satisfactory answer.

  “Do you know what happened to your grandfather?” he suddenly asked, sounding a little calmer.

  At first, Rene didn’t know. She only remembered bits and pieces her mother told her, and that was never in a sequential order, which made it difficult for her to piece together the entire story, from beginning to end.

  “My mother said he went fishing one day, like he usually did. It was a cloudy day, with promise of rain. She told me that she urged him not to go. She said she felt a heavy pressure on her heart, like a premonition of something bad that was going to happen. He usually went for a few hours, but the whole day passed, and he still hadn’t returned home. My grandmother and she got worried, so they went out to search for him. A few others joined in, but they never found any sign of him.”

  “He just disappeared?” Hyde asked.

  “They never found his body,” Rene continued, “only his fishing rod, and a bucket with some fish. Someone suggested that he must have fallen into the river and drowned.”

  “Was he a good swimmer?”

  “He was, but the water was cold, freezing in January. So, he probably tried to swim to the shore, but the current probably dragged him further and further downstream. His body was never recovered. They simply stopped looking for him after a while, and no one questioned his accidental death.”

  Rene had never told this to anyone. She never met her grandfather, but she felt like she knew who he was and he didn’t sound like an evil man. She couldn’t imagine her mother loving him as she did if he was.

  “I remember your grandfather,” Hyde continued. “He was a good man. He didn’t belong in Culore’s evil clan.”

  “Do you think they did something to him?” Rene suddenly asked.

  “Possibly,” Hyde nodded. “Quite possibly. He’s notorious for getting rid of those who oppose him. Many of our clan members died at his hand.”

  He went silent for a moment, as if to give respect to all those he knew, all those who died as a result of Culore’s greed and thirst for power.

  “So, what does all this mean?”

  “It doesn’t change anything,” Jesse interrupted, sounding a little angry. “The past should be left in the past. Clan rules don’t apply to us any longer.”

  “I have nothing to do with the clan my grandfather may or may not have belonged to,” Rene defended herself. “I’m not one of you.”

  She was sure she wasn’t a bear shifter.

  “You’re not. Your blood is too diluted, seeing your mother married a commoner. If she had stayed in the old country and married someone your grandfather probably already had picked out, then it would be different.”

  “Can we just forget about this then?” she asked again.

  She gazed at Hyde pleadingly. Jesse was standing there, not knowing what to do.

  “I’m not your enemy…” she whispered, on the verge of tears.

  Hyde seemed lost in thought, but the moment he realized that she was about to start crying, he rushed over to her and took her in his arms.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that,” he showered her wet face with kisses, “of course it doesn’t change anything.”


  “Promise?” she whined, as Jesse stood behind her, hugging her.

  Now, they were standing together again, three bodies pressed against one another, in unity, despite all odds.

  “Does your mother know anything about him?” Hyde asked. “Maybe we could learn something about Culore, or about the coins.”