Then, he unlocks it and looks at me.
“Did you want to open it?”
I nod, a tear sliding down my cheek as he moves to let me open it.
It opens inward, and a step inside takes me to the top of a wooden staircase, leading down into a bright yellow painted room. I can’t see much of the room near the top of the staircase, but I can still hear my mother singing.
The trouble is I don’t know if it’s real.
How can it be?
She died when I was young.
But did that really happen, or was it just what I was told?
I get further down, and I can see more of the room; a double bed, and a woman’s feet on top of the covers, with red-painted toenails.
Then, finally, I can see her.
She’s almost exactly as I remembered.
Long blonde hair, and a bright smile, wearing a floaty floral dress.
In her arms is a baby, and she’s singing to that child.
It’s like I’m having a weird fever dream about myself as a baby in my mother’s arms.
“Oh, Robin, I love you.” She hugs the baby close.
My heart starts to break.
I wish this wasn’t real.
Because if it is, then she’s been down her all this time, and I don’t want to think about what that means because it’s too awful.
I step down off the staircase and move toward the bed.
She looks up, horror in her gaze as she stares at me.
“No. It’s not time yet. She still needs me. It can’t be time to take her away. Please don’t take her away from me!”
“I’m not here to do that. I … Mom, it’s me. It’s Robin. I … You …”
She doesn’t remember me.
Whatever trauma she’s been through, it’s broken her.
She needs help. I need to get her that help.
“It’s okay. I promise,” I tell her. “I’m not here to take your baby away. I’m here to get you out of this place. It’s not safe here.”
She frowns at me as I come closer. “I don’t know you. You look like Rebecca, but you’re not her.”
I wonder if Rebecca was the older sister Barrister told me about.
The one he killed. I don't remember if he told me her name.
“I’m not Rebecca. My name is Robin Yates.”
