Andy McDermott: The Midas Legacy

‘Yeah, I remember.’ She sat on the bed, regarding the pictures spread across it. ‘Those aren’t from Morocco, though.’

‘No, I kinda got sidetracked…’ Nina giggled. ‘These are from before I was born, aren’t they?’

‘That’s right,’ said Laura. The print the teen had been examining was of herself and Henry, laughing at the camera — had Jack Philby taken it? — somewhere on the campus at Columbia. ‘We were at university in that one; I think we’d just finished our final exams. So apologies for the terrible outfits and haircuts, but it was the seventies.’

‘I think they’re cute,’ said Nina, grinning. ‘Very retro.’ She looked back at the image of her parents. ‘You look so happy.’

‘We were.’ Laura’s smile this time was at the memories flooding back. ‘You know, from the very first time I spoke to your dad, I knew he was going to be a big part of my life. I couldn’t have imagined how much, though.’

‘It’s so cool that you still love him so much. Loads of the parents of the kids in my class are divorced, or hate each other.’

‘Your dad and I’ll be together until we die,’ Laura assured her.

‘That’s so romantic. I wonder if I’ll ever meet anyone who makes me feel like that?’

‘I’m sure you will, honey.’ She leaned over to see some of the other photos. ‘What else have we got here?’

Her daughter held one up. ‘This is you and your mom, isn’t it?’

Laura felt a pang of guilt that she had over time become practised enough not to show, though it had been a while since she’d covered her feelings in such a way. ‘Yeah, it is,’ she said, taking the picture from her and gazing at the frozen moment from her past. ‘We were at the Shakespeare Garden in Central Park. That’s… the last photo I have of her.’

‘Before she and Grandad died?’

‘Mm.’ Nina took her non-committal response as an affirmative, but even so Laura was painfully aware that she had just told an untruth by omission. Her mother was still alive and, as far as she knew, well, but they hadn’t spoken to each other since just before her wedding. The anger-driven lie she told Henry early in their relationship about Olivia having died in the same car accident as her father had taken on a life of its own out of her fear of revealing the truth; of exposing her betrayal of first her husband’s, and now her daughter’s, trust…

She was so wrapped up in her own regretful thoughts that the next question caught her off guard. ‘Do you miss her?’

‘I… I do, yes,’ she admitted. ‘I wish there was some way I could see her again without… needing a time machine,’ she said, catching a questioning look starting to form on Nina’s face. ‘But I guess that’s not going to happen.’

‘If you had a time machine, archaeology wouldn’t be much fun.’

‘If we had a time machine and could go back into the past to see what it was like, we’d be sociologists, not archaeologists,’ said Henry Wilde with a chuckle as he entered. ‘And I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.’ He spotted the photo of himself and Laura. ‘Oh hey, I remember that!’

Laura got up and kissed him. ‘That was a good time, wasn’t it?’

‘Yeah. And the best thing is, it never stopped.’ He returned the kiss.

Nina tutted. ‘Get a room.’

‘This is our room! So, are we going for lunch? There’s a new deli a couple of blocks away that I had recommended to me, Aldo’s, something like that. I fancy some ridiculous combination of ingredients, give them a proper test.’

Nina slid off the bed. ‘Sounds good!’

‘Put those away first,’ her mother told her, indicating the pictures. The teenager made another impatient sound, but turned to gather them up.

The last one was still in Laura’s hand. She contemplated it again. ‘You okay?’ asked Henry. ‘You look sad.’

‘Huh? No, I was just… you know. Words left unsaid.’ Another moment of reverie, then she put the picture in the box and Nina closed the lid on it. Laura smiled at her daughter and husband. ‘But things are what they are. And I don’t regret any of the choices I’ve made, because they brought me here.’ Her face brightened. ‘Come on. Life is good; let’s go enjoy it together.’