Twisted Destiny-Chapter 249: Nameless

After the churros I helped the family with cleaning up the table and washing off some of the dishes after which we all got back together in the living room where Sam’s parents had collected a couple of binders.
“Are these all full of Sam pictures?” I asked as Sam’s dad was looking through a cabinet filled with DVD’s.
“Yes!” Her mom exclaimed. “We have a binder for every stage in her life. All documented to last forever.
“And backed up in the cloud and on physical hard drives just in case.” Carlos added.
“You two are prepared to go through the apocalypse with all these Sam mementos, wow.” I gazed upon all which was in front of me.
“We are. We don’t want a single second of our precious memories with our brightest star to be lost to time.”
“Oh my goddess… Mom… Dad…” Sam hung herself over the sofa and just planted her face in its cushions, trying to hide in vain.
“Sammy is the best thing that has ever happened to us. And you are the second best thing, Amicia.” Carlos nodded enthusiastically. “I know that’s a bold thing to say after not knowing you for that long, all things considered. But we just know this in our hearts to be true.”
“I’m going to start crying if you keep piling the love on top of me. Please don’t make me go through that.” I chuckled nervously as I already felt the tears well up in my eyes.
“Then we will quickly switch our focus to Sam’s first photo book. Her first years!” Lucy swung open the first book which was light pink and covered with fluffy white sheep, it definitely looked like a baby photo album for sure.
Carlos grabbed a bunch of DVD’s out of the cabinet and ran over to the couch to sit down next to me so I was sandwiched between him and his wife. He didn’t want to miss reminiscing over some photos either.
In the first couple of photos we mainly saw a younger Carlos standing around in the hallway of a hospital, looking incredibly nervous. “My father took these photos while I was waiting for the doctors to call me into the room to see Sam’s birth. I felt like I could jump through the roof out of nervousness.” He recounted.
“I can tell by the look on your face.” I chuckled softly.
“I was so angry at my father for taking pictures of me at that time. But in the end I’m glad that he did. It brings back good memories.” Carlos mused.
The next pictures were of both Lucy and Carlos together in the hospital room after Sam’s birth with little baby Sam in her mother’s arms and her dad looking so incredibly proud while holding onto his wife and looking at his daughter. It was a beautiful picture to behold, with good lighting and good framing to boot. “Did you ever think about having this picture be printed on canvas?” I asked. “It would look very good in that medium I think.”
“We thought about it but back when Sam was little we didn’t really have that much money to spare.” Lucy replied. “Both Carlos and I lost our jobs thanks to the economic crisis when I was about three months pregnant and Carlos had only just recently found work when Sam was born. We were being supported by our parents back then so it’s not like we were living in poverty, but we didn’t want to take advantage of our parents' generosity to buy something that wasn’t really a necessity.”
“Oh, I can definitely understand that...” I nodded slowly.
“I remember from my youth that we definitely weren’t rich…” Sam had taken up post behind me so she could look over the sofa and my shoulder at the pictures in the book. “But I have to say that I never felt like I missed anything while growing up. I just remember a lot of warmth.”
“
Oh mi dulce niña…”
Sam smiled and ruffled her dad’s hair. “Love you too, dad.”
A lot of baby Sam pictures followed which included some background images of the abode where Sam and her parents lived before they moved to this house. It definitely looked a lot more ‘basic’ but, as my girlfriend had just said, I could just feel the love and warmth radiating from the images in front of me. There were always smiles and laughs being photographed and they felt so sincere. Never a forced smile at all.
When we got to Sam’s elementary days I got to see small Sam in some dresses which was a sight to behold for sure. I then looked intently at my girlfriend over my shoulder to which she started to blush.
“What?”
“I have come to the conclusion that I have never seen you in a dress. And I kinda want to.”
Lucy chuckled. “We have given up on that a long time ago, Amicia. It might be best to come to terms with that.”
“That’s me in a dress right there though.” Sam put her finger almost on top of the picture itself. “Isn’t that plenty?”
“Na-ah.” I shook my head.
Sam rolled her eyes. “Well, it’s not happening. And I’m just going to ignore you if you keep asking.”
“She will, she didn’t speak to us for a week when she was fourteen because we bought a dress for her.” Carlos nodded. “I’m pretty sure there’s some pictures in that album.” He pointed at the blue album on the table.
“We are pretty much done with this one anyway.” Lucy smiled and softly closed the photo album we were looking at.
Carlos then took the book and laid it down in my lap. As I opened it to browse these pictures we went through Sam’s first basketball games. In this period she changed a lot, as kids generally do around this age, with the early stages of puberty and with it came Sam’s tomboyness. “Ah, this is the Sam I know.” I giggled. “She’s so cute looking angry in this one. Look at her babyface. I just want to pinch them cheeks.”
“If you aren’t careful I’ll pinch yours.” Sam put her arms over my shoulders and took hold off my cheeks, albeit very gently.
“Sham, I cawn’t spweak liwke dis.”
“Too bad.” Although she said that, she unhanded me soon afterwards to let me look through the pictures unhindered.
That’s when the mood in the pictures suddenly took a bit of a turn. While it all had been happy pictures up until now, we had just arrived at the pictures of Sam in the hospital after she had been in the accident in which she lost her leg.
“It kinda hurts looking back at some of these pictures.” Sam commentated from behind me. “I can just tell how devastated I was. I wasn’t really caring about the pain at that point at all.”
“The prospect of not being able to play basketball again… That’s like losing the ability to draw for me…” I looked at Sam’s sad eyes in the picture before me before I looked at Lucy first and swiftly after that Carlos. “Why did you keep these pictures in, if I may ask? It seems not to fit in.”
Lucy nodded with a soft smile and put her hand on the book, intending to flip the page. “Can I?”
I nodded.
Lucy turned the page and the next picture I saw was Sam smiling with a couple of her teammates at her hospital bed cheering her up. From their frozen movements I assumed they were telling some kind of joke. On the page next to that I saw Sam celebrating the moment she could walk on her prosthetic leg and the picture below was a shot of her handling a ball in an outdoor court with a nurse standing beside her and her dad practically crying tears of joy next to said nurse. “Because of this.” Lucy stated. “While Sam’s accident obviously was a big blow to our family. Seeing how she could recover so fast with the support from those around her, and her own mental strength… We just really wanted to have that in this book. To show that our darling daughter can surmount any challenge that is in front of her, if she leans on those around her and trusts in her own fortitude.”
Her mom’s words made me think back of the challenge we had both just overcome on the Diaboli infested planet. Her daughter had come to my rescue and saved me and presumably the entire world of Haurchefaud while at it at the cost of her own life… “Sam’s definitely a strong person.” I stated. “I’m very much aware of that. And I’m glad I can be on her side.”
“Forgive my biased view, but in my opinion you are both two strong girls who deserve each other.” Carlos said, again almost moved to tears.
“But at the same time they are also two strong girls who deserve to be pampered.”
“Hehe.” I giggled. “We definitely do.”