"Mom?" I ask into the darkness.

She turned over to face me and sleepily opens her eyes. "Yeah?" She whispers.

"We need to talk."

"About?" She asks confused.

"My father." I say firmly hoping she won't turn away.

She looks away for a moment, deciding something. "What do you want to know?" She asks finally looking at me.

I swallow. "Who is he?"

"His name is Maxwell Evans." She answers stiffly. I give her a look. She relents, "Max." Her gaze moves to the window over my shoulder, "He was sweet, loving, and I loved everything about him." She pauses, and I notice the tears in her eyes.

"Ok." I say softly, "That's all I wanted to know, for now."

She's still staring out the window. I wave my hand in front of her face, no response. I sigh and try to go back to sleep. Soon I hear her sigh and turn back around. I still can't sleep. I gently take the picture off her nightstand. It's one of me smiling, I smile back. I open the first drawer to see if there are any tissues and I see something silver glint in the moonlight. I reached for it slowly, wondering what it could be and discover a picture. Looking closer I see the smile of my mother. But her smile is very different, it's joyful, playful and so many other things at once. Then I notice arms around her and look to the man in the picture. My eyes widen as I realize who this man is. My Father.

I heard my mother moan in her sleep and touched her shoulder gently. She sleeps peacefully once again. I worry about her everyday, I don't know why she's in so much pain. I wish everyday that she would share her pain, but she doesn't.

I look back at the picture and stare at the man's eyes. I touch the picture. Suddenly a bright light flashes in my eyes. I want to scream but I find I can't. I see my mother laughing with the man from the picture. I look around me, a park. I frowned.

"Mom?" I called out, but she was oblivious.

"Okay, Okay!" She gasps, I notice he is tickling her. "Max!" She shrieks and laughs and he continues with a smile on his face.

"Come on, say it!" He says still tickling her. I can hear his deep laugh as he tickles her more. I feel a tear fall down my cheek as I watch my mother smile with more joy and love than I have ever seen her. Maria was right, they are in love. She smiles at me sometimes, but not like that.

"Hey guys!" A man walks up to them, with a woman on his arm.

"Maria?" I gasp. The man laughs, as if in response but really is laughing at Max who still refuses to let go of Liz.

"Okay, come on! Pictures!" Maria says laughing. Max stops for a second and holds Liz for the picture. As soon as the flash goes off he's tickling her again.

"Ah!" She shrieks and laughs trying to tickle him back.

"Ah, ah, ah!" He says wrapping her arms around her, he's trying not to laugh, "Say it." My mother laughs and opens her mouth to say something, but suddenly everything goes black.

I open my eyes with a start. "Oh my-" I start to yell but stop noticing my mother staring at me with worry.

I want to ask, "What did he want you to say?" But I don't. "Sorry, weird. dream." I say but I notice she's not looking at me anymore. I am still clutching at the picture. "Oh, I, uh, found it."

She smiles at the picture as if remembering something in the past. "That would be your father." She says slowly looking at me. I nod, "You can keep it if you want."

I shake my head and hand her the picture, "I couldn't take that away from you."

She smiles and kisses me on the forehead. "Don't worry," she says handing the picture back, "It's all up here." She says pointing to her head. I take the picture and look at it again.

Looking back at her I say, "I hope someday you can share what's up here," I tap her head gently, "with me."

She looks into my eyes, "Someday." She says, and glances at the picture.

"Well, on that day Max and I were at a park, in Seattle. It was Spring Break and we had decided to all go there as friends, a group. It was just Max, his sister Isabel, his best friend Michael, Maria, Alex, and me. The whole gang went. Isabel and Alex went as friends and as it turned out they fell in love. Michael and Maria were always in this weird state of passionate fighting, it was weird, but they grew closer that week. Max and I went as boyfriend and girlfriend, and left even closer than before. We had a love so deep. it was just amazing." She smiles that glorious smile that I hadn't seen in a long time. "I loved him so much." She chocked back a tear, "And all he could do was tickle me." She laughs at this. "You see at the hotel we were staying at he told me he loved me. I wasn't in shock, it was more like. bliss. Complete and total bliss. I couldn't get my hands off him!" She laughs again, I smile. When was the last time I heard her laugh like this? I wonder.

"Anyway," She looks embarrassed, "he started tickling me saying 'Say it,' I kissed him instead to make him laugh." She smiles, "So I said 'I love you' But obviously that wasn't what he wanted." She smiles, "He wanted me to admit I was ticklish. He's like 'Come on, you know, I know it, just admit it.' But I refused!" She said gleefully. She fell back onto the pillow still laughing. "So Michael and Maria saw us and demanded a picture." She points to the picture, "They took that very picture." She smiled remembering again.

I smile at her, "I wish you could talk to me like that more often." I say softly.

She looks at me, her smile is still on her face and I swear I see a glow of happiness to her face, "I will. I promise you." She holds my hands and kisses my forehead again. "Now go to bed."

"Did I hear laughing?" A groggy Maria asks.

"Yes, you did." My mom replies. "We were just talking about that time in Seattle that Spring Break."

Maria smiles, "Yeah, Michael poured a bucket of whip cream and Tabasco sauce over Max and your mom's heads!" She says starting to crack up.

I stare at my mother in surprise, she's laughing just as hard as Maria. "Yeah! And Max starting eating it off my face!" She's giggling now, I can't believe it.

"Ew!" I shriek as I realize what my mother and aunt are giggling over. "Whip cream and Tabasco sauce! Off your face?!"

Maria laughs harder, but my mother stops. "Maria." She calls out, she turns to me when she didn't answer, "She's in another one of her giggling fits, just let it pass." I see a small smile on her face as she shakes her head at Maria.

"Ok, ok, I'll stop. Yeah your Dad had very weird eating habits."

"Very weird." My mother agreed.

"What do you mean?" I asked wondering what could possibly so weird that my aunt would go into a giggling fit like that.

"Oh well you see Michael, you told her about Michael right?"

"My father's best friend right?" I asked. Maria nodded and continued.

"Good, well once I watched him eat apple pie with Tabasco Sauce poured over the entire thing. I swore I thought he was going to explode but he just smiled and ate it watching my face the whole time." With this, she starts to giggle again.

My mother smiles, "Yeah she was flinching and cringing at every bite." Suddenly she cracks up and falls back down to the pillow. Their laughter was interrupted by the ringing of the telephone.

"Who on earth." My mother asks and picks up the phone. "Hello?" She frowns, "It's for you." She says gesturing to Maria. Maria mouths "who?"

"May I ask who is speaking?" My mother asks politely. "Oh, well um, I hate to tell you Danny but Maria is out. As in out with a guy. Yes a guy. Yes I know what a guy is. Yes I know what that means, do you know what that means? It means you should A) get a life, and B) send her stuff over to my place. I believe your aware of the address since you already know my phone number and have taken the liberty to call me at this hour in the morning. Now I'm going to sleep and your not going to call her at such hours. Good bye Danny." And hangs up. She rolls her eyes, "Maria, where'd you pick him up? He's dumber than. well never mind. He kept asking me all these stupid questions like 'Do you know what a guy is?' like he can't believe I would even know." She rolls her eyes again.

Maria smiles, "Thanks Liz." She whispers.

"You're welcome Maria." She whispers back. I smile at my mother, I hadn't known she had it in her to do that. "Now back to bed." She says sternly. Maria laughs and says goodnight. Again my mother kisses me on the forehead and turns to go to sleep.

"Mom?" I whisper before she turns again.

"Yes?" She asks arranging herself to face me.

"I love you mom." I say and kiss her on the forehead like she's done so many times to me.

After I have turned back around and can already feel sleep coming over me, I hear her whisper, "I love you too."