Daily Flash Fiction Challenge

”Ouch!” The box had tumbled down from the top shelf in the closet and landed on my toes. Nemesis, probably, I thought to myself. Serves me right for always poking my nose into other people’s business. I just can’t help it. The secrets seem to beckon me to find them and pry them open. And when it comes to my family, I have no shame at all. Any dark deeply buried family secret? I’ll be sure to dig it out.

This time I’d been poking about in my grandmother’s closet - under the pretext of spring cleaning, naturally. I’d come across the box, an old cardboard affair taped up along the sides to keep it together, right at the back of the top shelf. I’d already extracted swathes of woolen scarves, pillows and bedlinen from the caverns of that closet before I came across the box. Nothing of much interest so far.

But with this box I was sure I’d struck gold. I sat down on the floor amidst the debris of my hitherto unsuccessful excavation for hidden secrets. Opening the box, old photos, birthday cards and letters spilled out into my lap.

A group of photos were evidently holiday snaps taken at the ocean during summer. One photo showed the whole extended family proudly showing off the latest swimwear fashion of a generation ago.

Another showed two little boys, hand in hand, smiling at the camera. The one boy looked just like my dad. But wait, so did the other boy… I quickly turned the photo over. “The twins, aged 7” the inscription on the back said. I sat back, my mind in a fog. My dad didn’t have a brother. What did this mean? Which of those boys in the photo was my dad?