After a pitcher of eggnog and about three hours of sweeping, dusting and moving items that Aunt Cora hadnt seen in years, we were finally finished. With one last look around I noticed a forgotten box in one of the far corners of the room. As I carried it to place it with the other things Aunt Cora was unsure of, I saw a picture. A picture that I didnt remember taking.

With my eyes I outlined every feature of the woman in the picture. With my hands I repeatedly wiped the dust away. Her face looked exactly like mine. Our eyes rounded and pointed in the same spots. Our noses stopped precisely at the same point. Our mouths both had full lips with slightly sagging corners. It wasnt until my eyes moved to her legs that I noticed this picture wasnt of me, because she towered over the little boy standing beside her.

She must have been about eighteen when she took that. Aunt Coras groggy voice cut the space between the picture and I.

I put my hand on my chest as if it could slow my racing heart from the scare of her voice. She, was all I could manage to say.

Thats your grandmama and thats your daddy with her, she said pointing out both characters in the old, black-and-white photograph.

The eggnog along with the rushing emotions dizzied me to the point where I felt faint. I steadied myself by sitting all the way down on the newly swept floor. Pulling the picture closer to my face, I tried to find distinguishing marks on the boy that I remembered from other pictures of my father. Now I could see the small almond shaped eyes and the nose he had inherited and passed on to me.

I remember when this was. Aint that something? I cant remember what color draws I had on yesterday, but I can remember when this picture was taken. It was right before... Her voice trailed off to that place where people go to forget in order to avoid remembrance.

And then I realized that it was time for a lifetime of questions to finally reveal their answers. It was time to learn the Harper history.