The Eyes Have It

Chapter 8: I'll Write You Love Letters

In the first few months of being home, mum and dad argued practically every day, I spent the first days crying because I was sure that I had destroyed what I thought was a perfect marriage, but dad sat me down and told me the cold hard truth. They haven't been truly happy for a while, everything that they had kept bottled inside all of these years was now boiling to the surface, their arguments were only half about me.

The more they argued the more I knew what was coming, first they started sleeping in separate bedrooms, mum wouldn't cook dad dinner and he wouldn't drive her to work anymore, then they started to go to work on different days. I started working for their company but I went with dad on his days, until eventually he decided to move out, since he hadn't lived on his own for years I went with him, I paid for half of the rent and he paid for the other half, he even gave me the biggest room.

We moved all our stuff out of the old house and mum didn't even cry or beg us to stay. So that was that. Dad went out one day and came back with all of the photos of me and Ahkmenrah printed onto canvas and some on A5 photo paper. The small pictures went on my vanity's mirror and the canvases went up on the wall. Ahk and I started emailing each other after Larry set him up on the computer at the front desk, sometimes the others would email me too. We did that until Larry gave Ahk his sons old phone when he bought Nicky a new one, so then we started texting and FaceTiming each other, which was hard at first, seeing him but not being near him.

Once a year had gone by and dad and I were settled into the new house, and had saved up our money, we made our way out to New York for Christmas, and again a few months after for my birthday. Mum and dad still shared the company and only spoke when it was about the business itself. Alice, Rebecca and I kept in contact, better than we did two years ago, thanks to their parents really high income they even flew me out to New York a few times in the next year. As we were coming up to two years Ahk's and mines relationship only grew stronger, despite the distance between us.

I went up a position at work, that was around the same time that mum came knocking on our door one day. She broke down in tears and told us how empty her life had become without us, she cried about how sorry she was for that whole thing back in New York, and for everything she said to dad. They went on as friends for a few months before eventually starting to date again, it was like they were meeting again for the first time. Three years had soon passed by and mum finally agreed to come to New York with us, mum, dad, Ahk and I all went out for dinner and once we were back at the museum Ahk started to explain the rules of the tablet to them, I think mum was finally starting to understand.

A few nights later and it was like we were a family again, Ahk and mum were on good terms, not as good as dad and him, dad has always been a history geek and loves to ask Ahk questions and listen to his stories. When we got back home mum moved out of the little flat that she was living in and moved in with dad, and once I had a steady income I moved into my own place, it was small and a little dirty but it didn't take me long to clean up and make the place my own. I kept moving up at work until I was where I wanted to be, mum and dad renewed their wedding vows and the both of them started treating Ahkmenrah like family, I even had him and everyone else at the museum on FaceTime during their vowel renewals, which was difficult to organise thanks to the whole moonlight thing, and the time difference between America and Britain.

Four years had soon gone by and Rebecca was acting in big shows like she always wanted, Alice surprised us all and went to work for a huge cooperation, apparently her club days were over. The planetarium at the museum was almost finished and Ahk had completely gotten over his claustrophobia, which took him long enough, however he still isn't fond of the dark. Mum and dad, like Ahk and I, were stronger than ever, they even started talking about adopting a child as my mother could no longer have children, so I was excited to get a little brother or sister.

Five years later and I was talking about moving to New York, Rebecca and I have a plan to move in together and I would branch out mum and dads company, which has been growing in popularity. I now have a little brother and a little sister, ironically they're twins and their names are Joseph and Jennifer, they're always asking after Ahkmenrah and wondering why he doesn't come and see me, but they don't seem to listen when I try and explain that it isn't that easy.

Speaking of which, a few days ago Ahkmenrah's texts stopped coming, he isn't answering his phone and after five years of phone communication I know that it isn't like him. I've tried calling Larry and haven't had an answer from him either, I've had no idea what's happened to them until Rebecca sent me a YouTube link a few minutes ago. It was the opening night of the new planetarium at the museum a few days ago, and I hadn't heard anything about it until Rebecca sent the link. It showed all the exhibits going rogue and attacking the audience, Teddy was ready to shoot Larry, Attila was hacking up a dolphin ice sculpture, and Dexter was threatening a woman with a skewer.

I've just dialled the museum and am hoping that someone can tell me what's going on "hi is this Doctor McPhee of the Museum of Natural History in New York?"

A sarcastic man answers me in a tired voice "is this you again? Look, Mister Daley said that everything went smoothly, and everything is okay, so you don't need to confirm that everything arrived and..." what?

"No, sir, we haven't spoken before, my name is Celeste, Larry Daley told me to call you if there was ever an emergency, and I haven't been able to get ahold of him so I'm kinda worried" more so about my boyfriend but I can't really tell the museum manager that.

"Oh, well then he's off on museum business" he's a night guard, night guards stay in the museum while the higher ups go off on business.

I guess I should ask what he's doing, it might explain Ahkmenrah's absence "so where is he?"

"I'm sorry but that information is obviously confidential, you know? Priceless artefacts and all that, alright? Can I eat my lunch now?" I don't think I like this guy, his voice alone pisses me off.

"Well... yeah, I guess but can you j..." did he just hang up on me? Rude! Just, rude! But at least I know that Larry isn't dead in a ditch or anything, but that doesn't explain the video or my missing boyfriend.

There's not much I can do now, if Larry was just delivering artefacts to another museum, then he should be back home soon, which means I can call him and ask what's going on, but I can already tell that I won't sleep tonight with worry.

(I know this chapter is very short but I wanted the next scene to have it's own chapter, so now we've moved into after Night At the Museum 3, and I'm having trouble with deciding how to solve a little dilemma that I'm having...)