Kaleb Edward Hoffman

He eyed his grandmother as he changed the channel to be able to play the tapes and popped on in, making sure the sound was just low enough for grandma not to hear, but he would be able to.

The first image that popped up was of a birthday, someone turning one. At first, Kaleb thought it was of Finley’s first birthday since the room was decorated with pinks, yellows, and purples, but he frowned when his mom, who looked much younger in the video than she did now, started singing Happy Birthday, but didn’t say Finley’s name. She said, Holiday.

“Holiday?” he asked himself quietly as he frowned, staring at the baby who was sitting in the highchair. He didn’t remember having another sister and if the date was right in the upper right corner, she was older. He continued to watch the video, as the party went on and then faded to black before another scene unfolded. One where his mother was in the hospital, holding a baby.

“We’ll call him Kaleb.” His mom said as she stroked what he assumed was himself. The camera panned over to a man holding another baby, guessing that was his father, the one his mother never liked to talk about. The baby in his arms must be this Holiday that was in the other video.

“I have an older sister?” He asked himself quietly just as the front door opened and his mom walked in. He scrambled to change the channel and hide the tapes, but it was too late; his mother already saw what he had been doing.

“Kaleb, we need to talk.” Was all she said as she closed the door behind her.

Ten minutes later, after grandma had been woken up and taken home to the apartment next door, Kaleb found himself sitting at the kitchen table with the box of tapes sitting on top of it. His mother sat down with a sigh, rubbing her forehead. He lowered down in his seat, knowing she probably had a long day a work and now he had just made it worse.

“Kaleb, darling. You do have an older sister.” He sat up as she started talking about what he’d seen on the video instead of getting angry with him. “When your father and I split, we decided she should stay with him.” Her bottom lip was trembling, and a tear slid down her cheek. She turned to him and he could see the pain in her eyes.

“I want you to promise, to never speak of this again,” She gave him the look that a mother gives when she means business. “You have one sibling, and that’s Finley. Do you understand?”

Kaleb slowly nodded his head, knowing that if his mother asked him to do something, he better do it. He wanted to know why she didn’t want to talk about it, why she had kept it a secret for so long, but he assumed it was because it caused a lot of pain for her to remember.

“Now, go on to bed, and I’ll see you in the morning.” She stood and walked around to him, cupping his face and placing a kiss on his forward like the gentle loving mother she was.

Kaleb did as he was told and slipped into the bedroom he shared with his sister. He watched her breathing for a second, wishing he had stayed in bed instead of watching what was on those tapes. Now he had a secret he could never talk about, and he had a million questions he wanted answers to.