The Picture, The Memory By Raechel Heaton

She rifled through the pictures, box after box after box she was looking for a certain one, a special one, one that made her explode with feeling when looking at it too long, sadness like the bitter January wind and happiness as to a ray of sunshine to scare away the chill. She searched more franticly, it had been a while, a year or two, and she must look at it again. Oh, all the memories, all the memories. She must have gone through more than 5 boxes, and hundreds of picture packets. Second after second and minute after minute, the final box, she wiped the dust off and created a storm of dust, which swirled around like bees and settled back down again. She opened the lid and dug through the box, and there right at the bottom was the picture. She took it upstairs and before she let the memories rush in she wiped it off with a towel. “There” she sighed, and hung it up on the fridge. They came in a breath of wind, there was no time to pause she was swept away in a tide of memories.
The first day, the day she came home and saw her mother sitting on the floor with something in her arms, a guinea pig. It was a shock because she had always wanted a pet. Her birthday was coming up in the next few days. She was turning 9 or 10 on her birthday that year. The guinea pig was all white except for a brown spot on her left side and a black spot over her left eye. She was so cute and small she loved her at once.
Then there was the decision on the name, one suggestion was Ginny. She named her Kalicke, because her fur was in calices and she was calico colors. She used to call her Calico Colors; it was kind of like a nick name. Her fur was as soft as a cotton shirt and glistened like the moon when the sun’s light is shed upon it. A while after she had gotten Kalicke she took her for pet, show and tell in Mrs. Leary’s class at Parkside Elementary. She was so proud to have an animal to show, and to tell them about Kalicke the guinea pig and what she eats. She had gotten a Christmas stocking and put Kalicke’s name on it. The years went by and she had a great time with Kalicke, but then Kalicke got sick and died.
She looked at the picture on the fridge, it was after she had given Kalicke a bath and she was wet. She had put her on a bookcase in front of a heater vent and Kalicke looked at her and she was surprised because Kalicke was looking at her questioningly, she seemed to be asking what are you doing, why did you put me here. She took a picture. It was the last picture she had taken of Kalicke and she cherished it.