Clarke Bennett ran her fingers through her hair, twirling her Shirley Temple curls around her index finger. At only seven years old she was already beautiful with long lashes, perfect blonde curls and bright blue eyes. She'd heard people tell her she was going to grow up to look like an old world movie star like Marilyn Monroe or Bette Davis. But for some reason, her mother would always get mad at that and tell people if they kept it up Clarke would get a big head.
Clarke skipped around the house while her mother unpacked. They had just moved to a new home from their dingy old apartment after her mother landed some big job. She'd been a lawyer for years, but now she got a break at a big trial firm. Clarke was already loving all the space at the new place, but her mother kept shooting her dirty looks. At any point Clarke expected her to yell and make her stop skipping around and messing with her hair. If there was anything her mother hated more than anything it was tom foolery.
Clarke skipped her way into the master bedroom where her mother's things were sitting in boxes everywhere other than the few clothes that were laid out on the bed. She smelled of the perfumes and shampoos in the box next to her mother's vanity, and then ran her fingers across the soft materials of her mother's dresses. Her mother seemed to collect expensive and beautiful things, but she was pretty much never allowed to touch them.
Clarke sat down on the floor in front of one of the boxes and began unpacking it, hoping that it might make her mother happy to see her helping out. The box was mostly jewelry and odds and ends her mother kept on her nightstand. Clarke carefully put everything away where she knew her mother had kept them at the apartment. She knew her mother was going to be so surprised and pleased when she saw Clarke had put away all her things.
Then, at the bottom of the box, Clarke found a gold picture frame with an old photo in it. She had to blow off the dust to make anything out. It was a picture of a couple standing in front of a large ferris wheel, like at a carnival. As Clarke squinted, she realized the woman in the photo was a younger version of her mother. The woman had a smile on her face like Clarke had never seen, and her hair was down to her shoulder instead of in the short boyish cut she kept it in now.