Prompt: [Confused and disappointed, you tossed aside the photo album your mom gave you for your birthday, but when voices started coming out of it, you decided to pay attention.]
~~
Boxes make for some preettty good furniture, if Kiki may say so herself. Holds up her dinner nice and steady so she doesn't have to eat on the carpet. What is she, an animal?
Her first apartment's a far cry from her childhood home, but it is something of her own! These off-white walls formed her palace, and sitting atop a cardboard throne was she queen. It's all a bit too beige for her liking, but it's fiiine; she'll get around to unpacking eventually. What's the point of doing it right-now-right-this-second when she didn't yet order furniture to store her stuff in?
You know?
After successfully persuading herself to keep relaxing, she stretches her arms out well above her head when -
Thump!
The box on the top of the stack tips over and falls to the floor. Oops. Kiki cringes as she lowers her arms to inspect the damage, but thankfully it's only books that spill out! Nothing breakable.
A gleam of gold in the paper pile attracts her attention, and her milk and jar of pickles go abandoned as she crawls over in curiosity. When did she have a golden book? And more importantly, can she sell it?Wait, no. It's just a photo album from Mom. Kiki unwrapped it a few weeks ago: part-early housewarming gift and part-birthday present. Kiki meant to look through it before, but then she received a gift card from Dad and spent the rest of the day online shopping.
Why not open it now? She's too tired to watch TV, aaand family memories are boring enough to put her to sleep.
That train of thought is stopped immediately in its tracks; the very first photo in the album issss... just an enlarged picture of her own mother, lounging in her favorite chair with her nose in a newspaper.
Kiki's eyebrows furrow, and she flips through the album faster and faster yet. She tilts it from all angles, shakes it around, then goes from the first page to the last to the first once more to double-check.
These're all just photos of Mom?!
Taken recently too, by the looks of it. Looks of her mother, that is. Weird! Maybe that psychology magazine was right - Kiki did have a narcissitic parent! Welll look at Kiki - despite these setbacks she's all grown up and striking her claim on the world. Family can't drag her down...
Releasing a bit of that nervous energy, Kiki runs her hands through her hair. "Guess I don't have to feel bad about not looking at the album after all! Ehehe..."
But just as she was about to slam the book shut, that curly-haired head of Mom's snaps upward from her newspaper. It was so sudden that Kiki can't help but feel like she was the one intruding on Mom's Sunday Paper Hour.
And Kiki could hear it?
The rustle of the newspaper...
[I knew you'd pay attention to your mother eventually. I know I'm not as interesting as your little friends online, but I remember when you used to -]
Huh?
"H-h-huh?!?" Kiki squawks. "Can photos really do this?!"
[...]
"In twenty-twenty-two? Did I miss something here?"
[...]
"Moooomm! Listen to me!!"
[...]
Mom doesn't stop talking. It's hard to tell who's interrupting who at this point, but eventually Kiki shuts up with an exhausted huff. As it turns out, she can't even outtalk a photograph of her mom. Both morbidly curious and skeeved out, she turns the page on Mom to the next one.
And now Mom dangles a full bag up to the camera for some reason. Is she still going to make Kiki take out the trash? No way. This is why Kiki moved out! Her mom smiles wide, but her lips are pressed thin and the amusement doesn't reach her eyes.
[Sweetie, you mixed up your winter clothes bag with our trash. If I hadn't checked before throwing it out, you would've lost your nice new coat...]
"Oops! Used the wrong color." Kiki loves that coat! She was just in a rush to pack before the movers came... But still, why didn't she put it in a white bag? "Thank god she noticed...!"
Kiki sighs, "You win, Mom. Guess I'll come home one of these weekends..." and then as though on cue, the portrait on the rightmost page picks up where the other picture left off.
[Even the most experienced cook can get burned -]
It's Mom by the stove, cooking up something yellow in a pan. Good old scrambled eggs: a classic. One of the six foods Kiki can make without relentlessly Googling every step of the way. Abruptly, her mom stops what she's doing and slips on an oven mitt.
[- so never, ever let the handle of the pan face outward from the stove!]
She turns said handle until it faces the side - where it can't get hypothetically bumped into, splattering oneself indiscriminately with hot oil.
Kiki looks toward the upended box of books she just knocked over with a wide eye. Welp. All she can do is nod in agreement with that.
Kiki flips through the album - much slower this time - but it's all the same. These... these aren't schmaltzy family memories Kiki thought she'd seen already.
[Dear, I know cookies and potatoes are both carbohydrates, but eating only cookies will make you crash! So -]
[Sort your laundry by the type of fabric! Mixing jeans and stockings in the wash will rip up your stockings like paper.]
[Remember that...]
[Always...]
The pages just don't seem to end. It makes Kiki's mind spin like all the other times she'd gotten all this advice from Mom! ...But this time, it's not lost to the void like their countless conversations and text messages. The photo album weighs heavy in her hands.
Kiki shuts the book and takes a deep, deep breath. Her throat burns, and she doesn't think it's from the pickle juice she drank earlier.
"Alright Mama," Kiki murmurs, "alright..."
It looks like Kiki has a long-overdue call to make.
~~
[Author's Note]: Third one down. It's alright, I think. Kind-of cheesy, but I wanted to lean in that direction since I have a bigger tendency to lean toward making prompts silly, I think. I think what I wish for most with these short prompts is a good sentence flow for easy reading.