Anna Taylor took the picture frame out of the box, tossing the wrapping paper on the floor.  It was her sixty fifth birthday. She held it up and looked at it. 

The realization of what it was made her gasp with surprise.  

“Where....did you get this from, son?”   

Kyle looked at his mother feeling love and admiration for the old lady. He knelt down beside the rocking chair she sat in, placing his hands on hers.    

“Well, to be honest with you I got it from an antique store. The old black lady who owns the store gave it to me at a discount price.  It wasn’t expensive.  I was drawn to it the second I saw it.  I did not add a picture, I’m sorry.  Do you like it?” 

He looked at his wife across the room.  She gave him a wink.   

“I....love it,” his mother said.    

Kyle hugged her lovingly. “Happy birthday, mother.  I am honored to call you that.  I learned so much from you over the years.  You raised me to be the man I am now.  I love you mom.  I...wish dad were here to celebrate with us.  I know you miss him dearly.”  He squeezed her hands gently.

“Yes, I do miss him Kyle.  More than you know.  He would be very proud of you.  She looked down at the frame.  “This frame brings back some memories that...I...”  Her face flushed red. 

Anna Taylor trembled. 

Kyle stood up and motioned to his wife to bring him a blanket from his mother’s bedroom.

“Mom, are you okay?  You look pale.  Are you sick....cold?  What is it?”   

His wife Stephanie came back in with the blanket.  He took it and wrapped it around his mother. 

“I think its something I ate Kyle.  I was nauseous for a second but now I feel better.  Thank you so much for the gift son. You never forget my birthday, do you?  I can always count on that.   Now if the both of you will excuse me, I am going to go lie down for a few minutes.”  

****        

Anna woke up a few hours later in a cold sweat. 

The picture frame lay beside her, its mahogany 11 x 14 beauty beckoning to her.  She picked it up, and headed to the living room.  Kyle and his wife were gone. She was glad they decided to go home instead of staying the night.  She needed to be alone with trying to figure things out.

She loved to sit in her husband Kyle’s rocking chair.  Twenty years ago he had passed away and made her a widow.  She had found him that morning, dead, sitting in the chair with this frame in his hands. The doctor told her he suffered a heart attack in the middle of the night.  The way he looked when she found him, Anna knew it was much deeper than that.  She decided to never marry again.      

The picture frame was exactly as she remembered.   How did the frame find its way back to this house? She wondered.   

Turning it over, she watched the carved initials on the bottom right hand corner materialize in front of her; 

KT, KTII....

Two generations of Taylor’s. Kyle could not have seen the initials.  It was not meant for him to see them yet. No matter how hard she tried to tell herself it was over, here it was again. Anna held it up to her face. 

She reprimanded it and tears fell from her eyes.   I thought I got rid of you.  

The frame started warming up in her hands.  A white light illuminated on her face.  She stared at the frame as it revealed to her how it all began....   

....with a slave girl.  

Anna closed her eyes and felt the restless soul as it entered her body.  She felt all the pain and suffering Harriet endured that night so long ago.

****       

"Please massa, don't, not tonight massa please...." 

The slave master slapped Harriet (Anna) across the face and she fell to the floor, dropping the picture frame.  Her father’s picture fell out.  He grabbed it and ripped it to shreds.  He had waited until all the other slaves were asleep.  Harriet was the only slave on the plantation who lived alone since her father died. 

He stood over Harriet (Anna) loosening his pants and breathing heavily.  Anna could hear Harriet screams in her head.  She could feel every ounce of the violent pain the slave girl endured. 

The frame suddenly became distorted. As Anna crawled on the floor, the events that took place filled her mind and her body.    

Harriet (Anna) grabbed the frame as he dragged her across the floor.  It held an old picture of Harriet’s father, who was killed at the hands of this man.  This was not the first time he took her.  She never told anyone.  He beat her bloody just before he started to mount her. She knew he meant to kill her. 

Harriet made the mistake of laughing at him when he fell off his horse.  The horse had become frightened because Mr. Taylor was being to rough with him. The horse had stood up on his hind legs and Mr. Taylor hit the ground, right there in front of her and the other slaves in the field.  She was the only one who had laughed.  The look he gave her was enough to make her wonder whether or not she would survive the night. 

Her father had made the same mistake of laughing at Mr. Taylor and it cost him his life.  She could not prove it, but she knew in her heart that it was Mr. Taylor who had lied and said her father tried to escape.  They found him dead hanging from a tree two days later.  

The slave master yanked her dress up from behind and entered her.  With each violent stroke he squeezed the back of her neck harder.  The tears from her eyes mingled in with the blood dripping off of her face and dropped onto the frame.  As Harriet (Anna) felt her life slipping away, she prayed for a restless soul that would find revenge before it found rest....for her and her father.  Anna passed out on the floor.        

****

She woke up a few hours later.  Her living room clock shown it was eight thirty pm.  Anna got up from the floor shaking terribly. Looking down she saw blood trickling down her thighs.  Her face was swollen.  She limped outside and took the frame and put it in the trash can.  She wanted it out of her house.  Tomorrow she would take it somewhere far away.  Maybe throw it in the river.  

****      

Kyle pulled up in his mother’s driveway around ten pm.  He turned the engine of his car off and just sat there.  He was really concerned about his mother and the way she had reacted to seeing the picture frame.  His dad had died twenty years ago when he was ten and she spent a lot of time alone.   Kyle would visit her five days a week. Other then a few friends, she allowed herself very little outside company. The lights were out so he decided not wake her. 

Pulling out of the driveway, he saw the edge of the picture frame sticking out of her trashcan.  He stopped the car.  He got out and retrieved it, looking at it with disbelief.  

Why would mother throw it away?

Kyle looked at his mother’s house again as he walked back to his car.  He would not wake her tonight, but he would make sure he got an explanation out of her tomorrow.   

He put the frame on the passenger seat and headed back home....