There was a time when I wasn´t like this. When I was a kid I would come back from school on the yellow school van, my grandmother at the door waiting for me to close the gate as one of the other kids would glide back the van´s side door with a clanking bang. I would wipe my feet on the bushy doormat and my grandma would lift my school bag just as I reached up to give her a kiss, and she would always say “My dear, this bag is way too heavy, you are going to ruin your back if you keep bringing so many books home!”
I would smile at her and rush to the bathroom to wash my hands. The reflection on the mirror was that of a scruffy girl with thick, dark and static-like hair. No matter how tight my mother did up my braid in the morning I would always come home all over the place. The little space between two of my teeth had started to push a bright sharp tooth that I loved liking over with my tongue when no one was looking. The expression my face made when I did that made me laugh, and my almond shaped eyes sparkled with absolute glee.
Both my dad and my mum once pointed out that I had eyebrows that were “just like Elizabeth Taylor´s”, which at that time I didn´t know if it was true for I had no idea who that lady was. Whenever I remembered that I would wiggle said eyebrows in front of the bathroom mirror, flap my eyelashes and blow fish kisses at myself.
My mum and dad would usually arrive soon after me and dinner would be served just as it started getting dark. It was always a full meal at the round kitchen table, all four mats were set with white paper servilletes, my mum being the last one to sit down as she placed a steaming dish of vegetables next to the rice and the meat of choice for the day: pork chops, curried chicken or fish. There would occasionally be a tomato and lettuce salad, but it was only my dad who would really go crazy about that.
To Be Continued ...
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