“Come eat your dinner, girls”, John
sighed as the girls continued to play. Camille didn’t stop bashing the two mini
cars together as she insisted that she wasn’t hungry.
“Marie, won’t you eat?” John
pleaded to his other daughter. When she turned, a long, golden lock of hair
fell from a freckled shoulder.
“You know I only like to eat Mom’s
food.” John turned to the prepared meal, rubbed his temples, and sat. He stared
blankly at the overcooked pasta for an extensive amount of time, as if his mind
had been consumed by the soggy food. To his left sat the obituary from nearly a
year ago. ‘Annette Anderson, wife and mother of two, died March 1, 2010’ was
highlighted with bright colors and infested with squiggly hearts. The purple
rings around his eyes made the girls think he was a zombie, but when he slowly
got up and dragged his feet as he walked, they knew he was one. Before he
drowsily wished the girls goodnight, he shamed them once more about not eating.
Camille and Marie carried on with their
fiddling fingers.
“How was school today Camille?”,
Marie asked with genuine curiosity. Quickly Camille looked away.
“It was okay, we learned about
division”. She took the hint when Marie’s eyebrows pulled together in a
skeptical look.
“What really happened?” Camille
looked down, dropping the HotWheels to the floor.
“Well,”, she had said, giving up trying to
find a lie,
“I got detention today from Ms.
Avery”. Marie’s eyes rolled as she accepted this, because it has become such a
regular occurrence.
“And why was that?”. Camille
pretended to be deaf and cupped her ears and squinted. After Marie threw few “hmm’s?”
and “c’mons” she finally gave in.
“Ms. Avery asked me why I have been
so angry this year and asked if it was because Mama was gone.”. “And?”, Marie
motionlessly asked.
“And. I told her to go to hell. “,
she shrugged. Marie opened her eyes wide with eyelashes scattered across her
eyes like a fan. Her very own little sister had told the H-word to her teacher.
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