“My father’s brother, my parents didn’t like him much, but he’s still family so he would visit us every once in a while.”
“To their disappointment, my uncle lacked any of their ambition”
“You might see me as lesser for this, Natalia, but I wasn’t born into riches. I was born in the middle of the way”
“My parents were very much set into escaping a low class life. They reached incredible heights for how little they had at the start”
“And of course, I was part of that plan as well”
“The best education they could afford. The best manners they could teach. The fanciest of talents they could think of. I was brought up a perfect little lady”
“We were going to live a good life, so we worked hard”
“My uncle did not follow that logic”
.
.
.
.
“Shouldn’t you be at home by now, little flower? Or were you out playing?”
“I was at Violin practice.
Are you drinking again, Uncle Jacinto”
“What? Of course not! Is your dad saying I’m some sort of alcoholic?”
“No…”
“So he is.”
“Mari, you shouldn’t get between mindless adult bickering, this is between your dad and me, okay?”
“He loves me at the end of the day”
“Are you sure?”
“Haha, you’re so mean!”
“My god, does your mother love tightening that hair. Doesn’t it hurt?”
“…It’s fine. It doesn’t get tangled that way.”
“So it hurts?”
“…I don’t want to wear braids instead…”
“Well, what if you could brush your own hair? And do your hair in the way you wanted?”
“You could dye it even!”
“The only people who paint their hair are unruly women and parasitic unemployed people”
“Oh wow”
“It’s alright baby, I know you have a heart in there somewhere”
“I’m polite!”
“You probably are! That’s good!”
“But I want you to know, if you ever feel like living a little, you will always have me a call away, okay?”
“You’ll introduce me to drugs?”
“I don’t do drugs!”
“At that point I merely brushed him off, my uncle is a low life who will never achieve anything and its not worth it, or so dad said.”
“Uncle Jacinto is nothing but a bad influence. He will never be anyone in life. He will never be happy”
(“But then, why was his smile so bright?”)
“Before entering university, he died. A car ran him over when he was biking.”
“I dyed my hair.”
“Partly out of curiosity, a small desire I’ve been having. The need to experiment.”
“Of course, I had to do a million excuses to my mom for it, it would make me stand out to my professors, it would make my intelligence contrast harder, it was only temporary so it’s really no big deal-”
“It was glorious.”
“I looked at the mirror and couldn’t stop starring.”
A mere impulse became a euphoria that she had never felt before
Unbeknownst to her, a feeling inside her had been growing. Festering wildly through the years.
A hunger.
She sees something in the mirror.
“Took you a while”
“Blue suits you, Little flower”
She likes blue.
She was never that close to her uncle, but at that moment, she felt a need for him.
A need for guidance, free of any hidden plans.
A need for warm words and a bright smile.
Someone to tell her she’s doing the right thing.