Laura
Laura
Mathew just made a joke. He must have since everybody is laughing so hard. Laura smiled. Not because she found the joke funny. She smiled because everybody was laughing so hard and if she could not bring herself to laugh she had to at least smile. They already thought her to be weird. She did not want to add to their speculations about her. Laura is with them. Laura is far, far, far. Her mind wanders. She walks to the window. It is raining outside. Had she seen the rain she would have thought "the sky is weeping" but since she does not see it, she thinks nothing. Laura's eyes are wide shut to the world.
"Laura honey, come over give me a hand in here will you?" shouts Mummy over the ruckus made by the family in the living room.
The day is Sunday. The traditional the-whole-family-get-together-for-a-meal-day.
Laura makes her way to the kitchen.
"Am done with the soup, just take it off the cooker and wash the lettuce" instructs Mummy.
The pan's handle is broken. The kitchen gloves royally ignored, Laura grabs the pan with both hands and pours it into the big soup bowl. The gloves have little flowers with a smiley don't worry be happy embroidered on them.
Mummy sees but yet does not see Laura holding the hot pan with her bare hands. Mummy does not smell Laura's burning flesh. The burning flesh of her blood and flesh. Mummy has a lot of things on her mind. Her mind is far. Not that far considering it is in the next room. On Daddy to be more precise. Mummy's mind is not on Daddy because she loves him, no, it is on Daddy because Daddy loves another "woman".
Laura understands. She is a big girl. Daddy said so. She is mature. Daddy confides in her. He told her he still loves Mummy, she is the mother of his children. He could not help falling in love with the one he fell in love with. It is normal. It happens. Laura would experience it someday.
Laura is very confused. Mummy tells her stuff too. She does not mean to but she does anyway. When she thinks out loud. Then she realizes she has been talking aloud and smiles at Laura questioning stare and says "Don't worry Honey Everything will be allright "
Is Anything not allright? Laura does not understand. Why is Mummy so miserable? Daddy said it was NORMAL! Yet Daddy too does have not been looking happy these days. Laura is confused. She feels guilty. She feels bad. She feels miserable. She feels cut in two. She does not want to take sides. She does not want to tell her parents how the situation is tearing her apart. She does not want to be another cause of misery to them. So all she has to do is stay cool. All
Laura has to do is be the way she is right now. Laura is stoned out of her mind.
