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this time when my mom went away for a while and so we were left with my father and his cooking. He had this really… original way of separating the milk from the thick stuff in a bowl of porridge. So we'd sit for breakfast, he'd put the bowls in front of us and then we'd pray. Those were probably the sincerest prayers of my youth. They were never answered though, because each time, when we opened our eyes, the bowl of porridge was still there. Of course, we didn't dare say we didn't want any, because that would mean a long lecture on the people who didn't have any food and the effort that went into it's preparation. So very often, the case was, we'd open our eyes after praying, then realize that the porridge was still there, then my younger brother and sister would start crying, a plot my father couldn't seem to catch on to. |
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Now that I look at it, I can better understand why my mother used to talk to herself at nights. As eight o'clock neared, she began wishing, out loud, that she had a disappearing gun so that she could shoot all of us. Of course, we simply went along like nothing was said: everyone knows, that
you don't move until you see the mommy-person heading for the kitchen, then for sure you know it's bedtime… Nobody want to end up like Dominic. Dominic, my mother told us, was our eldest brother; of course we looked puzzled. Then she told us that Ricardo was our oldest living brother. Then she told us that Dominic didn't listen… After that little bedtime story, we learned to beware of our mother when she was in the kitchen, she had this way of smiling when she had a kitchen knife in her hand. My mom would seemingly retire for the night, then at around eleven or so, my brother and I could hear her mumbling stuff like "Leave it alone...put it back… move… kill it" and we could always tell when she was dreaming of the custody case against my father. Rumour has it, that it was a simple matter, with an even chance for them both. At nights, my mother would be saying " I changed my mind… tails! I choose tails!! Another chance!! Tails!!… " I always wondered how come she didn't wake herself up, the way she was screaming and crying… You'd think that she was reliving the mistake of her life or something.
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