Tasting tear drops (part 1)

Tomorrow, it'd be second August again and Mary will go out to China town. She'd buy herself some beautiful Chinese lanterns and all sorts of decor she can remember. Each year, they become less because of her amnesia. Then she'd stop by her favourite Chinese restaurant and buy everyone sushi. Dad will help take out everything in the garage and she'll set up her decorations, it had become some kind of ritual, one that only both of them understood. She'd set up dinner table for two and she'd place two seats.
When the clock strikes nine in the night and the star lights are in place, for some bizarre reason, there are always star lights in the sky on the second of August. Its as if even God understands that the night lights are important to her.
She'd dress up in a beautiful dinner gown and come downstairs, and dad as always, will take her by the hand and walk her to the front door. Once she was outside, she'd hug an imaginary figure and point to the sky...
"Look, the sky is bright today."
And she'd laugh and laugh, like the imaginary friend said something funny in response to her comment, then she'd walk to the garage and sit down and admire her decorations and pour champaign for herself and imaginary friend... And she'd laugh some more and say...
  "Oh Tom, really?"
Then she'd laugh and laugh until tears begin to roll down her cheeks, first gently, then as if a river were unleashed on her face, then she'd wail really loud...and dad will go out and find her on the floor with her dress ripped and her makeup smeared...
And he'd pick her up and tell her its ok, that Tom has gone to a better place and he wanted her to be happy.

Mary had never been a normal kid. She had lot of friends when we were kids but as she added one more year to her life, she got rid of one friend until she was left with none.
On her 18th birthday, dad planned a huge birthday party for her and no one showed up. My sister is not a bad person per say. She just has this negative, strange and morbid aura around her...that scares people, even me sometimes. Like my friends would always say when they visited me, she had an evil look in her in her eyes... And she listened to only goth music and read goth stories... Sometimes, I try in vain to wrap my mind around how someone could love such depressing music and stories.
          She smiled less each passing day and dad shipped her off every month for therapy, but she came back worse and very reserved.
When we started college, it became increasingly difficult for dad to take her for therapy so he stopped, saying she would have to get better on her own, but she never did.
And college kids were mean to her...they called her names and told her she was a misfit and that she wasn't pretty and that she was just too negative to loved...she never cried or tried to stop them... She just went on living... but this time she was numb...she just had this blank stare in her eyes. Her body was always present when you needed her but her soul and mind were in a different realm... At a point, I gave up on her. I was expecting the worse...I knew what usually followed such stories... She'd commit suicide... and I couldn't stop hating myself... for not trying hard enough to help her.

To be continued.





Story by: Sophia Chukunda


Bio
Do the little things so you won't have to do the big things; is one of Miss Sophia's famous quotes. Miss Sophia is a writer, event planner and student, who translates imaginative thinking into words. She makes beautiful art with words.
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