Thursday, June 3, 2010

Lucy

Lucy is a new Outsider Girl.  In this very short piece, she repeats the mantra, “Peace, love, respect,” but seems to be the only one who holds out hope for that.

Lucy:  “Peace, Love, Respect,” my mother says to me, well, yells down to me from upstairs, where she claims to be watching a movie and giving me and Keith some “quality alone time”, another of Mom’s catch phrases.
     But how do I live the mantra -- the peace, the love, the respect -- when Keith is using his “You don’t understand a word I’m saying because you’re so—“
     “--fucking frustrated!  Yes, I’m frustrated, Lucy!  You will not fucking listen!  And another thing—“
     I’m thinking, “Peace.  That means no fighting.  Love, that means caring for each other.  Respect, that means treating others the way you’d like to be treated.  Listen!  Lucy, you have to listen!  Give him his say, and maybe he’ll feel better.  Maybe he’ll want to kiss you.  Maybe he’ll tell you how lovely you look today, how your blue eyes sparkle and your curls are so soft they smell like lavender, and—“
     Maybe when he reaches out his hand he will stroke your cheek and tell you he loves you instead of what I know he’s—
     My head snaps back from the force of his slap, so hard, I hear my neck crack.  I don’t dare cry.  Peace, love, respect, peace, love, respect, peace, love, respect, I keep saying to myself.

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