I
Life can be disappointing sometimes like when you twist the cap off a bottle of soda, and it says, “Sorry, you didn’t win.”
“What?” I then look on the outside of the bottle and see there is a contest where you can win a thousand dollars instantly by selecting the right bottle.
Now I am sad. I was happy a few seconds ago to have a drink of my favorite soda, which, would have been reward enough for me to take a sip of the cool refreshing sweet liquid. Now I was standing there with a cap in my hand saying, ‘I wasn’t a winner,’ or in essence, ‘I was a loser.’ I wonder why I bought this soda on the first place. Thank you, marketing!
It seems all my life I have seen the disappointing side of things. When someone says to me, “Look what I painted.” I see the crooked nose or the uneven eyes. The dropped stitch in the sweater, the wrinkle in the missed spot of the ironed shirt. I remember my cousin taking me to a beautiful lighthouse in Maine, telling me that it was her most favorite spot in the world. A beautiful white building with a red roof. The lighthouse was on a rocky cliff in the ocean, water splashing up around the rocks. A breathtaking view and all I could see was the broken window in the attic. I said to her.
“The window is broken,” she couldn’t believe I would even bring that up. I recognized my grandmother in me. Growing up, she said nice things, there was always a “but”. I realized it wasn’t me. It was what I inherited from her. Grandma saw the same things that I see now. Instead of delighting in the whole, I find the one flaw that irks me. Suddenly I didn’t feel so harsh about her anymore. She was long gone by that time. All the things she said while I was growing up suddenly made sense in this new light.
I know that my cousin will never take me to her favorite place on Earth, again, I pretty much screwed that one up, but I have realized I need to take a kinder, gentler approach to life around me. Instead of telling someone, “You have no true talent, put that paintbrush down,” I can say. “Wow, that is so interesting!” See the difference?
Angela is my best friend or at least one of them. She is always supportive of everything I do. When I saw her the other day, she had cut her hair. I bit my tongue and did not say, “Does the right side grow faster than the left?” Instead, I said. “How unique! You thought that up on your own?”
I am not perfect, nor have I ever claimed to be. It is just that I would like to keep the friends that I have. When Betty had her baby, I took one look at the repulsive-looking child with large buggy eyes, a wobbly baby bird neck, and a sagging jowl. He looked like Alfred Hitchcock. Did I say that? No, I didn’t. I asked her if it was too late to exchange models? She left me standing on the sidewalk. My guess? I need a little more practice.
About the author
Dawn DeBraal lives in rural Wisconsin, USA. She has published over 700 stories, poems, and drabbles in online magazines and anthologies. Her first solo novel won the Global Literary Award 2024. https://www.facebook.com/All-The-Clever-Names-Were-Taken-114783950248991 https://linktr.ee/dawndebraal
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