29. FAMILY RE
FAMILY REUNION
Inside of The Inflorescence, there are four figures.
They sit on an indigo mossy couch in front of a TV which is glitching, going static and then changing channels from landscapes of cloud forests to barren terracotta deserts to jagged mountain ranges topped with snow.
The TV is controlled by the figure in the middle.
His face is malachite stone, his eyes are empty, his mouth opens and closes with no sound as slimy spit oozes out.
He wears a white muscle tank top, his translucent belly peering out and shining in a sheen of blue-green.
The remote control is nothing more than a piece of wood.
He clicks on it over and over in a slow TAP, TAP, TAP.
The three figures beside him get up slow, and then down on their knees and look up at him.
Isela knows exactly who they are. She grits her teeth and lets out a huff. She holds back a scream.
She points at one of the figures. It is made entirely of chestnut brown hair braided together to form the silhouette of a woman. It smells like burning firewood and winter air. Letty, you told me that Rene worries way too much.
She points at another body. This body is made of seashells that look like jagged teeth. It sounds like wind chimes when it moves its head and smells like ocean water. Rene, you told me that Letty doesn’t know when to keep her mouth shut.
She points at the third figure. It is made of colorful intertwined electrical wiring and the wings of dead luna moths. It smells like sun-drenched clothes and sweat. When it moves, the wires spark and crackle.
Hector, you told me that Letty never believed you when you told her what dad did to me. You told me that she ignored what you said. She sat in silence. She ignored the pain, per usual.
Dad is still in control of the TV. Look! He had too much control. Can’t you all see that? He is still in control. A crack in her voice. Each figure turns to her sluggishly, eyes opening from their previously blank faces.
She turns her back and wipes the tears off her face. There's an urge in her belly to run, but she stops herself.
When I see you dad, you are surrounded by fire, with a big white smile, eyes glistening, belly engorged, and a bulging, pulsating heart floating above your head.
The heart is brimming with tar and this heart pours bloody tar onto you until you are nothing but a pathetic pile of bones. Hah! It’s beautiful, dad.
Remember when dad used to say that his guardian angel walked amongst us?
The guy with the big grey wings that worked at the swap meet selling beaded jewelry?
That was his guardian angel. He blamed this angel for his torment and our torment.
This angel was earthbound and what did that mean for him?
How could this grey creature lead him to heaven?
Dad, how could you ever think you were going to heaven?
How could any of us think we were destined for the sky? How?
Mom called our dad a liar all the time. Maldito mentiroso. Always talking nonsense. She never saw the angel. Did you?
One time, Mom told me she was going to leave Dad, so I told him her plan, I don’t know why.
Would that stop him from touching me? Could we really ever escape him?
He locked us in the smallest room of the house for three days.
We peed and shit in a bucket. He blocked the windows and the door.
He ignored our screams. He wrecked the house.
He left piles of glass and paper and torn up clothes everywhere.
Do you remember? He called to his own mother, who was long dead.
She didn’t answer and when mom asked who gave us away, I didn’t answer. I don’t know why.
Evil is easy. It really is. He showed us that.
Letty, you had a near-death experience when you were a baby.
She claims she saw us all burning in a hellish landscape as she was floating to the sky.
She was a baby so there was nowhere for her to go but up.
How can any of us assume we are going up?
Do any of you believe we are going up? Do you three really believe that?
Rene has a gambling problem, but not like you think. She plays with Ouija boards and tarot cards and crystal balls like a bruja wannabe but she can barely make sense of her own life. It’s like she wants to be possessed or taken. This is what Letty told me over the phone.
We hide from each other. We criticize and we fight and we hide.
Look, I know we won’t fight our own demons.
We weren’t built that way. This is not how we were raised.
This crosses my mind every time I talk to Hector.
He drinks and he drinks and even when he takes a break, his sweat smells like sour beer.
He carries the stench for days on end. He’s a performer.
He pretends he wants to quit, but you guys know this is why he will die.
Who is most like dad? Am I a liar? You would all say yes, but we all lie to ourselves. I’m a dreamer. You can’t deny it. I can’t remember what kinds of stories I have made up about myself, but I can tell you that they all feel like the truth.
Letty had the audacity to tell me that I will regret more of my life than she will of hers.
We fight every year. A family tradition!
I want to tell her that I hate how she acts as though she’s better than me.
I want to tell her how I could never love our mother or our father and there’s something that bothers me about that because I know this would never be a problem for her.
She loves them in spite of their mess. She loves you, Dad.
Even in your violence and your screams. Your temper betrayed you so many times.
Temper sounds so tame in comparison to you.
How can you just sit there and watch TV while all of us burn, Dad?
How could you leave us behind with all of the scars?
How could you leave us like this? How could you ever expect any of your children to forgive you?
To repent for you? I won’t do it. I won’t.
I was never supposed to be a mother. I was never supposed to continue this treacherous lineage.
You forced me to. You forced yourself onto us.
You were a force and now you are nothing but a lazy figure in my imagination.
If I ever go to your grave, I will spit on it.
I will curse you even if it means cursing my own blood.