#551 Snakes- Danielle Evans
A rift in a family can be absolutely toxic for children.
Tara is eight, her mother and grandmother do not get along, but this summer as
her parents are on a research trip to Brazil, Tara will stay with her
grandmother. Also staying there is her cousin, Allison, who’s parents also
don’t get along with grandma.
The summer goes along with the cousins attached at the hip.
Grandmother proves to be miserable, and judgmental and even when
well-intentioned, does nothing but inflame and belittle Tara. Disaster strikes
when Allison pushed Tara into the lake, and she barely makes it out alive. Her
parents come back and for the next 15 years, none of them speak to either the
grandmother, Allison, or Allison’s parents.
We learn later that before that summer, Allison was having
“problems” and sent to grandmothers semi-permanently. The lake incident was
just a manifestation of the girls trying to get back to their parents. But the
situation and the split pretty much ruined Allison’s life. The isolation from
the family drama may have helped Tara, but the details of the grandmother’s
psychosis (or whatever you want to call it) are frightening. The story, Tara’s
survival, and the revealing truth make for one hell of a story.
“My recovery turned my scars into part favors. If you had
seen them—the dot on my leg, the line on my elbow, the water in my eyes when I
talked about Allison—then you had something about me to take with you. If you
knew what was behind it, you had even more.”
I was feeling towards the middle of this story that is
trended a bit too long, like there might have been too much “filler”, but I was
proven wrong. The story developed exceptionally well and unfolded perfectly by
the end.
Notable Passage: “We are safe, with our families, until we
are not.”
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