To Shine Or Not To Shine
Primarily, Eve wanted to shine. Like the yellow diamond she admired in one of the jewelry store windows down at the mall. The most prominent gem hanging from a platinum chain draped over a black velvet display glittering like crazy, dazzling her speechless. It seemed important to find something, anything, that she might excel at.
But Eve's endeavors to achieve anything slightly resembling greatness, even mediocre accomplishment, had failed terribly. After all, the tennis lessons, arranged by her enthusiastic father had turned out to be a complete waste of money; she couldn’t serve nor return a volley. And nobody else in home-ec class had managed to sew the armpit to the zipper on their dress. Why the teacher had even carried her mistake up to the head of the class to show it as an example of WHAT NOT TO DO. Of course she had not been able to master knitting either. Grandmother had thrown up her bony arms in disgust and given up on trying to teach her. The knitting bag full of yarn hung off her bedpost forlornly. A gift gone to waste.
What if she was, simply ordinary? Pretty but not striking? Thoughtful, but not intelligent? Stuck forever in her sister's indigo shadow?
All she would ever be was Rebecca's paltry little sister Eve. Not statuesque. An inept pianist. Only passable with the clarinet. Clumsy with the written word, and less successful with the spoken.
Eve saw her inevitable path so clearly. What choice did she have really, but to accept her fate gracefully? But to hide in murky blue despair? The minus to Rebecca's plus. Diminished to a puddle of a girl, her surface capable of reflecting Rebecca's brightness and thus hiding her own inadequacy.
No. She wasn’t going to accept that. Somehow some way—she would shine one fine day.
Primarily, Eve wanted to shine. Like the yellow diamond she admired in one of the jewelry store windows down at the mall. The most prominent gem hanging from a platinum chain draped over a black velvet display glittering like crazy, dazzling her speechless. It seemed important to find something, anything, that she might excel at.
But Eve's endeavors to achieve anything slightly resembling greatness, even mediocre accomplishment, had failed terribly. After all, the tennis lessons, arranged by her enthusiastic father had turned out to be a complete waste of money; she couldn’t serve nor return a volley. And nobody else in home-ec class had managed to sew the armpit to the zipper on their dress. Why the teacher had even carried her mistake up to the head of the class to show it as an example of WHAT NOT TO DO. Of course she had not been able to master knitting either. Grandmother had thrown up her bony arms in disgust and given up on trying to teach her. The knitting bag full of yarn hung off her bedpost forlornly. A gift gone to waste.
What if she was, simply ordinary? Pretty but not striking? Thoughtful, but not intelligent? Stuck forever in her sister's indigo shadow?
All she would ever be was Rebecca's paltry little sister Eve. Not statuesque. An inept pianist. Only passable with the clarinet. Clumsy with the written word, and less successful with the spoken.
Eve saw her inevitable path so clearly. What choice did she have really, but to accept her fate gracefully? But to hide in murky blue despair? The minus to Rebecca's plus. Diminished to a puddle of a girl, her surface capable of reflecting Rebecca's brightness and thus hiding her own inadequacy.
No. She wasn’t going to accept that. Somehow some way—she would shine one fine day.
All Rights Reserved. © 2009 by Elizabeth Bradley.
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