Cynthia

CLARA

Clara was always a talkative and bubbly girl while growing up. A cute little girl who won most of her beauty and fashion contests. She was a tall, dark-skinned girl with the most precious smile and infectious laugh. Clara had always been all her teachers' favourite, well behaved student who was not necessarily the brightest, but a definite delite to be around. She was the girl who played outside with mud and dirt for hours non-stop and only came home in time for supper when her tummy started grumbling and growling.

Clara and Cynthia's relationship was never really the best mother and daughter kind of relationship. They were never really on the best of terms, but her mother loved her more than anything in the whole wide world. They always had petty arguments about chores and school work, but nothing out of the ordinary.
When gogo was alive, she often referred to them as Tom and Jerry because of their behaviour. The two just never seemed to get along at all.

Clara's father was her human diary, the two were as thick as thieves. She could and definitely did, tell her father every single thing that happened in her life and about all her dreams and aspirations. He was also her guidance counselor to say the least, he made sure to lead her on the correct path and she could seek advice about many things from him.

Cynthia was a bit jealous of the relationship the father-daughter duo shared and could only yearn for the relationship she had with Clara to be like the one Clara had with her father one day. Clara had a pretty decent childhood, with ample attention, love and some luxuries her parents could afford for her.

Everything came crashing down when  Clara's father left and disappeared when she was 14 years old. She spoke less, became easily agitated, did poorly in her academics and started hanging with the 'quote unqoute cool' kids in the neighbourhood. Deep down inside, Clara blamed and still blames her mother for her father's disappearance. She strongly believes that her mother has a knack for ruining good things. Take that local gym for example, it has slowly been reduced to shambles under her control. You would think in ten years she would've made it a success, but she has done quite the opposite. Cynthia has to be responsible for the disappearance as well, there's no other explanation why a loving father would just leave her daughter just like that.

The little love Clara had for her mother has been replaced with a lot of resentment, anger and doubt. She is looking for someone to blame because she believes her father could never just leave her and walk away. She deals with all her negative emotions by spending lots of time on her own, cussing at her mom, or as she has been doing lately, drinking cheap beer at bus stations or dodgy areas in the outskirts of town. The worst part is probably that Cynthia never does anything in response to her daughter's actions. She is far too soft for her own good. I hate to admit it but my first trainee assignment is something I've not been able to handle at all. If anything, the exercises and talking sessions I try to make them do have only made Clara's hatred for her mother grow even more. As a person on her way to becoming a professional therapist, with my clients' well being in mind, I've reached a point where I am willing to ask for assistance to help these two actually get better.

~an entry in Mrs King's patient notebook