contest: put your thinking caps on
theme: "the worst things in life come free to us"
author's note: please. i hope it's not that bad.
i hate this.
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So God loved Abel, Cain hated Abel.
Therefore, Anne hated zach.
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ON A MILDLY HUMID afternoon, the Call family gave birth to a pair of twins.
First came Anne, named after the mother's mother. She would become the eldest of the two.
But she only had three minutes where she would be the spotlight.
After, she would become the shadow.
The other was zachary, named after the father to follow tradition. Unlike Anne's birth, swift and healthy, zach was different.
The nurses were rushing. The father was worried. The mother was crying. Anne was just l e f t a l o n e.
The thing that happened was that it was like he refused to breath; no matter how much he and others tried, he just couldn't and we needed so highly to have him do it to live.
Suddenly:
The journalists had something to write about in their fancy newspapers.
The mother was happy. The father was relieved. Anne was s o m e w h e r e.
He became known around town that day, and days to follow, as the miracle baby all because he took his first breath.
If it was h e r choice, there would be a different story.
She could retell the whole story, word by word, since that's the only story her grandmother would ever go on about to anyone with ears.
{She hated the way her grandmother knew exactly what happened to zach on his birthday but not what happened to her.}
With every word she cringed and, little by little, she hated her brother a bit more.
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She did not have her name.
She was Evie now.
Product of her devious brother mispronouncing her middle name, Evalina.
Once he spoke it, everyone did. It was natural for them to follow him.
She had grown to love it in first weeks for it reminded her of Eve: the first woman.
Life.
It wasn't until church one day when her father spoke the words "deliver us from evil" that zach said and giggled that it sounded like "deliever us from evie".
EVIL EVIE
She hated her nickname: affiliated with evil to the rest as a joke.
If that wasn't it, there was more to her humiliating, shameful, no-child-shall-bear name.
She took her grandmother's name.
And if zach was lucifer with pride, charms, and deviations to suit him, her grandmother was satan: wrath.
Anne meant "grace" and it was a beautiful name, fitting for her gradmother: the graceful ballerina in her youthful days.
{She hated the unfair irony, the way her parents couldn't have known the person before they placed the name}
But Anne didn't fit a short and chubby girl who couldn't stand on one foot for more than fifteen seconds.
That made it easier to call her "evie".
That made it easier to tell apart the grandmother and granddaughter.
That made it easier for her brother and family to purposely call her "evil" for laughs.
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He had a beautiful voice.
And until at ten years of age he perfectly managed to learned piano to coincide with his voice.
He was an angel when he sang and God when he touched the keys.
Evie wasn't allowed to play because it was "his thing" and no one could think that she could do any better than him.
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There was one moment Evie forgot and she ran to her room, tears running down her cheeks.
He was better than her:
stronger,
handsome,
better singer,
smarter,
taller,
loveable,
charismatic....
And the only thing she had above him, was forgotten for a slight of a second.
She was the eldest.
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Years from now, she would finally raise her voice.
On a day just like the one when he and her were born.
She would tell him everything: life was not fair, I did nothing yet got the worst, our parents--God loved you more.
That deep chuckle that once was a giggle would begin.
He would say: life wasn't fair to me, either.
I didn't ask to be born for you to hate me.
She thought about his words. It was like an astonishing revelation to her.
Since it was a party, she nodded her head and laughed with him but inside was the opposite.
She could never hate him more than how she did right now.
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He never learned to "sing like an angel". He was just born that "handsome".
She never learned to be a woman when they saw her as a man. She was just born that "ugly".
And many occasions, they mistaked zach for being the eldest of the twins and everytime evie was angry or sad.
And just like God, angels, and the prophets, he deserved the best.
Just like demons, monsters, and the "the untouchable", she deserved the worst.
But he didn't do anything and he got the best.
And she didn't do anything and she got the worst.
She lost her name and the blessing from being born first. What else was there to lose?
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So God admired Jacob, Esau despised Jacob.
Therefore, Anne despised zach.
