Reincarnation

(CH.5) Daddy's little princess.

Chapter 5: Daddy’s little princess.

It was pathetic, closing my eyes and imagining mom and dad were there. More pathetic was me having the tiniest belief that this might actually happen. My parents were the first thing that I thought I should imagine; their death was the reason behind my coldness. And if an orphan had the choice, you couldn’t blame them for wanting to lead a normal life. I was giving up on my slightly Cinderella-like life, but I wanted to throw everything behind.

The woman standing before me was my own mother, and she wasn’t just ‘the woman in the picture’, she was alive; beautiful and lively. I watched her walk around the kitchen preparing what seemed like creamy pasta with chicken for lunch while I sat eating a green apple. It was weird; dad hated pasta -although it was one of my many obsessions that I cut off when I decided to go on my endless diet - and yet she still cooked it.

“Why so healthy?” My mother asked with a teasing tone.

“What do you mean?” I asked putting a lot of effort into not seeming so different from… ironically, me.

“Brownies in the fridge and you’re eating an apple,” she reminded me, not like I remember anything that didn’t happen.

I took another bite from the apple allowing the familiar sour taste to sting my tongue then added casually, “I had a nightmare, I was getting chubbier.”

“You know that won’t happen unless you eat brownies for the next five years,” she said and then broke into a laugh that sounded so much like mine.

That is exactly what happened.

“Well, let’s stand on the safe side,” I said sounding a little colder than I intended to sound.

*  *  *  *  *

The smell of cream in the air and the magnificent look the pasta had on the glamorous red plate was too much for my will to resist. Besides, curiosity was enough to push me off my diet plan; I had to know how my mother’s food tasted.

“Where’s dad?” I asked after swallowing a spoonful of luscious pasta.

It hit her hard; I could see it in her eyes. Panic and anxiety flushed adrenaline into my blood; my heart started drumming loudly in my chest. Was he dead? I am sure as I live – wait, I am sure, comma – that I imagined him being here. Another irony, why am I blaming something I never believed in in the first place?

“He is still at the hospital,” she said with a half hearted smile on her face.

Wait, dad’s sick?

“What’s he doing till now?” I asked risking the fact that this question could blow my cover as much as the one before it could have.

“Work,” she said almost at the same time she got up and turned to put her plate in the sink, her back to me.

My dad was an officer in my… first life. But the way things were different weren’t going to push me off track. At least I didn’t turn into an animal or into an old lady. I was still me; I had both my parents alive. What more could I want?

But I should have known better.

*  *  *  *  *

Cold morning air blew my hair and knee-length red summer dress as I stood in front of my house. It looked like the seven elves cottage from the outside. Add that up with the apple I ate that morning, the perfect Snow White.

It was summer, but it was a little colder than it is supposed to be. Or it’s just because in this life, we didn’t move to the country side which was amazing news to me. I was heading to school, I didn’t mind repeating all five years, what was really on my mind is Drake, my best friend. I couldn’t wait to see him!