The Girl Who Cried Diamonds & Other Stories by Rebecca Hirsch Garcia

Author:Rebecca Hirsch Garcia
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2023-10-03T00:00:00+00:00

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The problem with the young ones, Father said to no one in particular that first day, is that they don’t understand their own fragility. As a person ages they become more tender. Not about the wide world or their fellow man, but about themselves.

Father knew of this tenderness but we were too young to know it yet ourselves.

We were sitting on the porch, Father and Jimmy and me and we were ignoring Mother’s screams from inside that had early on taken the form of a string of demonic curse words and had lately curdled into an unending wordless groan. It was hard to listen to. Our home was small and there were only so many chores to do outside. So we sat on the porch and we tried to wait her out.

Take my hand for example.

Father presented his hand to Jimmy and me for inspection and dutifully we looked at it, ignoring the bellow that burst forth from inside the house.

Father told me to put my hand out and obligingly I did. My hand was lighter than his and taut too. The ropey veins that protruded from his knuckles to his wrists were faint underwater rivers in my hand.

Once, Father began, ignoring the wail that had risen from inside. Once I had a hand as smooth and untarnished as yours. Think of that. Your father as a young man.

He paused so that we might think on it, but all I could imagine, even if I closed my eyes, was my father’s weathered face on a child’s small body.

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