Spoiler
This is a new project I recently started.
Prologue
I heard my mother’s rich laughter fill our living room as I played with her black bouncy curls. We were sitting on the lilac sofa directly in front of our television; I was pressed against her back,standing up as she was sitting laughing at one of Will Smith’s classic crazy antics on Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Her hair smelled of the familiar herbal hairspray she used some mornings to revive her crushed curls from sleeping; she always would complain of how her stylist could never really manage to keep her kinky roots straight for more than three days.
“Pastel?” her honey sweet voice filled my ears as she called my name.
“Yes” I continued playing in her hair; listening but not really. At such a young age I never could pay focus to anything too long.
“Am I squishing you too much?” she turned her head slightly. I could picture her face. Her black eyebrows raised in concern, her full lips pursed, and her chocolate skin glowing thanks to those special light bulbs she always bought.
“No.”
She then plafully pushed against me against the wall my stomach beginning to tighten due to the lack of space.
“And now?” she asked, a smirk painting itself on her face.
“No” I said in a high pitched voice, trying to make myself seem stronger than I actually was but in reality could not breathe.
She then pushed back a little more until she began laughing already knowing what I was going to say.
I started laughing with her,” Mommy I can’t breathe!”
“Really?” she asked with a hint of fake confusion, “this feels so comfortable.”
We both continued laughing until she turned around and began tickling me. I can feel her fingers like soft cashmere lightly dancing over my stomach until we laugh so hard we begin to cry. Afterwards we were so exhausted from laughing and wrestling we quieted down and began watching television until I’d drift into another sweet dream.
That was the last day I spent with my mother. Her honey sweet voice would no longer fill my ears, her infectious laughter not infecting me like the flu I obtained afterwards, and her sweet lips no longer whispering I love you into my ear. She was gone and somehow I felt my name was part of the reason why.
