~~~
“Momma! Look, come ower here.”
Strands of golden cascades shimmered in waning light as Sal rushed into the room, nearly bumping into Melania.
“Damn children,” Melania muttered as she pretended to chase after the screaming, mud-soaked ball of energy.
Sal clenched two Amaranth flowers with one of her chubby hands while the other picked at her itching nose.
“Sweetheart, hold on,” Mother tip-toed down the oak-wood stairs, enveloped in a pink, satin bathrobe.
Before she could react, Sal tumbled into Mother with a delightful screech. Their bodies shook in a warm embrace as both mother and daughter smiled the kind of smile when you love the other person deeply. The feeling that vibrates slowly but steadily from your heart and ends with a slight tingle that leaves you wanting more.
“Mom, my teacher told me that these flowers stand for eternity. I didn’t know what eternity meant so my teacher said it just meant “fowever.” Sal gently squeezed Mother’s cheeks and laughed as she pushed them together, contorting her mother’s face into quite a sight.
“Well that’s lovely dear, but why don’t you get cleaned up? Guests are coming over soon and I can’t have you looking like that.”
“But mommmmmmm… I wanted to give these to you because I’m gunna love you fowever!”
For a second, Mother’s face went limp, the corner of her lip twitched thrice, but then quickly recovered and whispered, “Yes baby, forever and ever and ever. Now you go get yourself cleaned up.”
Analysis:
This story was inspired by wondering about the reliability of Klara as a narrator. I was especially interested in how the book would be different if Klara was a human observer rather than an AF. Further, the Mom’s character always brought flashbacks to Passing because she continually wanted to be in control of everything - her children’s love above all. Thus, I combined these two interests and created a short creative piece that stems from the lines, “He clearly wished to greet Josie with an embrace, and looked around for somewhere to put down the paper bag, but Josie stepped forward and placed her arms around him, paper bag and all” (Ishiguro 185).
Through this piece, I gained two key components of insight. I had previously viewed the Mother in a negative light as a selfless, manipulative parent-figure, but I realized the deep pain she must have faced with Sal’s death. This, of course, does not justify seeking to permanently ingrain Josie’s life in the world through Klara. Yet, it helped me understand the grief and the trauma. Another important lesson that I learned was about the beauty of love. What makes love so special, is that it can transcend into the eternal realm; it is not bound by time and even through Sal’s death, there is a lingering love that her family members feel. While life may be special because it is limited, love is valuable because of the very opposite: it is not temporally enclosed. Klara lost her AF personality and I added a more humanistic lens that was more descriptive and observant. However, the narrator was more distracted as well unlike Klara’s usual, focused self.