i was born in the middle of the monsoon season, in the year the Korean war ended and the armistice was signed, a month after Queen Elizabeth II was crowned, and the colour television was approved in the U.S., in a country that lies just north of the equator. i was the second child, although technically the third as my parents’ first born, also a girl, died just before her first birthday. a son was born a year later and two years before me. father had wished i was a boy so first born would have a playmate. but i wasn’t a boy. i was told someone was really, really disappointed. pfft! however, mother looked at it as her first daughter’s replacement.
the hospital needed a name for the birth record register. first born was named enrique and parents had planned on giving the next child a name that started with the same letter. they had planned on ‘ernesto’ for a boy and ‘editha” for a girl (makes me want to hurl on both counts). thankfully, mother forgot the names after she gave birth but they were not allowed to leave the hospital without a name for this baby, soooo...
“vicenta” was the paternal grandmother’s name. “gerarda” was the maternal grandmother’s.
mother had the good sense to use neither names. she thought i would kill them all if i became a teenager and would be perennially teased for those unflattering names. in her heart, though, she knew I wouldn’t. i’d just maim everybody, I would.
they made a compromise. how about victoria? after the queen, of course, although i was told there was a snicker in father’s face. but victoria it was. then relatives thought it was a nice enough name for their daughter, too. mother was not amused.
apparently, the day after i was brought home, whilst i slept, mother caught just in time two-year old big brother about to hit me with a long wooden pole. no one knew why or what provoked him, i was after all asleep.
father took this photo when I was a few months old. the blocks, which he had made, were supposed to have spelled ‘vikki’ but i was in a playful mood that i messed it up. signs of things to come? i think not!
amazing that there was once a time when i was actually cute. now i’m just acute.
-o0o-
just 399 words. i tried to make it an exciting narrative but there's really nothing exciting about me.
for the September self story challenge by dixie
@pandorasecho.
http://365project.org/discuss/themes-competitions/23359/september-self-stories#comment-686622
I enjoyed your story, too!