Yeah, right. What a funny story. Your mother sends you to school with a broken arm because she thinks you’re faking it. “Suck it up,” she says, slamming the car door and driving off at full speed. You feel like a complete fool because it’s your right arm and you can barely hold your satchel. There’s a bruise around the elbow that’s getting darker every minute. The pain is not as bad as one would think but still, it’s there, and you can’t forget it. You sit through two hours of geometry before you ask your teacher to send you to the nurse. The nurse is shocked. “Your mother saw this?” You feel triumphant. The way she says it, you hope your mother will be in trouble. But it all blows over quickly. Maybe there’s a bribe involved. You wouldn’t know. All you know is that your mother loves to tell the story every time they have people for dinner. She thinks it’s hilarious. They think it’s hilarious. You hear them laugh hysterically while you sit in your room crying. The only person who consoles you is your sister. She thinks it’s so much better to be sent to school with a broken arm than killing your pet hamster because your mum let you alone with him and you’re only two years old and have no clue that you can actually hug him to death. That story is only told at New Year when everyone’s really sloshed.
Caroline Couderc is a French-Italian writer and translator living in Switzerland with her partner and three cats. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in War, Literature and the Arts, Shotgun Honey, The Airgonaut, The Antigonish Review, and more. You can find her online at beautyisasleepingcat.com
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