Addition and Subtraction

A story by Luis Conde

Lucys mother thought a gunshot to the head would do it. After the deafening sound popped into her brain, she fell unconscious onto a white cotton sofa that she had purchased in a flea market earlier that week. Her whole story seemed to be written in a beautiful pattern of blood and gelatinous pieces of brain splattered onto a green wall. Everything in that room seemed peaceful: a withered rose on a glass cylinder, the only remnant of her loneliness; an old photograph of a lover, black and white could not even begin to describe his ways of loving; her face gleaming like red shattered glass against a faint blue light she could no longer see. For a moment, everything was still. An alarm clock broke the silence. The room seemed to collapse as fate revealed its bloody game: the woman was still alive. The loud gunshot exposed the secret of her intentions, and soon enough she was surrounded by a team of paramedics trying to sustain her daughters life. When Lucy was born her mother was already dead. The doctors ripped her mothers belly with ferocity. They placed pieces of raw flesh and yellow layers of bloody fat on a silver bowl. When the knife finally ripped the watery sack, Lucys mouth filled with her mothers blood: it was not until she started breathing when she got rid of it. This memory would stay with her for the rest of her life.

As the years passed by, Lucy grew up to be a very beautiful teenager. At the age of 13, she became more beautiful than ever. There was a deep contrast with the tone of her white skin against her dark, wavy red hair. Her dark eyes were deep, but the pregnancy made her look awkward. Lucy had the idea that her life was cursed because nothing she ever did came out right, and as a consequence, she cried almost every night. Adding to her suffering, there was always the image of her mother, and the phantom memory of the gunshot scared her and woke her from her sleep. Lucy gave birth to a beautiful red haired boy. His hair was noticeably darker than hers, and his eyes were deep blue. One week after the birth, she abandoned the baby outside a supermarket below a single white plastic sign that read 50% off red marked items. The baby became news. No one could believe that such a beautiful child had been abandoned. Lucy spent much of her teenage years under the influence of cocaine and violent men. Every time she abandoned reality, she would see her babys little round face and her mothers red darkness. There was not a meaningful happy moment in the time during her transition towards womanhood. At 20 she met an older man who helped her get through her addictions and promised her eternal love. After their wedding, they both kept trying to have a child, but it seemed that time kept walking on their happiness for five years without any result. They discovered that he was sterile, and because of this he simply left her. Like her mother, she tried to take her own life twice, but she never succeeded because she always did it wrong.

She was 38 when she felt that her luck had finally changed. She was at a little caf one Friday morning when she saw Mark for the first time. For a moment, they both stared at each other, and recognized a beautiful and inexplicable sadness that mirrored in each others eyes. They fell in love right then and there. Both decided never to speak of the past, or reveal its painful secrets. She was wrapped in Marks arms when she realized she was happy; they both stared at the liquid reflection of the moon as it danced with the furious waves of the dark sea. The simple thought of giving him a child made her euphoric: giving birth was the only way life would forgive all her wrongdoings. Finally a child of someone she really loved grew inside of her! Her red wavy hair soon became part of the wind, and it sent chills through her skin. She closed her eyes and buried her face on Marks naked chest. With only one hand she caressed his reddish dark hair as she kept kissing the warmth of his skin. She smiled when she saw the only visible flaw of this extraordinary man: a small scar above his chest. Lucy didnt know and she would never ask, but this scar he had carried since he was a baby. It had been a cold night when his mother abandoned him below a single white plastic sign. The night had been windy, and it toppled the plastic sign so that its sharp edge fell on Marks chest. He didnt remember any of this, but he had been told how it had happened. He raised her face to his and kissed her tenderly on the lips. The night was getting colder and the powerful waves crashed with thunderous music. A pair of seagulls fought against the wind like kites about to break loose. The clouds boding evil finally

made Lucy and Mark escape the treacherous night. They promised each other never to be in cold places ever again.