Are we not all taught who we are supposed to be? What if who we are conflicts with who we want to be? She was taught to be Eudora, but she must be something quite different.
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Things have a funny way of working out. The irony is that no matter what one does, how hard someone tries to become something, to make something of oneself, those forces at large have a way of putting things back the way they were, the way they were meant to be. Eudora was no exception.
It was a balmy day. The sun was setting. Eudora, with her abnormally large teeth, thick rimmed black glasses, pasty white skin, stringy, black hair pulled back tightly—save the bangs; they hung loosely to either side of her face—she was not the image of beauty. Her big, blue braces moved up and down as she spoke. Maybe it was the braces, or the big, fake teeth in the front, but she spoke like her tongue was too big for her mouth.
They sat on the hood of the old, gray Cadillac, Eudora and her friends. They weren’t her friends of course, but she didn’t understand the difference. They were Charlie’s friends. He was her younger brother. They were quite a few years apart.
“You should just go ask him, Eudora”, Patty said. She was a tall, strawberry blonde with a light tan. “He’s been giving you the eye all day.”
“I can’t do that. I never even said hello to him before. He’ll just laugh at me.”
Eudora’s response was more out of knowledge and certainty than sadness. Sadness held no real meaning for her.
“Well, whatever, it’s not like he’s got anyone anyway. Larry ain’t exactly prince charmin’, is he?” Joe sniped.
He was Patty’s boyfriend, but not in the traditional way of family values. This time it was the 70’s, but before it was the 70’s it was just a dark basement with nothing to do, but scratch at the walls. People in the 70’s were a concept Eudora was unable to grasp—Eudora isn’t from this time; she isn’t from anytime, really….
Charlie was coming home from work. He was trying to make enough money over the summer to apply at the local, community college come winter. His grandfather helped him get a job at the mill, and Charlie was learning all sorts of things; how to work the lathe, the planer; he smoothed boards like it was no one’s business, but these things didn’t interest him. He, like his sister, was born in one life, but was learning to become someone else.
College was his ticket. He’d turn from a sweet, country boy to a calculating businessman, or that was the goal anyway. Unlike his sister, he was dark and fair haired. Most people never guessed they were family, except they shared their grandfather’s features; slim nose, big eyes, blue, all three of them.
Charlie pulled up in his Ford pick-up alongside the Cadillac. Dust kicked up. Joe and Patty covered their eyes and patted themselves off. Not Eudora, maybe it was her glasses, maybe it was something else; she never made an effort to dust herself off either. She just looked at her brother. Her oversized pearly whites and blue braces showed as she grinned.
“Hello Charlie,” she spoke with that chunky tongue.
“Heya’, Dora,” he replied and smiled back. “I saw Larry leaving. Did you say hello?”
“No, Charlie, maybe I see him tomorrow.”
“Well,” he was pensive. “Maybe we should have him over for dinner tomorrow. You and Gramps can whip up something nice.”