Eric Valenti Memory Reconstruction

I used to love to swim. I always feared drowning though. I used to swim at or great uncles lake house.

My twin sister, Marzia, loved the lake. She was taller, a dark olive skin tone and slender. You could never be able to tell that we were twins or that we were related at all. I was shorter than her, a little heavier and far fairer than she was. We were both thirteen. She had breasts and I didn’t. She wore bikinis and I wore one pieces.

Swimming at the lake meant seeing our relatives. My great uncle lived at this lake house. He was a quiet old man. Never married, wealthy and respected by everyone for his wealth. All I liked about him was the lake.

“How’s the water Jess?” my dad said

“It’s nice. I swear I could spend hours in there. Where can I get dried off?”

“Your sister getting dried off in the back so use Uncle Frank’s front bathroom.”

I went to the front bathroom and noticed the door didn’t close completely, it seemed broken. I closed it as far as I could and began to get undressed. The door creaked. Heavy footsteps hit the floor slowly and I struggled to pull the suit back up but before I could a cold hand went on my chest. It was my uncle. He grabbed at basically nothing. It was just fat on my chest and I didn’t say or do anything. He was behind me and I just stood there. Pool water still dripped off of me and for those 5 minutes, it felt like I couldn’t get a word out. Lighter footsteps could be heard from the other room and my uncle left quickly and went outside talking to my Father. My sister entered asking if I was hungry and she could tell something was wrong but didn’t ask. I never told anyone.  I didn’t know if I should tell anyone because I didn’t know if it was wrong. didn’t have what I thought men like him wanted to grab. Why couldn’t he have just grabbed my sister? Maybe someone would've cared.

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Author's note:

This event is based on my life and an event that took place a long time ago. The characters were obviously made up and the scenario is different slightly. I wanted to write a flashback like a memory from the main character that appears to be positive but turns dark towards the end reminiscent of Kesey’s writing of Chief’s flashbacks during the electrotherapy. The end of the memory is also quite like Chief’s long paragraph writing in Cuckoos Nest. The reason a picture of a lake house was chosen for the meaning it has in the story. The lake house was somewhere that was tranquil and meant a lot to the character because it meant that she could swim but now the lake house merely makes her feel like she’s drowning, hence why the second image is darkened.