LETTER

I stared at the squiggly lines on the paper. The odd curves and straight lines of letters. Letters that made scribbles. Scribbles that made words. Words that became rubbish. Paragraphs of what looked to me like a two year old had attacked a plain white wall with black crayons.

"Just read it!"

"I'm trying!" I seethed back.

She stabbed the word with her finger. "Sound it out!" My mother was frustrated.

She gets so impatient when she reads with me. My mum is a caring woman, don't get me wrong. A very smart woman too, and when you're smart and you have a seventeen year old daughter who can't read; well I guess it can be a bit maddening.

"Sound it out, each letter –"

"I am!" I protested. My head was hurting. Concentrating on those little lines on the page made my temples pulse.

Two little eyes tried to look over the table top across from me. My sister's fair wispy hair stuck up around her ears.

"You can do it Tina," Sylvie encouraged in her little voice. She stood on her tiptoes trying to see across the tall table.

My four year old sister eyed the book I had in my hands. "Hey I love that story!" She proclaimed, narrowing her eyes she read, "The king of the jungle."

It made me sick. My baby sister could read the title of the book far faster that it would take me to register that they were actually letters and words. I can read. It just takes me a while. I have to stare at the lines until it form letters, then words. Then I have to try to say them. It's hard but I can do it. It just takes a long time to get through a page. The book I have in my hands now, isn't very complicated, considering a four year old can read the title in under two seconds, but I chose it so I didn't have to think that hard today, but this word was a hard one.

"Come on Tina," my mother coaxed, this time gently pointing at the word I was stuck on.

Tina. My name. It took me to fifth grade to learn how to spell it, even now I forget sometimes. I know how to pronounce it. Like what you call red, yellow and blue. Color. I know how to recognize it on a page. But I'm not very fast. Kind of pathetic, huh?

I looked back at the word on the page, trying to concentrate. "Cor-Coura-Courageous." Finally it was out. I took a deep breath and continued the sentence.

It was a matter of reading the sentence as a whole than just as one word. To understand what each word meant in the sentence to get that one hard word and what it was. It's hard.

"Hey honey?" My dad called from across the room, he appeared in the doorway, holding his briefcase. "I have to run down to the office; client emergency," he said apologetically.

"Oh ok, don't be late home I have a shift at seven," my mother sighed, the prospect of work on mind.

My father worked high up in a lawyer company. Big hot shot, some say. But I knew he wasn't going downtown to the office. I've known that ever since last week when I walked unexpectedly into Mum and Dad's bedroom and came out very surprised when I realized it wasn't Mum and Dad in there but Dad and someone else.

I glowered at him before he left the room. He didn't know I knew but deep down I think both of him and Mum knew what was going on. They would never split though. It made me feel guilty because I knew it was because of me.

AN: Read & Review

DISCLAIMER: Not Mine

ORIGINAL STORY: ECSTASY by Dess (TheVintageGrace)