Moonbeams

Part of a short story for my creative writing class

It is true that members in a family do tend to resemble one another. There is something so sweet about the cliché saying: “you have your mother’s eyes.” My eyes are blue, just like my mother’s. Memom, however, swears she is to thank for them. Having a wild fascination with genes and DNA, she always says: “I gave you those blue genes!” The most repeated and cheesy line I have ever heard in my life and yet I always reply with a laugh and say “I know, not the denim Levi’s. Those are from mom. You gave me a better pair.” I always throw her an over exaggerated wink to mirror her cheesy sense of humor. Don’t let my charm and play on words fool you into thinking she has me convinced! I do, in fact have my mother’s eyes.

I can remember back when I was five, telling her “Mommy! I think your eyes are bigger than the moon!” Standing on earth, looking up at the moon from however many zillions of miles we are from it, my compliment is true. Now from the perspective of a twenty-two year old woman, I can say her eyes still share characteristics with the moon. They have this pulling effect, almost like a magnetic force, that attracts nearly everyone around her. They say, and I am still trying to figure out who this ambiguous “they” are, that a full moon makes crazy things happen. Myths about werewolves coming out whenever there is a full moon does not phase me. I have seen way crazier things occur standing in the grocery line at Shop Rite with my mom at 11 a.m. It is no myth either. No matter where we go, I know I will come home with a story to share that will top any of the stories my brother will tell me of the dream he had or the ridiculous video he watched on YouTube.

Most of the bizarre stories I come home with involve a weird, or border-line scary man hitting on my sweet, naïve mother. At the age of twenty-two, you would think that weird men hitting on my mom or telling us that we look like sisters may get on my nerves or offend me in some way. Spoiler alert! It doesn’t. Nope. I find it to be rather funny and oddly flattering. I figure, if she still has game at the age of 44, and genetics are on my side, I will still have it “going on” when I am middle aged. Wow did I just say “going on?” I may be heading to middle aged sooner than I would like. Yikes.

Anyway, back to my mother’s eyes, they have all sorts of power. Power to draw all the creepizoids into ShopRite, the power to still get carded when making a purchase at the liquor store, but more importantly, the power to show an irresistible love. The love her eyes hold is timeless. She may have lucked out with her youthful appearance but her love is just as verdurous. Her eyes couldn’t hide their love even if they were closed. Like the ocean, the love in her eyes goes on forever, further than I could ever fully comprehend.