I REMEMBER

A time in a life. A remembrance.

     I remember the girls laughing as I walked by the table. When I started to think about it, I remember hearing them laugh whenever I walked by.  When I thought about it more, it wasn't until I was walking by.  But why?  What was it about me that would cause such a thing?  They never spoke to me, so what was it?  Maybe it was my clothes.  Maybe it was the way I looked.  I want to know why but, whenever I would walk towards them they would just laugh and run away.  So I decided to look in a mirror to see if I could see what they saw and made them laugh.

     Upon looking at myself I gasped. It could be anything; my skinny body and long legs, my curly hair that had a life of its' own. The fact that there was  no shape to my body or the freckles upon my face.  The more I looked and the more I heard their laughter in my mind, the more I knew it was all of it.  I wasn't like them and never would be.  I tried to tell myself that it was okay, that someday this ugly duckling would become a beautiful swan.  But their everyday laughter made it hard to believe. 

     Years would go by and they still laughed.  then one day the laughter stopped and the whispers began.  Well, at least they weren't laughing anymore.  The whispers continued and again I had to know why.  So again I looked in the mirror to see, and behold!  That ugly duckling did in fact turn into a swan.  Now as I walk by and they whisper it is now me who laughs.