Family Secrets

In 1970, a fetus was born, heated, and shaped into a safe, silence passed from my great grandmother, every one knew It was happening to my mother, but they, too afraid to speak against their master. My aunts are all safes, sculpted from my great grandmothers fist, bred to hold all emotions in, my mother was made as a product of her environment, designed to perfection, taught to trust no one but her offspring, pass her ways to us and repeat to the next generations, our ways of teaching is not healthy, it is the way we are taught; she could never break, nobody ever caught her off guard, my father listened to the clicks of her heart, my stepfather tried to spin the dials of her secretive past, eventually they both gave up, however had no choice but to love her anyway, I can still hear the frustrated attempts trying to unlock what was inside of her, she held hundreds of safety deposit boxes filled with secrets inside, couldn’t admit to the pain, never told us she was dying. She only taught my sister and I how to survive, somewhere along her lessons we knew, but couldn’t bare to ask the question, a year before she passed, we grew cages for mouths, feelings never had the chance to prosper, funny how nature took its course in transforming us, almost a sixth sense the way our bodies cooperated to the change, as if it spent years waiting to escape from our insides, each bar are thousands of emotions, melted down and coated in metal, careful not to let anyone see, including each other, this is the reason we never speak on her death. We are both housed in identical cages, unable to communicate my sister is dying to break free, she has always been different, more human between the two of us, must have picked it from her father they inherit things like faith, a beating heart and all I want to do is help her. However, we are too much like our master to ask for guidance. when my mother was diagnosed with cancer, I felt the duty to acquire her burdens, knew I had to be strong for everyone, the new master by default, my heart became steel, it wasn’t surprising I’ve always had her hands, a metallic exterior, bolts as elbows, locked around myself, like so many before me, never had the guts to trust anyone, my ex girlfriend tried to pick the lock since the day we met, but my fate had always been imbedded in my DNA, to become my mothers design, to be something unbreakable, flawless. Maybe the key was cremated with my mother, tucked in her fist, and no one will ever speak on it.