Alone

"Think about your happiest memory. Find the one that you turn to in your darkest hour. Now, focus on it. Let it lift you up to the highest..."

Oh for crying out loud, could this guy drone on in a more boring tone? At least being here meant my family had to be civil. There's five of us in our household.
First, there's my mom. She's a clean freak woman who manages a home care company. Basically, she runs the highest quality maids and care givers in town.
Then, there's my dad. He's a little more normal. He works as an employment coordinator, helping people find jobs. A lot of the time, he hated his job. He was always telling us about how lazy people were. They'd want a job but didn't really want to work for their money.
My older sister, Carmen, is a sparkle and glitter freak. I'm serious. One time, she even tossed glitter in the washer to set one of her outfits to sparkle. Instead, she accidentally "ruined" one of mom's favorite work shirts. Personally, I think it made her look like less of a stiff...
My younger sister, Sally, is just four years young. So, you can imagine how painfully annoying she can be. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love my little sister. She just has this weird thing about trying to kidnap my shoes and wear them around.

Then, there's me. I guess I'm the black sheep of the family. It's not because of the music I listen to or my dark fashion preference or even the fact that I have a weird partner.
No, what it is is actually something that's kind of twisted. You see, I was born with a forked tongue and a nictitating set of eyelids. It really wasn't that noticeable, unless you knew that it was there or got up close enough to see by accident.
I know that it seems a little unbelievable. Okay, VERY unbelievable. But, unfortunately, it's true...

Sometimes, I wonder how or why it happened. Deformities aren't common in my family. And, even with those who do have them, it's only something common like a partially grown limb or a mental problem. Yet, I have the weird one that causes them to shun me.
But, like I said, here...they're civil. I mainly just look down at the bible that my mother had purchased for me and hide my face. She had talked to our pasture and explained that I was a freak of nature, created as a result of sin that I should resemble the Snake in the garden of Eden.
Yah, that's a wonderful thing to have said about you by your own parent.
So, I listened to his meaningless droning. It meant nothing to me anymore, to hear about the word of god or anything like that. I'd lost faith with their god when I noticed that we're supposed to be created in his image, yet I looked nothing like those around me in the face. There were more parts to my deformities than just my eyelids and tongue, but they're hard to see.

I don't like feeling like I'm different, but it makes me strong. I have been bullied for so long for it that it just doesn't bother me anymore...much.