Lara: Volume 1

What do you consider a perfect family? Do you think of a suburban family with a mother, a father 3 kids ( either 2 boys,1 girl or 2 girls one girl, no exception), maybe a household pet and/or a beach house on the seaside of their country. Well that's what I have and I have divorced parents so I have twice of that. Well newsflash it's not the 1980s anymore and many people decided that they don't need to follow that perception. However, they still want to stay within the model of family. 

Well, when my parents divorced, I started meeting a lot of new people through my new step-parents and my step-father I had put through hell and I want to publicly apologize for that, but he was my first step-parent so a lot of my frustration fell on him, I remember having dreams about my parents getting back together and now that I have some common sense, I'm so fucking happy it didn't happen.

But through my father I met my first step-mother, you know what funny enough, I never liked calling them that. I loved this people, but I never considered them my parent figures, I felt like it put extra strain on them, with that in my mind i always saw them as my family.

So my first step-mother was, while very fun, also quite a disciplinarian just like my father and I can attribute quite a lot of my discipline, the little that i have. However, they ended up splitting up and me and my sister were with my father. He , even tough he was alone, tried his hardest . But then, he found a new partner, who was also very loving, but also knew when to be straight with me.

This people made life around me a lot easier when the divorce got hard, and believe me it got hard.

So with the second step-mother, the thing was she also had divorced parents, her father was a nice guy, but it was the other side of her family that caught my eye. Her sister was about 3 years older than her and her mother was retired. Her mother was cooking like a god and I ate at my grandma quite a lot, so you know my standards were high.

So despite being quite successful, her sister was still living with her mother and while some jackasses would go: "Oh, she's so old and she still lives with her mother, blah, blah fucking blah." Ever since I met them I could see they had life completely figured out. I remember we were in their kitchen at their table and we were eating lunch. I probably never felt that comfortable at first visit.

Sister was so much fun just being an insanely cool person, while the mother felt like my second grandma( My actual second grandma passed away in '93, Rest in peace queen). I liked my other step-grandparents as well, but i never felt such good chemistry, they were just the best. 

But the day I learnt how much this two women have their life figured out. I had to stay in school a lot later than usual, because of some dumb quiz about European union. Anyway i had to go spend a day with my schoolmate after that, as we had to study geography (oh, we'll get to that, don't you worry). She actually offered me to spend the night so we could study through the dark. But I just liked the idea of staying at my grandmas' better, their apartment was also pretty close so I hit the road. 

As I was approaching their place, it clocked in my head: ˝I never called them did I?˝ And then the horror hit me. They were on a holiday. And her I was, standing in the dark, late at night.

I wanted to go back to Trzin, but it was late and there was no more busses. I thought of going to my mother. I tried to call my parents but I remember my phone died, which was one of the main reasons I wanted to go to grandma, as I didn't have the guts to ask her for a charger.

I was running out of ideas, I was on the verge of crying and I didn't really know what to do, I could scream, but it would be worthless. The moment the first tear left my eye socket, my mind had a flash. I remembered that one visit to the two women that amused me so much. I remembered which street it was on, I remembered which level it was on. It was close, so close.

Should I? Do I have any better ideas? Are they even awake? Well it was worth trying. 

I went down the road and in about 5 minutes I was in front of the building. I went up to the doorbell and press it. No answer. And as my finger went to the bell again, I heard a familiar voice.

˝Good evening. Who is it?˝

˝Hi, it's Lara, I'm..˝

˝Lara, oh god, what are you doing outside that late, come on up.˝

I felt an incredible amount of relief as I went up the stairs. I reached their door and was greeted by them. As they pulled me inside of their apartment, I tried explaining to them what happened and asked them if I could just using the phone. And I was denied, they told me to just leave it. They said if I was already going to spend the night from home I could just sleepover at theirs so my parents didn't have to come pick me up.

 I was asked if I was hungry, and even tough I tried telling them to not worry I quickly found myself with a plate of a lasagna in front of me. I skipped shower and my step-aunt brought me a pillow and a blanket so I could make myself comfortable and I slowly laid down.

But they didn't go to sleep yet, it turned out my visit cut off their game of cards, which I learned during my first visit, was one of their late night activities they did. Now that they laid me to bed, they could get back to it.

I could hear them from the living room, talking about how their day went. Mother was telling her about her visit to the local market and the current prices and daughter was telling her about how job is going.

˝Lara are you still awake?˝

I stayed silent and they continued with the game. The daughter was saying something about a work trip to Torino that she will have to go to and how she had to already start packing some stuff. 

And me on the couch? I was listening with the biggest ears possible. They sounded like partners, talking to each other about their day at the end of the night, while their ˝kid˝ sleeps on the couch. Despite what people may say about how life should be lived, these two discovered the perfect life for each other.

 I couldn't help but listen to them in awe. They had everything a perfect family strives for combined within two people. I mean look at me, I have every single opportunity to build my perfect family with kids, a man, a household pet. But do you really need all this to be happy with your life. These two definitely don't.

 LARA PETEK 29.12.2024