In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters…..” I drifted into a mitigating slumber as Nonna once again calmed my great curiosities of the infinite universe. “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning–the sixth day.” Nonna continued.
“Nonna?” I inquired. I was only 13 at the time. But my imagination was ruthless. I wanted to believe all that she was telling me, but something within me yearned for proof. “If God can do all of these amazing things, why cant he let me know hes there?”
“Sweetie,”My Nonna instructed, “you just have to have faith.”
That day felt like centuries ago. Now, seven years later, I lie in the same bed covered head-to-toe in blankets, wondering where the time has gone. Suddenly, the room was filled with light, and I felt nothing short of exposed with a dash of irritation.
“Do you have any idea what time it is?!” By his tone, I would have thought he was my mother. But lo and behold, it was just my smartass little brother, Matthew.
Naturally, Matthew was good at just about everything. He caught on to things quickly, had great intuition, and loved to gloat about it. As his older sister, I had to work ten times as hard to make sure I maintained some kind of superiority. He was even able to keep it together at a time like that when everyone seemed to be falling apart.
I was still attempting to recollect my vision, and so when I didn’t respond, he continued, “Mom and Dad are going through enough. The least you can do it get dressed so we can get there on time.”
“Alright! I got it!” I snapped. Matthew stormed out of the room as I sat up in a familiar bedroom. It was the same one I grew up in before my parents could afford a place of their own: Nonna’s bedroom.
I was a mess. Life without my Nonna would be challenging, but I knew exactly what she’d want me to do. I hopped out of bed and quickly got dressed in my respectful black dress as my Nonna’s words rang in my ear, “Just have faith.”
A couple of weeks later, my family was finally able to sell the house to a small family of empty nesters. I went back into the bedroom, now filled with a new aura. One of loneliness, dust, and old wood, but the nostalgia still remained. I decided it was time to let go. I walked out into the living room where an old white couple stood talking to my parents and brother.
“This is my daughter, Genesis.” My father introduced. I approached the couple to greet them, when I saw something mysterious and familiar in the elderly woman’s eyes. They were blue, a deep blue, almost turquoise. I caught myself staring and smiled to the gentleman instead.
“I’m Ethan,” He began. “And this is my wife, Ava. I promise, we’ll take good care of the place for you.” I smiled in acknowledgement of his statement.
“Genesis.” Ava muttered finally with a smile. Her voice was so soft and shaky, I was sure I was the only one who could hear her. “A beautiful name.”
We were all on our way out the door, and I turned to get one last good look. I was taken aback when I saw Ava waving me over to her on the other side of the room. Respectfully, I walked over to see if see needed something.
“You are the beginning.” She whispered to me.
“I’m sorry?” I responded, slightly unsettled.
She reached for my hand and, in it, secured my Nonna’s Bible. “She wanted you to have this.” Ava explained.
“You knew my grandmother?” Ava responded with a simple yet joyous smile, and then disappeared into the house.
The gesture was very sweet, but I had so many questions. Who was she?
In the car, I sat in the back seat flipping through the pages. The book filled me with so much grief and nostalgia that I couldn’t really comprehend why I was feeling this way. I was convinced I had to be hormonal because the emotions I felt were overwhelming, but I know I wasn’t really this emotional about it. I bottled up my feeling to avoid making a scene in the car. Matthew somehow noticed I was acting weird and asked, “What are you looking at?”
“It’s just Nonna’s old Bible.” I replied, shutting the book.
“Can I see it?” He asked. I reluctantly gave it to him because I know if I didn’t he would think I was hiding something. I stared out the window trying to piece together my emotions when I heard him mutter under his breath, “what the hell?”
I looked back at him to see a puzzled expression on this face as he continued flipping the pages. “What is it?” I insisted. When he didn’t respond, I snatched the book back from him and saw for myself what was puzzling him. The bible was versed with markings of equations with strange symbols I had never seen before. There were drawings of galaxies, structures of black holes, and planetary compositions both in- and outside of our own solar system. Matthew was now hovering over my shoulder. “What’s this?” He inquired as he reached for a piece of this photopaper sticking out from the pages.
The intensity of my emotions was heightened, and my head was beginning to throb. I think it was safe to reject hormones as the cause of this pain. It was a photo of my Nonna staring lovingly at a tall white man, and him to her. It was very strange considering how young she looked in the photo. When she was this age, the odds of a white man and black woman being in a romantic relationship would have been rare and probably illegal.
Nonetheless, a photo of my grandmother and her ex-lover were the least of my concerns because I was feeling like shit on steroids. In contrast, my brother seemed to be doing perfectly fine. “Gen, look at this!” He whispered enthusiastically, as not to draw on our parents’ attention. I looked at what he was pointing at.
This was all becoming too much for me to handle. I took the picture back from him, exclaiming “can we look at this later?” I was finding it difficult to stay quiet with the immense pain and emotional confusion arising within me. I held the picture down on the book and stared out the window. Reassured knowing, we were only a few minutes away from home.
“Genesis?” His tone of voice scared me. I looked over at him to a mixture of bewilderment and fear searing out of his eyes.
“What happened to your thumb?”
I looked down at the book to see my thumb engulfed by the photo. I quickly pulled it away, relieved to find it in one piece. I exchanged glances with Matthew, he was just as astonished as I was. Curious, I reached to touch the photo again. This time, I put my entire hand through the photo, and where ever it went, it went with ease. I was about to pull it back out, when suddenly I felt something. It felt like another hand holding mine. I tried tugging, but it was like I was stuck. I looked over to Matthew, concerned. My voice was caught, I couldn’t even scream for help. Suddenly, the hand holding mine exerted a huge pull, and I felt myself falling, falling. It was a scene straight out of Alice in Wonderland. When finally, I landed in the arms of a man I didn’t know, in a time period I couldn’t place.
This is my first time actually following through with one of the writing prompts (lol). I haven’t written a narrative in a long time and I would love some feedback or even collaboration.
