Bath time was always awaited with anticipation. She'd close the door to the bathroom and dive into an existence of water. At seven years of age, she could already touch freedom; she was allowed to close the door. The relief of knowing she was alone. It's not that hers was a too large a family for that small suburban house, but those faces repeated themselves throughout the rooms. The father, the face of the father, his face of stone, the aquatic smile brought in bad weather. “Your father will take a shower with you.” She never understood why, she was afraid of her father. She was dirty, her mother had said, and needed to wash properly, and her father would do it. She didn't want to. But there's no wanting at seven years of age. The father took off the girl's dress and cotton underwear. I don't want to, she said. But your voice is reedy and soft at seven years of age. The man turned the shower on and ran his hand down the daughter's small back, following the trail of thin body hair. Heavy, coarse hands like broken bricks from a wall scratched her seven-year-old skin. Large fingers circled her nipples and then the entire hand, like a funny monster from a cartoon on TV, rested between her thin thighs. That day, bath time took longer than usual. She didn't understand why. She wanted to understand that it was love. Father loved her, so he washed her well, all nooks and crannies. Father loved her, that was all. It was a big love, unequaled and dirty, a dirty father's love. |  BRUNA MITRANO was born in 1985 in Rio de Janeiro. She teaches at public schools and is pursuing her Master's Degree in Portuguese Literature.
In 2008, she took part in a project entitled “Literary Life and Intellectual Circuits” under the supervision of Ítalo Moriconi. Two years later, she was among the recipients of the Off Flip Award in the Short Story category.
She also writes for Mallarmargens, an online literary magazine. Some of her material has also been published in Jornal Plástico Bolha, Fórum Virtual de Literatura e Teatro, Germina, and other internet websites.
Translated by
|
Brazilian Stories >