I’ve always believed that the truth, above all else, will set one’s soul free. That’s what I was taught to believe and if I lied and it turn out that I was lying, mom would dig her nails deep into my thighs. I still have the marks to prove it.

It’s only ironic when the same mom, or just to be fair let me say ‘parents’, who had preached that honesty was the only way Santa would buy us nice clothes and treat us during the festive season, feel that they can justify a lie by saying that they “just kept the truth to themselves”. A lie is lie whether from a priest or from a criminal. It remains a lie. That’s what I was taught.

“So mom you are telling me that you were protecting us by lying to us?” It’s so bad that she had been the one left to clean the mess and take a responsibility for something she had also been involved in not by her own choice. But she was here now, and I needed answers.

“I didn’t lie to you. I just kept the truth to myself for when you are old enough to understand…”

“Keeping the truth…? Such a diplomatic way to excuse a lie,”

What? You won’t believe it – that was Sim! And before I could collect my thoughts, he had walked out of the room. In fact what brought me out of my trance was the BANGING! of the door. He left us in pin drop silence!

Mom was taken aback; she couldn’t believe her own eyes and ears. Her mouth failed to come up with the right words to call Sim to order. She was stiff with surprise. She wasn’t expecting such rebellion from her sacred cow. She had lost a pawn.

For the first time in his life, Sim had left us slack-jawed without using Shakespearean texts or big scientific inventions and terms that we couldn’t care about. Just a simple act of defiance!

To be honest, after gathering my wits I had a sudden urge to laugh right there and then. I am not a cruel person. I get no amusement from other people’s pains and misfortunes; I do not celebrate anyone’s downfall, especially not my own mom’s.

But hearing my brother talk like that just did something to me, and the dramatic walkout – it seemed so perfectly practised. It was mutiny at its best. It’s just too good to be true.

I could no longer hold my laughter, I just burst out laughing. Mom just looked at me as if she had just woken up from a dream; I was hoping she’d join me. She stared at me as if she would gobble me up if she could. Laughter trickled out of me, I wanted to stop. But it’s difficult to stop yourself from laughing at something that’s not really funny, I guess.

She made her bed now she can lie on it never mind the thorns.

ZZ xxx

Dish it: Do you think Sim and I being mean towards our mother?

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