Epiphany

Prologue

WINTER OF 2009

As she hums a familiar tune to herself, umbrellas and raincoats emerg from closets as people braced themselves for the downpour.

Pedestrians hurried along the sidewalks, their footsteps echoing through the wet busy streets. Puddles formed everywhere, reflecting the somber gray sky above.

While rain tapped against the top of her umbrella, Cecilia walked through the sidewalk of her hometown while holding her report card in her hand. She felt overly excited to show her parents her results, knowing that they'll be the most proud of the extra efforts she put in this very semester.

Only if she knew.

Luckyly as the rain intensified, she was already infront of the front gate of her home, forcing the metal gate open.

The smell of wet grass and soil filled her nostrils as she entered the front, admiring her mother's garden in the front yard as she walked to the door.

The roses had been beaten down by the rain but knowing her mother, it'll be fixed once the sun is out.

She lowers her umbrella and shakes it off once she steps on the hooded porch of her home, before solely walking inside the warmth of the house. She happily slides off her shoes and places her bag right next to them before hopping in her white neat socks to where the sound of her mother's heartwarming humming came from.

She follows the smell of a warm fresh pollo guisado, a famous Dominican dish into the kitchen and her mom turns around to the sound of her daughters soft feet padding on the floor.

"Come and give mama a hug." A smile grows on her lips at the sight of her daughter.

She opens up her arms and Cecilia jumps into her mother's embrace, smiling as she leans her cheek against her stomach.

"How was school?" Mom asks softly, with a tender tone and Cecilia looks up at her mother with innocent eyes.

"It was cold. I was cold, but other than that it was good." She shrugs and smiles, her dimples on her cheeks showing.

"Oh, sweetheart. Did you take off your scarf during the day?" She asks, worryingly and brushes her fingers through her daughters blue scarf, that she had knitted for her herself.

"No, I kept it on the whole day." The young girl says and pouts at her mom.

"Alright, sweetheart." Mom grins at her daught and takes Cecilias scarf to wrap around her own neck, revealing her daughters neat hair.

"Look, we got our results today." She motions the report card to her mother and she gasps, grabbing the tan colored card.

"I'm sure you did spectacular. You always do." Her mom comments as she rips the card open with excitement. While she occupies herself by doing that a relaxed Cecelia grabs a delicious  looking cornbread that her mother had prepared on a plate.

She bites the conr bread and goes for another, loving her mother's food more than anything.

As she emjoys her bread, the front door suddenly opens up and closes almost instantly.

Cecilias dad walks into the kitchen with a drenched suit while holding a briefcase in his other hand.

Cecelia turns to her dad and her smile remains on her lips as she gives him a high wave, "Hi, dad."

"Hi, mon ange." He says and leans down to give her a soft peck on her right cheek and sneakingly bites her corn bread.

"Dad." She complains while chuckling and her dad, smiles while chewing shifts his eyes to the envelope that his wife is holding. "What's that?"

"Her report card, thus envelope is glued to the max." Mom reveals while leaning againt the counter while forcing it open.

She finally unfolds the white page and Cecelia stares up at her mothers relaxed pupils, waiting for a reaction.

"How'd she do?" Dad suddenly asks while he neatly hangs his suit on the chairs shoulders and then walks over to his wife to have a look for himself.

Cecelia intertwined her fingers behind her back and swung on her heels, patiently waiting to be congratulated by her parents. They have always pushed her to go harder and so she did.

Although, that very night Cecelia had no idea how much disappointment could be shown on someone's face.

Her smile started to slowly drop as she caught the visible frown on her dads face.

"How could you possibly bring this back to us, Cecelia?" Her dad asks in all seriousness with his brows furrowed and Cecilia gulps, having nothing to say.

When he calls her by her name, she knows that's a sign that she did something terribly wrong.

And when he mixes French and English.

"74 percent for maths? Mais, c'est horrible." He complains and sighs as he grabs the card from her moms hand, double checking as if what he saw the first time was fake.

"How many times do I have to tell you that you need to be first in your class, Cecelia?" He moves the card around as he speaks and she glances up at her dad with wide telling innocent eyes.

"I am first in my cl--" She starts softly but instantly gets cut off.

"Even though you're first in your class, that doesn't mean anything. 74 percent for maths is a pass to you? Do you think any medica school will ever take you with these grades?" His dark brows furrow and Cilias eyes slowly fall down to her feet and she stares down at the crisps of the cornbread between her fingers.

She's only so young, hearing those words come out of her dads mouth broke her.

"Paul, that's enough." Her mom whispers, attempting to calm him by placing her hand on his shoulder but he gently pushes her hand away.

Cecelia felt a sting at the back of her eyes as her lips started to tremble at the sight of her dads disappointment.

"If you're going to bring me anything below 95 percent, rather keep that to yourself. You're not getting into med school with that. Try harder." He aggressively shoves the paper into the trash can and angrily flashes past a devastated Cilia.

She stood in the center of the kitchen, as a tear rolled down her cheek, convincing herself that she couldn't do any better than that.

"Cilia, don't let that bring you down. You did good, alright?" Mom crouches down to look at her in the eyes but Cecilia, covers her face with her palms and begins to bawl her eyes out.

"It wasn't good, mama. Dad said that I've failed you guys and... I-I did, I've failed." She says between cries and her mom sighs feeling her heart break to pieces at the sight of her daughters devastation.

"Come here." Her mom pulls her into a tight hug in which Cilia responds and hugs her back, wrapping her arms around her mother's neck as she laid her tears on her white shirt.

The hug her mom gave her that night, had been a moment she would never forget. As thunder roared outside, she hugged her mother tighter and sniffled.

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