The Alphabet of a Family, a Family fanfic

The Alphabet of a Family

for the Antagonistic new sibling,

the Arrival of competition

because you can’t believe that, now, you’ll have

to share the Attention of your parents.

A for Anxiety.

for Babies crying at 3 in the

morning, and oh god please

just make her stop! But nothing else

happens, except that she cries even louder

and now the dogs and cats join howling

as well.

B for Bane.

for Cats content to laze around

and disappear until it’s dinnertime.

opened Cans of tuna fish and sardines

for hisses and scratches every time you

Carelessly stepped on wayward,

unfortunate tails.

C for Catastrophe.

for Dogs

because for every snooty cat,

there’s the Doe-eyed, Drooly,

adorably Dependent Dog

whose only wish in life is to please you

(and knock you off your feet, ruin your furniture,

and leave surprises by your Door).

D for Darn it!

for Elementary,

for not being able to come home before

12 o’clock, for Every single time you wished

mommy could come pick you up

so that you can go to sleep,

for every Evil Eye the teacher’s thrown at you

because you’re antsy (and you can’t help

but yawn a little, every five minutes,

after lunchtime)

E for Exhausted.

For the word Family,

there’s no other thing in the world

which you can’t stand yet Fear losing,

For knowing that you’ll never

leave them and that Fortunately

they’ll never leave you

(that doesn’t mean that you can’t try).

F for Frenetic.

for Grandparents,

those friendly, wrinkled

Gangly figures who sit around

and smile toothlessly (while

slipping you some cash just for

standing still with they smush their

lips into your formerly dry cheeks),

for Gas, for Gravy, for stories we

loved hearing the first time.

G for Greatness.

for Happy meals

because they were a special treat

(before Super Size Me came along)

for screaming kids running up and

down the plastic playground, Hitting

each other because you can’t Have that

red toy car, cause I wanted it, Here, let me give

you my blue one – psych! you’re not getting it

back! finders keepers!

H for Hungry.

for the Insanity of

piano recitals and school

performances, for Irking little

comments like ‘You should have tucked

your shirt In, practiced more, smiled more,

and done a whole lot better’

and you think I did just fine.

I for Insecurity.

for Just as well, using

up the whole roll of film

on every crazy performance anyway,

for hiding the proud grin that’s Just

Jutting out for the world to see.

J for Joy.

for Keeping secrets and

diaries, for Keepsakes and memorabilia,

for your mom’s old shirt, your dad’s old hat,

your grandmother’s old earring, your grandfather’s old

pin, and your sister’s old rag doll

K for Knowing.

for Love

Like how you Love watching

animal Planet with your mother on

Lazy, Saturday nights, Letting your plans

to go to the mall for the fiftieth time

fall through because you choose to go

golfing with your father or watch a movie with

your sister. L for Lying through your teeth

every time you say that you hated every minute of it.

L for not Letting go.

for Marriage

because true commitment still

exists in the era where divorce

is as acceptable as plastic surgery

for the Merriment of a golden year anniversary,

for Making their day by reliving their past with

old wedding gowns and dusty

albums.

M for Magic.

for dispelling the word Never,

because Never has no place in the word

family, like I’ll Never eat my peas,

I’ll Never talk to you again, I’ll Never get out of

my room, I’ll Never pass this test,

I’ll Never forgive you, I’ll Never

get over the fact that you lied to me,

I’ll Never say Never again.

N for Never mind.

for Open doors,

for always having room for

just One more,

for the last plateful of Oreos

shared with One another

O for Orbiting.

for Pleasing Parents,

the never-ending quest to see

that Perfect, watery grin on their

faces, not knowing that the quest

had already been completed,

from the moment that you were born.

P for Payment.

for the Quiet

which every blessed mother and father

deserves

Q for not Quite there yet.

for Respect

because you can’t have a family

without Respect, for calling Renegade

would-be adults who insist on calling moms

and dads by their first names.

R for that’s just Rong.

for Siblings

because they know all your

dirty little Secrets and can

Slyly count the number of Skeletons

you have in your closet, for Shams and pranks,

for Sharing laughs but not Sharing the last Twix bar.

S for Support.

for Top down,

as in, I roll around in my car with my top down,

as in, when I get to college, my insecurities will

be revealed because I’ll let my top down,

as in, I can’t believe you can’t stop telling

everyone when I ran around as a little kid

with my Top down.

T for Tenacity.

for Unreasonable

as in, your rules and restrictions are Unreasonable

for Unprepared

as in, they are not Unreasonable, you are just

Unprepared

U for Unrecognizable.

for Versus, for Veracity

for every single Venus fly trap of

dissent, for Venting towards the Venerable

not realizing that Verbal assaults

come with a Vengeance

V for Venial.

for Wages

because that means that little ones

are growing up into the World,

for Whining after the first 8 hour shift, for

Walking to Work because you don’t have a car,

for Wasting your first paycheck on you don’t really need,

W for the Waiting game.

for Xamine, as in

let’s Xamine who we are today

because of who we were yesterday, for Xasperation,

for Xaggeration, for Xhaltation, for Xclammation, for Xecutions.

X for Xistence.

for Yapping,

for Young man or Young lady,

for Yummy, Young offenders, for Yellow

sun drawings and Yelping Yahoos.

Y for Yearning.

for Zoning out the source

of Zest, for Zilch, nada, I can’t tell you more than

I’ve already told you

for Zero chances that you’ll ever forget their names and faces

for Zoom lenses on family portraits

for Zapping out any seed of doubt, make

sure you come to visit.

Z for Zip Code.

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