López Ramírez Gabriela, Broken Or Bonded

BROKEN OR BONDED

Written By Gabriela López Ramírez

The bright sun shines through the big trees, the air is fresh and calm. It is a beautiful day in Los Angeles. Playing around the enormous backyard we see, Casey, the youngest of the Beer family, with her little emerald necklace she got as a newborn. Around Casey, we see the joy and love that surrounds her. Not long after her mother, father, and brother went to the backyard with their hands occupied with the lunch. A beautiful bond is perceived by the whole family. That is when the mother called Casey

“Baby, come here so we can all eat”, the six-year-old, brunette girl, run towards her mother and sat on the picnic table where her family had disposed the plates of pasta. The smell surrounded the whole backyard with a scent of deliciousness. The whole family sat down as they ate, laughed, and talked. That is when the father interrupted and said; “Cass, I got you something, hopefully, you are going to play with it” this made Casey very excited. Father is taking out of a bag a soccer ball and he handed it to Cassey. Very happily Casey received it and started playing with it, this is when Willow, the mother, gave a weird look to the father.

“What happened?” said father. “Why did you give her a soccer ball?” the mother said “I think it would be fun if she plays soccer” the father added

“That is a sport for boys, you know? like you get a lot of injuries” the mother replied

“She is a kid, she won’t get injured.” the father said calmly

“Okay, I am going to let it past because she looks so cute right now” mother agrees.

Little did Willow know that her daughter was going to make soccer her passion and she was going to become one of the best at it.

12 years later…

Casey is on the field, giving it all her heart at the soccer

practice of her school. She is the best. Her movements are just wonderful, her technique is perfect. At the end of the practice, everyone gathers at the locker room to congratulate Casey for getting a scholarship to Harvard for her excellent achievement as a soccer player. She is very happy, excited and feels very blessed that her soccer team is proud of her, but it is there where she realizes that she has no idea how she is going to tell her mother about the big news. As everyone leaves, Casey is finishing getting ready to leave, but her best friend, Madison, stops her and says “I’m so happy that you get to do this”

“Thanks, it is my biggest dream and you know it” Casey responds.

“Have you told your mom?” Madison says.

“No… I don’t even know how I’m going to tell her” Casey says.

“Just tell her, she’ll be happy, it is such a big opportunity” Madison added.

“Haha, you don’t know her, I am not sure how to tell her” Casey responded.

“You’ve got to tell her fast before someone else does,” Madison says.

“ I will, I just need to think how to tell her, it is very important to me,” Casey says.

Casey and Madison leave the locker room.

As Casey arrives home, the sun is already setting and the wind is crazier. She gets into her house and leaves her bags near the doorway, and goes into the kitchen. In there she opens the fridge and gets some food, as she is doing that, the mother enters the kitchen and they greet each other. Casey is very happy and she is about to tell her mom about the scholarship, but before she could get a word out of her mouth, her mom says “Casey I think you should take a little break from soccer” and soon Casey responded “what?”

“Well, you are soon leaving school and entering college. I think you should be ready for everything that awaits” the mother said

“Mom, I am not taking a break from soccer” Casey added. Both of them continued arguing.

“You should just think about it, it is just a hobby” “Mom stop”

“Darling I think you should get ready for all the things that college brings to you, like a boyfriend. You know your father and I got married in college right.”

“Are you trying to make me wife material. Haha, mom, that is ridiculous”

“Don’t tell me I’m ridiculous and you need to learn a lot of things to be independent. You need to learn to cook and clean the house. A lot of things”

Casey goes to her room very mad, and as she lays on the bed and starts crying. She was not able to tell her mother about the scholarship and this broke her heart.

During the next few weeks Willow, Casey’s mother, starts teaching her how to be more autonomous, she wanted to teach her how to take care of a house and a family. For this Willow started to ask her to fix dinner and wash the clothes and go for groceries. This to make her rebel child a properly educated woman. Casey did all of these things because she didn’t want to get in a fight with her mother, especially because she had not told Willow about the scholarship to play soccer. This scared Casey because she wanted to go to study at Harvard and she was terrified of the possibility that her mother wouldn’t let her go because of the soccer. During this period, Casey has found out that following these things made her relationship with mother a lot more fun and calm. But that didn’t last for long, because one evening, as Casey got home from soccer practice, her mother told her

that she had arranged a date for Casey with the son of a family friend and that she needed to get ready for the date. Casey was not happy with the news and started yelling at her mother, therefore her mother started yelling at her as well. This opened a discussion between the two of them.

“Mom, you can not do this. Stop trying to control my life!” “Darling, he is a nice guy you’ll like him” “I don’t want to go out with him”

“Casey, you are going out with him no matter what. We have already arranged the date, you can’t decline it”

“Are you crazy, why would a mother ever do that? You should let me do my thing, however, I want them to be”

“I want you to start thinking about this. You know, I married your father when I was 22, and I dated him for 6 years.”

“Mom I am not you, okay? I don’t want my life to be like yours.” Casey said angrily and she broke the emerald necklace she had always had on. This made Willow extremely mad and broke Casey’s favorite ball. She ran to her bedroom, crying because of all the anger she had inside.

Casey was getting ready because she felt she had no other option, but as she was overthinking the situation she escaped her house and went for a walk. As she’s walking she spotted a home remedies store and decided to go in. While looking through the things she realized she could buy a remedy to make her mom calmer. She genuinely believed this was a good idea, and therefore asked the man at the cashier for something that calmed people. The man suggested that she could use a little of cannabis oil. Casey decided to buy it but put it on a simple muffin she bought on her way to her house so that the mother will not suspect anything wrong. She knew her mother didn’t like very sweet thing so that was the reason why she bought the muffin even though she had never tried it. She didn’t even ask what was on it.

Finally, she reached back home and the boy was not there yet, neither was her father nor her brother. That is when she called her mom to give her the cake. Casey told Willow that she was very sorry for the fight and that she had bought her a muffin as a symbol of peace and forgiveness. Mother very thankful for accepting that she was rude, decided to eat the muffin right away. Willow noticed a weird smell and taste to the muffin due to the oil. Before being able to tell Casey about what she noticed she started to feel her lips and tongue swelling. That is when Willow asked “Honey, does the muffin have any tree nut” and Casey responded very calmly “I don’t know” then the mother said “Casey, I’m deadly allergic to the tree nuts! How come you don’t know.” Casey started to get very worried as her mother started to have trouble breathing. Willow tried to scream but she was not able to. Casey repeatedly told her that she is sorry and told her all the truth, that she decided to give her this muffin to tranquilize her. The mother makes her a weird face but soon forgets it because she could not breathe properly. Casey helped her get to the car as fast as she could and went running to the hospital.

They got there very fast and both of them entered the hospital. Casey screamed for help and luckily a nurse got her to intensive care. Casey was very worried about the fact that her mother might die. As the doctors were trying to stop the allergy Casey talked to mom and this situation mended the bonds that they had broken. Even though their relationship was better, Willow was not getting better and still was having trouble breathing. That is when Casey decided to go back home and found the emerald necklace that she had broken before so she could pray. She got home and took the necklace as fast as she could and prayed on her way back to the hospital. Even though the hospital was about five minutes from the

house, she had time to call her dad and brother to tell them that the mother was in the house.

The father and brother got to the hospital and they all hugged Willow, waiting to hear the news of her health. Soon the doctor came near them and said “Hello, I’m Dr. Holland. Your mother is all okay and healthy. we managed to relieve her from the allergy. She is perfect now.” They all cried of happiness and soon entered the room her mom was in.

Father said “Honey I was so worried when I heard you were here” and brother added “Thank God you are okay” “Mom I’m sorry about everything,” Casey said “Its okay baby” mother responded

“There is something I haven’t told you and it means a lot to me,” Casey told her family. “I got a scholarship at Harvard University for playing soccer. Mom, I know you don’t like it but it means the world to me”

“Honey, that is amazing. I am really proud of you. I know I wasn’t supportive of you playing soccer but now I understand how much it means to you. I want you to do things you love. I really want you to live your life however you’ll like it. I just want you to be safe. I love you with all my heart.” Willow told Casey.

Casey responded “Thank you, mom. I love you too”

Father and Brother congratulated Casey for such a big achievement and after some hours they all went to the house. when Casey got home she understood and realized that she loved her mother more than anything and that she would always need her in all aspects of her life.

Months past and Casey is at the soccer practice of her elite soccer team of Harvard University. Willow watched her practice from the sideline, very proud of her daughter’s achievement. Mother showed Casey that she was proud of her by going all the way to Boston to see her play in such an amazing

team. Willow saw her and deduced that she should not tell her daughter what to do with her life and that was beautiful seeing her daughter making her own decisions and be happy with her own decisions and different passions even though they were not the same as hers.