♙ N e r i n e
"Alright, I suppose I'll tell you it, but it really isn't fascinating," she said, sighing. Focusing on her chopping for a moment, she thought of how to start it. "I was from a small Italian-Greek family, the only child of my parents. We lived in a small, cramped area in West Berlin, just before World War II. It was a gray brick house with a dreary landscape to match. We couldn't afford much, we were poor.
"Most of our income went to my father's alcohol addiction. My father was a very violent, perverted drunk. Rumor in the neighborhood was he had a private harlem to himself. He was not an ugly man, he was very nice looking. Especially when he wasn't drunk. I remember those times sometimes, he was nice to me, but I'll get to that later.
"My mother was a nice woman, very kind. She loved to garden. The only color in our backyard was her small rose garden. Only roses would grow, a symbol of affection. She said they bloomed the day I was born, as if Mother Earth accepted me as her own. She was a petite woman in size, so very beautiful. Her hair was a pale ginger and her eyes as blue as the waters of the ocean."
Nerine sighed, thinking about her past. "My mother disappeared when I was six years old. My father told me she went on a trip and she was never coming back. He told me that I couldn't go outside anymore. He didn't know what I really did know though."