Reblog: Frosted Glass

[potofsoup]

via falena: Frosted Glass, a short story.

Mrs. Mendez fumed. She watched the lights go on at the neighbor’s house. The Mendezes had installed the trendiest windows they could find—frosted glass, cut into identical squares. They could see out, but anyone looking in would see just blobs and shapes. They’d see silhouettes moving in and out of shadows like creatures stretching and curling into their caves. This is why Mrs. Mendez had busted her back for twenty-five years. This is why she had arrived with her one suitcase and cleaned homes for so many years while taking classes at the community college where all her teachers assumed by her accent she understood nothing. Why she’d studied accounting with an English-to-Spanish dictionary at her side and spent years working her way up a ladder full of splinters and snapped legs at every turn. So she could have goddamn frosted glass spy windows she could see out of but nobody could see into.

Definitely worth a read, although I'm not quite sure how I feel about the ending. Or the way some of Mrs. Mendez' frustrations are portrayed as not valid (um, put the trash lid back on, and maybe have a conversation with your mom about why you want a more Americanized name?)

Comments

[falena]

I thought that the ending went a bit magical realism on me, which is actually something I'm not too fond of, because rationality had to be sacrificed in order to highlight that building walls is never the answer? That's also, why, imo, Mrs. Mendez's concern are kinda dismissed.

But I might be completely wrong.

[conuly]

Seriously, the trash can. Lucy, you know your mom is obsessed with this, you also know the neighbor in question and are friendly with her. Do everybody a favor, go over and say "My mom is worried about raccoons, could you keep the lid on your trash? She doesn't want to ask you herself" and be done with it.

[potofsoup]

Yeah, I was definitely frustrated by the overly-literal "you've walled yourself in" ending. :/

[potofsoup]

Right? Like, instead of being huffy at your mom who is worried about losing her child culturally -- maybe try to have a conversation with your mom about why you want to choose the name Lucy? I liked the first half where it's obvious that Mrs. Mendez makes her choices based off of her immigration experience, and that ends up creating that gap between her and her daughter, but then the second half is just "Mrs. Mendez is irrational". ::shrug::

[conuly]

Well, teenagers can sometimes be a bit huffy at their parents for no good reason, but honestly.