A Tale Of Two Cousins (The End Part 1)

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Flash Fiction #163

This is the 21th part. The previous 20 parts are here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

I have been thinking of several endings for this story, but none is satisfactory. Although the story itself is based on real life occurrences, the ending is not. I feel that I don’t have enough creativity to pull it off by imagining a fictional results for this narcissistic family.

Here are the two endings I come up with: The first one is that Uncle Big’s ex-girlfriend comes back to haunt him. His wedding is wracked, his fiancee leaves him, and Arjin finally comes to Nalan to admit that he does need help and agrees to see a psychiatrist. The second one is that Uncle Big runs into an argument with his brother Uncle Small, who asks about the money left by Grandma. The two has a fight right before Uncle Big’s wedding. Uncle Big suffers a heart attack and collapses. Nalan tries to educate her relatives about Grandma and Uncle Big’s narcissism, but nobody believes her.

As you know, this story is based on my own family. Uncle Big, the golden boy of my narcissistic Grandma, was a capable businessman, but he just couldn’t handle human relationship involved in the business world. He ended up offending almost every partner he ever had with his arrogance and self centered manner. He ran a small business, which was sufficient for his small family, but he was never able to expand it. He blamed other people’s jealousy and their sabotage for his failure at expansion, but reflecting back, I think it was more due to his narcissistic personality.

Aunt San was another victim of my Grandma’s narcissism. I wrote a post about her early marriage right after high school, her disillusion with her husband, her having to give up her ambition after giving birth to two kids, and her inability to divorce her husband due to economic concerns.

Uncle Small was probably the biggest victim of my Grandma’s malignancy. He was a very sweet man and he was never in very good health. Due to his chronic ill health, my Grandma never fully unleashed her narcissistic wrath on him like what she did with her other children. Luckily for Uncle Small, he married a woman who loved him dearly. They had a happy life together, but my narcissistic Grandma just couldn’t stand the fact that there were happy people associated with her. She just had to crush them. They didn’t have kid and didn’t really mind about that, which in my Grandma’s opinion was the most un-filial thing a couple could do. She persuaded them to go through treatment and in vitro procedures. This was 20 years ago and the medical technique was really in its infancy, at least in many parts of Asia at the time. The doctor informed everybody that it was risky and the child might not be normal, but under my Grandma’s pressure (and encouragement), Uncle Small and his wife insisted on going through with it. When my little cousin was born, everybody was happy, especially my grandma, whose narcissistic wish became a reality once again. However, my little cousin was diagnosed with mental retardation at the age of two and for all her life, her mental capacity was like a two-year-old child. Now Uncle Small and his wife didn’t have the time to be happy anymore since they spent all their time taking care of my cousin, who would never grow up. My Grandma, the evil witch, succeeded again in punishing everybody and crushing everybody around her.

And my cousin Arjin was such a good boy, and I sincerely loved him when we were children. However my Grandma would not allow a good sweet boy to grow up in our family. She had to destroy him by labeling him a golden grandson and did all she could to indulge him. I knew he tried to change, but old habits die hard. He is the person I really wish I can save and this is why I write this story.

I am so angry thinking about my cousin Arjin and what my Grandma did to destroy him that I can’t think straight right now. I have to continue this post tomorrow.

(To Be Continued Here)