Mimi, the darker one

She knew it for a fact, her younger sister, Lily the monkey, was definitely far better looking than her. Lily had almond-shaped eyes and her eye brows formed those happy arches over them like they were a gateway to heaven itself! Lily had a lithe body and was high-spirited and had the longest tail, which among the monkeys meant a great deal of appeal and strength. I mean, you've got to be a monkey to know what am talking about here. In comparison, Mimi reflected, she was bushy-eyebrowed and she hated it even more as it covered her own almond-shaped eyes. Mimi's tail was long too, but definitely not as long as Lily's. But this wasn't entirely about the eyebrows and the tail, it was her skin, she was dark, darker than the night, very very unlike Lily who was in total contrast, as white as the snow that capped the mountains at the far end of the forest during winter. On most nights Mimi would cry herself to sleep and promise herself that she would paint herself white the first thing next morning. And the whole night long she would dream of herself running wildly among the white lily pots by the garden, choosing the flowers that went with her skin. It wasn't the same dream each time, there was this other time when she would dream of wearing Lily's lilac gown, in which Lily often shone and outdo Lily in the running race. Or she would dream of Baba, her dad bringing her lots of silver feathers from the north, like he did the last time he visited them. Baba had got her feathers too, golden ones, but its like an idea that once gets planted in your mind, tends to gather all thoughts and desires about it. What I mean is, Baba loved Mimi just as much as he loved Lily. He got Mimi golden feathers and Lily silver ones. But Mimi, with her irked mind, chose to believe that Baba got Lily the silver feathers because it went so well with her skin. Oh yes, thats how fixated she was about her skin :( It happens to all of us you know, we get so fixated with things that we reason things in a weird way after that!
Coming back to Mimi, well she loved her Baba, just like how all little girls love their daddys. But she believed she loved him because he was as dark as her. Yes, Baba was darker than the night too, but that was in a weird way his biggest appeal. In fact her Moma was drawn to him the very first night at the bar because she was deeply drawn by the strength of his dark appeal! Anyways, thats quite another story. Moma was fair, fairer than the snow-capped mountains by the far end of the forest. And Moma was the best Moma in the whole world, but Mimi never told her how badly she wanted to be like her, fair and creamy and ice-cream like. With the passing years, Mimi's fixation with her dark skin grew bigger and bigger. Moma grew worried as Mimi started showing bigger and bigger signs of withdrawal from the whole world. Mimi went on walks alone and cried into the woods, sometimes she would be strong and just pray for things to change.
Finally Mimi touched the age of reasoning, but with her fixated self it was a disaster. She tried to work out patterns as to why Lily was not dark, why she could not be fair and creamy too, why she could not be like Baba or why Moma couldn't paint her white as well. Soon these gentle wonderings grew scary, sometimes Mimi would be able to curb her evil ideas and run back to Moma for a reassuring hug but those times grew fewer and fewer.... until one day when she worked out how Moma had ruined her by marrying a dark Baba. It was sad indeed that she reasoned so stupidly, but remember what I told you about a fixated mind... Within a short time this was a strong idea in her, stronger than anything else she believed in, it seemed to explain and justify everything and in a funny way, calmed her irked self. She hated Moma, she hated Moma to have married dark Baba, she hated that Moma should be so fair and creamy and she hated that Moma didn't kill her when she was born dark... Mimi still lives hating Moma and I believe she is going to hate her forever...