Visual Trigger

Melinda was an all-rounder. Perfect skin, perfect family, pefect boyfriend, perfect intelligence, perfect grades – even perfect boobs. She was always the life of the party. She had boys wanting her, and girls wanting to be her. Of course with such a perfect life nothing could go wrong right? Yep. Lady Luck was always on Melinda’s side. She never once had a fashion faux pas nor was she backstabbed by her perfect friends. Sometimes, she would even strike the weekly lottery. So on one drunken night after a university party Luck decide to take a turn and break the latex protection that had so prevented a life from forming, the barrier between freedom and resposibility raising their stakes, and more importantly, ruining Melinda’s very own future.

Growing up in a strict Catholic environment, Melinda couldn’t destroy the tiny heartbeat that was now alive in her. She wouldn’t be able to stand her conscience either. So she kept it. It was too bad for Melinda’s lecturers who saw the potential in the shining A-star student, she couldn’t fulfill their promises and resigned from school. She cried every night, every morning, inbetween. Leighton had promised to be the best father but he was far too busy with his football to stick around much. Her parents, although disappointed at their daughter’s sudden juxtaposed behaviour, agreed it was best to keep the baby, least she would be sent to hell for killing God’s creation.

Months passed and while Melinda was still in the know of her peer’s academic stress, she was facing the other kind of stress only mothers would know. She regretted throwing away her smart future by one reckless night of folly, but she couldn’t turn back time now, could she? She was having a baby. A new life to focus on. She couldn’t think of her past anymore.

Baby Geraldine was the most perfect thing she ever saw. He looked like his father, but the little, veiny thing certainly had her big, round eyes. She recognised the happy glint in her baby’s eyes and knew she had it once, before she conceived this tragic beauty. But this was it now. She wasn’t a student. She wasn’t perfect. She was a mom.