Fiction: Lust, Avarice & Vanity.

When I was young I used to think that fame and success, the last one in particular, were the things that mattered in life. But now that I am old and have achieved my goals, I still ask myself if I have really had a memorable existence.

I was born into a family of five: my mum, my dad and my two sisters. My parents were pretty contents of not having male children and never made a big deal out of it. I was the middle child and as a respectable one, I was always caught in the middle between my elder and younger sister. They were like Tom and Jerry but I was never able to associate one of the characters to any of them as they switched roles all the time. As I was busy trying to make things right for me, my parents' attention was totally taken by their jobs.
My dad was a the director of a very famous bank. He had been one for more than 20 years. Despite his parents' wish to be a lawyer he was able to succeed in his personally chosen career.However to in part please his loved ones, he married my mother who is a judge in the high court. I have always wondered how they were able to date, court and marry. They are so different. If it's really true that opposite sides attract then my folks are a living example. My dad was so much focus on how to make his business more profittable, while mum struggled everday to clean our nation of the lawless. You can understand they never had so much time for us. "You aren't kids anymore" it's what they used to tell us the time. They were right but wrong at the same time. The eldest of us, Suzanne was 23, I was 20, while the youngest, Samantha was barely 18. We all had our traits that differed us in a very strong way. Suzanne was the typical big girl who lived a big life in her big world. Our financial status helped her a lot. Getting money from mum and dad wasn't hard; we were students, so we weren't independent. Daddy didn't like to see the apples of his eyes sad so he always made sure our pocket were full and we had a smile long one chin to the other.She was a type people defined as promiscuous but hey who could dare say it to her face when they knew "who her parents were". My youngest sister wasn't a saint either. Everthing was about "her, herself and she". Pretty, slim, tall and fair, she was always admired by everyone. Suzanne and I were the ugly ducklies. We weren't lucky to take our mother's beautiful complexion, we didn't have her dimples. We were just dark and although with a good height, we never really stood up when it came to beauty. I never bothered and neither did Suzanne. On the other hand she was of the idea of being the prettiest among us as her skin was smooth like silk. You can see why my two sisters never agreed. They were so similar in thoughts but yet they looked at themselves as the antithesis of one another.
And I? Well I had other projects. My appearance never mattered to much to me. Something else was going to bring me my success as beauty was just something temporal that was going to fade away just like the sun in the horizon.
Education was my life, beauty was Sammy's and fun was Suzanne's. Never for once had I thought our interest could ever meet, but they did and we saw we made the biggest mistake of our lives. We should have hold on to what we had.

Everything started in the afternoon of a sunny day. I was sitting in my comfortable couch reading my business magazine, when my little sister walked in. Dressed attractively she worked straight to me as if she had something to say.
"Hey Sonia" - she called out my name sitting on the couch beside me and dropping her bag. I looked up to her and smiled. "Sonia, why won't you answer me? I am calling you" - she was starting to get upset. I smiled once again and closed my magazine and placed it on the table. Even if I didn't speak, I made it clear I was willing to listen to whatever she had to say.
"Guess what!" - we were both staring at each other as we smiled - "I am contesting in the next beauty pageant of this state" - I burst out in a loud laughter. "What's so funny about that? Or do you think I have no chance of winning?". As I tried to hold myself I also thought of what to tell her. I knew her to be sensitive and just a drop could hurt her feelings.
"Good luck!" - that was all i could say. "Thank you! But I don't think I'll need it. I know no other girl can compete with me. Can you imagine that? I, Samantha Smith, the most beautiful girl of this State? I am already but all I to do is to convince those judges. I'll be called "miss"Wow!" - she stood up and ran off to her room. I picked up my magazine and continued fro, where I had stopped.

To be continued.

This fiction is written by Michelin89.