A mirror of water and emotions
With her boots stuck in a puddle, a little girl looks at her reflection. Her disheveled hair, nails decorated with markers and an outdated dress with wrinkled sleeves make for a peculiar vision. His face, full of freckles, is a map of memories that he does not fully understand. From among the freckles that cover his cheeks, a feeling of hatred grows inside him, without knowing why.
Grandma’s wisdom
In contrast to her feelings, the girl evokes the figure of her grandmother, who, the previous evening, had called her in a warm and affectionate tone. Sitting on the rocking chair, wearing red paste glasses, she had begun to count the girl’s freckles with sincere enthusiasm. ‘You have one more than yesterday,’ he had said, with a smile that filled his heart. The girl remembers perfectly how, in an attempt to avoid the grandmother’s affectionate gesture, she had sought refuge in her arms, surrounded by the familiar smell of the dishes she was cooking.
The reflex game
With a gesture of defiance, the girl decides to play with her reflection, opening her mouth and imitating a lion. The reflex, like a determined rival, responds with exact mimicry, and so begins a game of grimaces and gesticulations. But when the girl demands that he give birth, the reflex refuses to budge, and the frustration begins to build. In an impulse, he lifts a foot and slams it into the water, causing an explosion of mud that transforms his world into chaos.
Screaming for grandma
With her clothes soaked and a growing rage, the girl rages and jumps, ignored by her surroundings. Her mother, distracted by her cell phone, looks up when she hears her daughter’s squeal, and the reproaches begin to rain down. ‘Are you a donkey or what’s wrong with you?’ asks the mother, while the little girl, crying uncontrollably, calls out for her grandmother’s name. Desperation takes hold of her, and the words ‘I want grandma’ are repeated like a mantra.
The weight of memory
The mother, frustrated, tries to control the situation. ‘If I hear you again, I will punish you without TV for a week’, he warns, but the words settle in the air, heavy as stones. The little girl, with a shrinking heart, repeats her demand, ignoring the reality around her. ‘You don’t have a grandmother. He died long before you were born!’, exclaims the mother, with an intensity that makes the little girl’s world stop. The freckles on the mother’s nose become a vivid memory, and the little girl, in a moment of anguish, understands that her hated reflected image is also a part of herself.
An inescapable reality
With emotions running high and confusion surrounding her, the girl stares at her image, wishing she could change what she doesn’t understand. Her internal struggle between her love for her grandmother and her hatred for her freckles turns into a moment of deep reflection. Perhaps the freckles are nothing more than a reminder of the love that connected her to her grandmother, a way to keep her memory alive in a relentlessly advancing world.