Camilla: Violetta and the Pearl 3

I was trying to make my way to the other side of the very small ice rink. Ice shavings flew in all directions and I wondered if I wasn’t supposed to feel like my skates did what I wanted them to do instead of the other way around. Right over at the grocery store, Ruben. I hadn’t seen him but I knew he was there. Felt him, like I could feel in my bones when a hawk or an owl was close. Felt like something plugging into my system before I had even seen who or what it was. This was bad. Humiliating myself in front of Mu and a few town people was ok, but I hadn’t even thought about the possibility of Ruben being here to watch my pathetic attempt to be athletic. Of course my legs started swaying and trembling even more, my arms were waving as if I was trying to swim through the air and if this wasn’t enough humiliation for a fourteen-year-old weirdo, I crashed into Mr Stanners and landed on top of his big belly. 

- O dear. Are you alright miss Merin? 

Mr Stanners was talking to me, but still making no attempt to move. I tried to get up from the poor man, but of course fell again and decided it would probably be better to do what he did. Just stay down and wait for assistance.

- Hey, Rube! Norman! Go help our ice dancers dear, will you? Mumu’s voice rose above the Christmas songs. No dear god, please, not Ruben, whatever happens, don’t send Ruben over here.

Luckily only Norman came over to help, simply dragged me to the side where I could pull myself up using the temporary fence around the skating rink and then got two more men to help Mr Stanners, since that required some real muscle power.

I was hanging on to the fence, trying to save what was left of my dignity at this point. Mumu came over, still drying the tears from her eyes from all that laughing. 

- You kill me girl. That was so much fun.

- Glad I could amuse you today, Mu.

- Let’s go home and have some tea! I have some intriguing things to tell you.

See, this was never a good thing when Auntie Mumu said something like this. If my mom would say it, you needen’t worry because mom was always so preoccupied with herself, she rarely picked up on anything real in my life. Mumu, on the other hand, was as scary as they come. Like really spooky. I don’t even know how she could sense all the things she picked up, but it wasn’t always fun to listen to what she had to say. She protected no one. I mean, she always protected me as in comforting me when I was sad and giving me food if I was hungry, but this lady did not know how to sugar coat things.