A Meeting

“Oh, you must be Vicky’s brother”.

“Yes, I am”.

“ I’ve seen you before. In one of those pictures she had posted up. You look very different from Vicky and from your mom”. She chuckled.

That’s what they all say. He let out a weak smile. He felt an uneasiness settling in, like a thief caught in the act. Perhaps it was the truth and he was ashamed of it. Perhaps they didn’t mean it in a bad way. But they did.  He didn’t mean to look or behave any different from his family, but as he recalled, none of the men in his family behaved like their moms or their sisters. They were quiet and reserved a certain kind of stoic cynicism that didn’t belong to the age. His cousins were strong men who didn’t let their emotions betray their harsh sinewy exterior. They were difficult to figure out, enigmatic, and anyone who didn’t know them could have mistaken their intentions as evil. And he was no different from any of them. Perhaps they picked it up from grandpa, who refused to let cancer get the better of him until his legs ran weak from the poison and his strength was stolen under his breath on moonless night.

“Mm”.

His gentle uneasiness parted to let out a grin. He always remembered to show the white of his teeth. It showed his sincerity, or at least that's what he thought it would do.

Her eyes were knotted and confused. She didn’t know how else to proceed with the conversation. There was a momentary pause as she went back over her words to look for anything that was mildly offensive. She couldn’t find any.

“You seem like the quiet and introverted kind”. She was still smiling.

“Yeah yeah… I guess so”.

This time his response was cued on time. He loosened his shoulders and hunched forward a little. He looked up to reassure her of his congeniality and he saw the lids of her eyes heave a sigh of relief. He was getting better at this.