Teaching Manipulation
It was a normal day filled with the occasional yells and fights among siblings Elizabeth and Fabian with their older sister Alicia acting as the mediator.
“It’s no Fair! You Tricked me!” yelled Elizabeth. The young girl of ten years with expressive dark eyes and skin tone of melted brown sugar was upset. Her brother had managed to trick her into claiming that she was stupid.
“Yeah, it is! You said so,” claimed Fabian of fourteen with an arrogant smirk that proclaimed him as the winner. His eyes gleamed with satisfaction at what he considered a success at engaging his sister. He was an expert at manipulating others, except his older sister, and enjoyed it at its full potential to achieve his means.
Alicia observed silently from her comfortable seat having been previously concentrated on her latest crime novel and watched her siblings bickering in the only way they managed with yells and whines from her sister and silence from her brother. Otra vez. This wasn’t anything new. Her brother, Fabian, entertained himself with his youngest sister’s reactions of what he knew to be due to his manipulation of words.
“Elizabeth”, said Alicia with a steady stare towards her sister “can’t you see that he has manipulated you? He has made you agree to something that you never have and is amused by your reaction. Fabian, stop provoking her”
Fabian knew what this meant. Fun was over. The only person in the family who the teenage boy actually listened to was his older sister.
There would be no more pointless arguments if it weren’t for Liz’s incapability of controlling her exterior reactions. Of course this was the solution that her oldest sister sought. Alicia was the considered the perfect daughter with a frightening intuitive mind and a calm demeanor. She understood that this was seemingly impossible to achieve considering her younger sister’s personality.
The extroverted feeler is known to be an individual that shares her thoughts and emotions at a speed of light or at the presence of another being, whether it be their cat Gash or her sister. This was what made Liz such an easy target for her brother.
“What does manipulated mean?” asked Liz with a puzzled glance towards Alicia with what was well known as her trait of needing to understand the unknown.
Alicia looked towards her younger sister and in silence tried to come up with a simple yet concise way to explain the concept of manipulation to a young mind. The expression on Liz’s face wasn’t anything new to her. In most cases, when Alicia talked with Liz, Liz was always confused when hearing her sister talk with vocabulary words she had yet to learn.
“He made you agree on your own terms about something while hiding what he really wanted” explained Alicia. This sounded simple enough. However she could tell from her expression that this explanation was of no help. Elizabeth required actual examples to fully understand this new word.
“That doesn’t make any sense!” whined Elizabeth. Her eyes tearing up as she tried controlling a need to sob. She knew however that her siblings wouldn’t seek her approval. They weren’t her papi or mami ready to appease the youngest wishes if only not to be bothered. Her siblings were entirely used to this, both detached feelers that could easily ignore their sister’s cries. Her brother rolled his eyes and her sister just observed her. This made her feel worse and vulnerable and she reacted the only way she knew how.
“You both think I’m stupid!”
Fabian snorted and agreed with her,” Yeah.”
“Liz, go to your room and try to calm down a bit. Drawing always makes you feel better. Don’t listen to Fabian, we all have our own talents and intelligence only appropriate for what is meant for us and you are in no way stupid.”Alicia then directed her eyes towards her brother and managed in the only way that she could to shush him up with a steady glance and a soft murmur of just his name. “Fabian.” This meant that he had better stop.
Elizabeth saw a glance of promise and excitement the only display of emotions shown when Alice had a new idea or plan.
“Elizabeth, by the end of today you will understand what manipulation is,” promised her sister. With a wary glance towards Alice, she left towards her room to pacify her anger.
Part 2
After spending time on her own, Elizabeth had managed to calm down and was now fully engrossed in her latest master piece. Elizabeth threaded a needle and sewed pieces of cloth together. This is going to be a perfect purse for Lulu. Liz was content in her world of creativity and had completely forgotten her earlier argument with Fabian. The moment she had entered the room she shared with her sister, she had seen her doll Lulu, a hand-me-down from her sister. With her rage at its peak, Liz had grabbed the doll and thrown it across the room. Immediately after, Liz felt guilty and decided to make it up by creating a purse for the doll and time had quickly passed.
“MIJA! It’s time to eat!” yelled her father, a robust man with eyes generally filled with humor. Liz however was lost to her world and only heard a muffled sound. Her father repeated himself twice more before Elizabeth understood what he was saying. She paused her work and left it on the desk before stomping towards the dining table with an attitude of someone who was interrupted with their latest work. Her parents and siblings were waiting on her to eat their meal.
Alicia realized that this behavior of hers wasn’t going to be reprimanded by her parents. Her father was a man with eyes full of adoration towards his youngest unseeing of the bad behavior and her mother was lost in her mind’s film of the day she had at work muttering words about slackers and the new trainees.
"Elizabeth, don’t have that attitude. What did the food do to you? Be thankful for this meal and dad for preparing this,” said Alicia. Elizabeth realized that she was right and apologized.
After the delicious meal that her father had cooked, it was time for dessert. Her mother had bought a package of paleton, which were marshmallow covered chocolates on sticks. There were five of them in the package which was the perfect amount for the family. Her father had taken his and left the table and set off to get ready for his night shift.
And Alicia began, “Lizita, there’s a last pumpkin pie yogurt in the refrigerator. Don’t you want it?” She was referring to the small cups of yogurt that their father had bought. There was only one left and it was one of Liz’s favorite flavors.
“No. I want a paleton.”said Liz
“Then I can take it? It’s the only one.”
“No! It’s mine.”
“Well, that’s not fair is it? How come you get two deserts? It should only be one”
Liz considered this and agreed. She thought of the last yogurt and then considered the chocolate paleton. If Liz took the last yogurt she would end up with something that her sister wanted. It would be a win since Alicia wanted the yogurt and not the paleton.
Alicia then began to get up off her seat as if moving towards the yogurt with a determined stare and Liz got off her seat and got to it first. Elizabeth then sped off towards her room with a winning glance towards her sister not seeing the satisfaction in her eyes. It wasn’t until she was scraping the last of the yogurt that she remembered that her sister loathed pumpkin and couldn’t help but feel confused.
“Hey! That’s weird” murmured Liz.
Fabian glanced towards his sister with the knowledge of what had happened at the dining table. Only a manipulator could recognize another.
“So you get two? No fair.”
Alicia didn’t reply.
Part 3
”Elizabeth, do you want to play Guess Who?” asked Alicia.
Elizabeth remembered the board game with multiple pictures that stood up and were pushed down through elimination of suspects. It had been a while since they had played that game. Alicia usually won but enough time had passed for Liz to hope that she had developed new deduction skills.
“Umm… okay… fine” replied Liz.
“Great! Take out the game then” Alicia then proceeded to smile in an encouraging manner.
“Why? You had the idea first.”
“Is that so? So you don’t think you can beat me?” replied Alicia
“I’ll win this time!” divined Elizabeth.
Alicia won the first two games only to be squashed by Elizabeth’s succeeding wins placing her as the winner.
“I won, Alicia. Beat That! Hah!” cheered Liz. She had done it. She had finally beat her older sister at the game and she couldn’t help but tell the entire world of her achievement. Alicia had actually tried at the game and felt happy with her sister’s accomplishment.
“Good Job! Next time, I’ll win.” Claimed Alicia, “Now put the game away”
“But you lost… so.... You should put the game away”
“Are you saying that as the winner you aren’t strong enough to put it away?”
“No. I’ll show you.” Elizabeth then carefully carried the board game at the highest shelves and showed off her strength with pride.
Part 4
It was nearing evening when Alicia appeared at Elizabeth’s sight.
“Do you want to see a magic trick?” asked Alicia.
Elizabeth reacted rapidly and looked up towards her sister from the desk where she had been reading her school’s required reading material. She was definitely interested in any form of ‘break’ from her homework.
“Yes!” cried Liz.
“Perfecto, remember that a magic trick is a trick that resembles magic. Alright?” And with those words Alicia took out a blank sheet of paper and a marker. She took the paper and ripped a portion of it off. She uncapped the black marker and drew a cross that resembled the one hanging from the wall in her their room on the sheet and scribbled something on the small portion. She then wrote out the numbers one through ten next to the cross.
“I want you to circle four numbers”
Elizabeth circled the numbers one, three, six, and eight with slight uneasiness with the fact that her sister had drawn a cross. It upset her that her sister might be doing something she shouldn’t be doing, but this didn’t deter her.
“Alright, now write down the circled numbers on the cross” And she did,
“Now, circle two of those numbers”. Liz circled one and three.
“Nice, now write down those numbers at the bottom of the cross and then circle one of them. Write down the one that you didn’t circle”
This was all done under the surveillance of Alicia. Liz had circled the one and wrote out the number 3. At this point, Alicia revealed that on the scrap piece of paper she had written down the number 3.
“Is this your number?” finished Alicia.
Elizabeth was astounded and confused. No surprise. How had her sister managed to guess the number she would have picked. Could she tell the future?
“’…remember that a magic trick is a trick…”’ That’s what her sister had said before hand. This meant that there was something going on that she wasn’t aware of.
“How did you do it?” asked Liz
“It was a trick” answered Alicia.
Alicia then taught Elizabeth the secret and revealed that through the write words Liz had thought she actually was in control when in reality Alicia was guiding her actions through mere suggestions. And as if a light hit her she realized that it wasn't the first time. Her older sister had tricked her into taking the yogurt instead of the chocolate paleton. She had been tricked into taking out a board game she hadn't wanted to play in the first place and even though she won she still put it away as if she had been the loser. Throughout the entire day she had been acting in the way that best suited her sister.
Liz felt upset and betrayed.
"Does that mean that you took two chocolate paletons?" asked Liz.
Of course this was what she focused on. Alicia knew that she was going to be upset but figured that the result outweighed the means. She noticed the watery eyes and betrayed expression and knew she wanted to avoid a scream-fest and scolds from her mother.
"You're the most meanest sister in the world! You took all the chocolate!" yelled Elizabeth.
In order to calm her cries Alicia took out the paleton that she had saved for this occasion realizing the irony of the situation.
"'...by the end of today you will understand what manipulation is..."' She sure did. Liz wiped her crocodile tears and hid her triumphant smile.
Just because she had not known what the word was didn't mean that she wasn't an expert at the act.
Copyright 2016
Mnscrp19
12-12-16
Enigma
How can something so wrong feel so right?
Feelings of confusion and frustration prevail
Occasional moments of happiness and peace
Attempts at unraveling fate's plans
Was it a coincidence or destiny?
The chemistry couldn't have been a figment of my imagination
You never tried and I was a coward
We've spoiled our chances and now I'm left with regrets
I've always had a passion for puzzles
However....
Should I give up on solving our knotted enigma?