Matricide Makes People Say — By Kristi D. Osorio
artwork by Ciara Duffy
Oh my God. That’s so tragic. I’m so sorry for your loss. Is it even enough to call it a loss? But your mother was always a little different. There’s this one Law & Order episode like that. My uncle’s friend is a cop. Maybe he was there. Maybe he helped you after you called 9-1-1. You probably don’t remember. Were you just in total shock? The newspaper said your mom was on pills. My friend’s mom told me that she saw your mom on pills once, maybe even twice. At the grocery store. No, wait, at the casino where your grandma worked. Walking around like she had nowhere to go. Actually, did you know matricide is really rare? Your grandma—she was so cool. I’d never met an old lady who acted like that. Talked like that. But nobody should have to die like that. It’s not fair. You must have felt so alone. Do you believe in the death penalty? It’s crazy because normally women don’t kill people. Like, normally it’s just the men. Aren’t men just so awful? I’m sure there was nothing you could have done to stop it. You were just a kid, you know? When I saw your mom’s mugshot, I remembered how pretty she always was. And she looked young, too. People must have thought you were sisters. She was a little better looking, to be honest, but I guess that doesn’t matter now. Had you ever seen a dead body before? It reminds me of what OJ Simpson did, or this other thing I heard in a podcast once. Then there’s the shower scene in Psycho. I mean, no offense though. Have you ever read When Bad Things Happen to Good People or watched Orange is the New Black? By the way, I definitely think you’re pretty too. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that even the papers said your mom was pretty. That one reporter—he talked about her eyebrows. He also said you hid in your room. What was that like? Gosh, I’m just so sorry you had to go through this. It isn’t right. Do you ever wonder if there was anything you could have done? It must feel impossible to move on.
Kristi D. Osorio's writing has appeared in the New Delta Review, The Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. In 2023, she was the winner of the Indiana Review Creative Nonfiction Prize selected by Camonghne Felix and the Sonora Review "Mercy" Contest in Nonfiction selected by Maggie Nelson. She is an Assistant Professor of Practice at Texas Tech University. Her first book is forthcoming from the University of Georgia Press.