Venerdì, 26 Marzo, 2004 | Posted by Marie Sven Gerkin at 05:48

My name is Marie Sven Gerkin. Don't ask about Sven, okay. These are issues that I deal with everyday. They include the fact that my father is Lionel Gerkin.

And my mother was a bitch. Her name was Silvia Rose.

Don't get me wrong, she was a great dancer and in Rhumbaland that's what's important. People loved her.

Ever since I was a baby, I remember being taken to her exhibitions. Dressed up in lace and silk petticoats up to your arsehole. I watched like everyone else glued to the freedom in her movement. Like every step, every gesture, every dramatic pause, every look had been planned in heaven.

"Oh, you're Silvia Rose's daughter, you're so lucky."

Sure I am.

I sat there putting up with this shit while she flirted with the male dancers. Luckily it was dancing that she was good at and not welding. At least here 90% of the men were gay and she was safe. Well, kind of. They would look up her with their stupid gawky expression and shrill at the things she would say.

She was still a bitch.

I remember the night she took me aside, Lionel was at the table. She had just finished dancing and the atmosphere had calmed down. She was hot and sweaty and she had that look in her eye. The look of sex. It's the last thing you want to see in your parents.

"I want to show you your father," she said. Just like that.

I looked over at Lionel sitting alone at the table, sipping on a Midori. He was probably thinking about how he could make the popping mechanism on a toaster faster or something.

Her hand pointed toward him and then moved away across the room. I followed it like the camera in a movie. Bodies flashed by in a blur. It came to rest on a table at the other end of the room. A large man stood next to it. His head was draped with a bandana. His shirt clung to his skin and was held there via a thin film of sweat. He drank hard and long. He laughed loud. He was like the centre of attention without even trying.

"That's your real father" she whispered in my ear.

"His name is Jesus Miguel Luis Rodriguez. He is a real dancer. Did you see him tonight? Weren't we great together, baby?."

My name is Marie Sven Gerkin. My father is Lionel Gerkin. And my mother was a bitch.