JULIE IS DEAD

All Idalina can do is to shed tears as she watch her daughter walk out. She really wish to accept her with her arms wide open but the circumstances won't allow her. She wants her daughter to get a life and stop hanging out Jessica but she wouldn't listen. The girls prefer to live as nonentities.

Still with tears in her eyes, she stands and shut the door, just as she is about to sit? A family photo hanging on the wall catches her attention. In the photograph, she is seen with a man and two boys wearing plain white clothes and all of them were grinning from ear to ear. Idalina whispers "we smile a lot, Yet we aren't happy one bit. I wish I never did all the things I did. Just one decision I made years ago and it's destroying and killing me. I can't leave and I don't wish to stay." She hears a hard knock on the door. "Who is that? I pray they are not the people I am owing." She hopes and gently opens the door, immediately she sees it is one of those people she owes she hurriedly shuts back the door.

"Will you open this door now you terrible debtor?! You have been owing me for over a year now and you have refused to pay me my money! I mean it this time around, I am going to get you arrested if you continue like this!" The woman yells from outside.

"Just give me sometime, I promise to pay you back very soon." Idalina yells back.

"How are you going to pay me back when you've got no job Huh? If not for the fact that I pitied you that day when you came to beg for money, I shouldn't have borrowed you, instead of you to work and earn money then live within your means, you sit at home doing nothing just borrowing money around from people and getting embarrassed. Only God knows if you enjoy being disgraced. I am going now, when I come back again, I will hear no more story, I promise you." The woman says and walks out.

Idalina listens carefully to the footstep of the woman to confirm if she had truly left, she breaks down in heavy tears and cries her eyes out. "I am tired of this life already." She sobs.

*************

Emerens smiles when she sees Jessica is already at home. "Hi sweetheart, I hope you enjoyed your time with your mom?" She asks trying to brighten up her mood and trying to get over what happened between her and her mom. She moves closer to Jessica and realizes she is looking somehow sad and smoking cigarettes. "Are you okay?"

"Of course I am." Jessica says with a smile that isn't appearing real or happy.

"You don't like the kind condition you found your mom?" She asks again.

"I didn't even get to see her." Jessica replies not looking at her and picks up another stick of cigar, lights it up and starts smoking.

"Why? you changed your mind? So what happened to the dress you got for her?"

"I guess she will be wearing the dress now."

Emerens looks at her friend suspiciously and asks again. "Why didn't you see her?"

"Because she died last night." Jessica walks up to the fridge and helps herself with a bottle of alcohol.

Emerens clearly heard what her friend had just said but still assumed she heard wrong. "Did I hear you well?"

"Yes you did." Jessica replies and settles with her alcohol and cigarettes. "My mom died last night."

"Oh my God!" She exclaims and tears flows down her eyes.

"Please don't cry near me, find somewhere else to do so."

"Really?! Your mom died and you are here acting as if nothing is wrong?" She asks but there is no response. "Jessica!"

"What do you want me to do?!" Jessica asks yelling back at her friend. "Cry my eyes out as if that will bring her back! Do you even know how much pain I feel for the past ten years?" She shakes her head. "No you don't! I personally chose not to even make eye with her for years because I feel so terrible and miserable. We are talking about my own mother for God's sake!"

"Jessica I know it's not easy, but how will you feel better if you don't pour out your pains and feelings?"

"I was actually going to meeting her today, even though she looks terrible, and then she is dead." Jessica says now sobbing gently.

"Stop crying." Emerens says and hugs her trying to give her comfort. "It's so scary to see you cry."

"I want to see my mom! I miss her so bad! Even though I had insulted her and made her feel less of a mother, I still really want and miss her. It is so lonely without her."

"I know." Emerens sobs too. "It's so lonely for me too."

"I swear on my mother's name, I will kill Ella with my own hands by all means."

*************

Ella and her friends sits in the sitting room and are having the time of their lives, they all called in sick at work that day. The friends had series of random discussions and talked about their childhood days too.

"I really enjoyed High school all thanks to you guys, my ever wonderful friends." Asma says with a smile. "You know I was a victim of a bully but the moment Ella stepped into my life, everything changed for good and it got better with you both." She says pointing to Abdullah and Darifa.

"You really want me to tear up don't you?" Asks Darifa with a smile.

"You people are one of the best gifts God gave me, i am so blessed to have you all." Ella whispers.

"People said a lot when all my friends are female, they seriously had the belief that our friendship isn't ordinary. But I thought of it again, even if I comb every corner of this world, will I be able to come across someone as wonderful as you girls?"