Chapter 2
As a lone tear made its way down her cheek all the way to the ground she couldn't help but remember eleven years ago.
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Flashback
"Why don't you just get another job?" She yelled.
"Why should i get another job and i already have one,"he yelled back.
"What job? Huh! What job is that that you have? We have nothing and all i keep hearing is that things will be okay when your boss comes back to the country," Linda questioned infuriated by her husband's laid back nature.
"Exactly he will be back soon," Bernard tried to reassure.
"So you expect us to stay like this till he comes back? Just take the job," she yelled.
"No i wont. Since you are so adamant about it why don't you take the job yourself," he yelled back.
Bernard has tried to convince her that they are okay, that he has everything sorted but she won't listen to him. Instead she wants him to take the job offer from her brother-in-law, but why should he take it and everything is going to be fine once his boss comes back to the country and in the meantime he has planned to take out his savings for the family to use but it is taking longer than he imagined it would.
"Fine i will take it, you useless stubborn man " she yelled annoyed that she got married to a stubborn man who doesn't like being told what do or even advised.
Linda has been trying to get him to accept the job offer from her brother-in-law but he is as stubborn as a mule and refuses to take it. She understands that he won't make as much as he used to make at his current job but at least he would make enough to put food on the table for them till his work place becomes good again. But no he has refused to hear anything about leaving his current job as if he has been cursed to stay in that job all his life.
"Useless? I am useless? Who the hell between us is useless? You spending the day doing nothing but roaming around with that whore of a sister of yours using my money," he roared at her fuming for being called useless while he works so hard to give them their current lifestyle.
Those words were enough to escalate everything.
What started as a jolly conversation between a husband and wife had now turned into a screaming match -to what people would assume was between two people who hated each other -throwing objects around, and the living room of their home was their arena.
On the couch that the wife was occupying at the far corner a not so little girl was huddled with a little boy holding onto her as if she were her lifeline as they watch a Sponge Bob cartoon. Or tried to.
It was almost bed time, and the girl had noticed that her mother hadn't made food or made any preparations to make food, how could she, there was no food nor did the mother have money. The girl knew tonight they wouldn't be eating but that was alright, she thought for they had eaten at her aunt's place, Spaghetti and meatballs her favorite of her aunt's food, and they would be alright that night.
She tried her best to focus on the cartoon but she couldn't help but listen to the argument between her parents. She couldn't help but hear some words that not so long ago were used to describe her.
She had just started in a new school. Her first time in a public school. The school had no bus thus she had to use public transport, she was glad she wouldn't be alone for her friends studied there. On her first day she was given transport to go to school. But her mother was worried since she had never gone so far on her own and even though she would have their neighbors children with her, her mother was still worried. Her mother therefore came to her school to see her and gave her transport money for going home.
The girl kept the money in her school bag and went to play with the other kids. When time came to go home, she couldn't find her transport money, it was stolen. Her friends told her that she was in a public school and things get stolen so you keep them on you always. She walked home. When she told her parents, her father was furious and scolded her accusing her of being a lying thief, that she hid the money and come and lied to them.Now hearing her father use it on her mother made her wonder.
Her brother's laughter pulled her back to reality and her brother tried to recount to her the funny scene, she laughed for her brother's sake.
The boy's laughter got the attention of the parents too reminding them of the presence of the children. Their mother got up and made her way to her bedroom slamming the door behind her, making the boy flinch.
Slowly the girl lifted her eyes to her father only to find him staring at them. His eyes were furious and something else she couldn't quite place her finger on but it send jolts of fear down her spine making her look away quickly to not be on the receiving end of her father's anger. Quickly grabbing her brother's hand they left for their bedroom.
Getting into bed her brother asked
"Naina why are we going to sleep without eating?"
"We will be alright Nixon," she assured as she hugged him through the night.
When morning came she noticed her mother didn't wake her up for school. She missed school for the first time.
******
Looking at the scene in front her was making her sick, she therefore run - while tried to in her drunk stupor- into the house, up the stairs and into the room grabbed her friend and made it out of the house and left the campus for their apartment.