A life unscripted

Chapter 2

“Willow! Willow!”

“Yes?” I replied as I was called to come and have dinner.

“Go call your brothers to come and have dinner,” Mum said.

It had been five days before her demise.

“Freddie! Austin!” I called as my brothers began making their way down the stairs.

As we sat around the dining table, I could immediately sense that something was off. The atmosphere in the house had always been tense, but this time, it felt different, heavier, more suffocating.

“I prepared your favorites,” Mum said, her voice filled with sorrow and her eyes yearning for the love and attention she so desperately deserved.

No one replied.

The food sat untouched on the table as an uncomfortable silence descended upon the room.

I couldn't take it anymore.

“It's always either shouts or screams in this house,” I finally said, breaking the silence. “It's been ages since we last sat around this dining table to have dinner together, and now that we finally do, you all just want to make things even more difficult for Mum.”

“What could this nine year old possibly know?”

My dad's voice cut through mine, menacing and dismissive.

I swallowed the rest of my words immediately.

How couldn't I know?

How could I not know after everything I had seen Mum go through? After all the times I had watched her dissolve into tears?

I knew more than they thought I did.

“You all should just please have dinner,” Mum said quietly.

“Woman!” Dad snapped. “You and your daughter should learn to respect yourselves in the presence of the men in this house.”

His voice was ominous.

Mum's eyes narrowed, but she said nothing.

Dad stormed out of the room, and my brothers followed behind him like puppets being pulled along by invisible strings.

The moment his words sank in, Mum's composure crumbled.

I approached her slowly, wanting to console her. I could see her trying desperately to hold back her tears, but at nine years old, I was still too naive to understand the depth of what she was going through.

I thought she would be okay.

I didn't ask any questions.

“Willow, it's time to go to bed,” she said.

She carried me in her arms and held me close before laying me down on my miniature bed.

Then she spoke quietly, as though carefully choosing every word.

She began telling me how I should go on with life in the days ahead.

“They'll be a day when I won't be here anymore,” she said softly. “And I want you to carry courage in your heart as you move through life on your own.”

I was puzzled.

I was too young to understand the challenges life would eventually bring me.

“Why would I have to walk this journey alone when I have you?” I asked innocently.

Mum didn't answer.

The silence lingered between us.

Then she quietly walked out of my room, carefully fastening the door behind her.

I had no idea that those words would stay with me forever.

Winter crept into the morning, frosting the air with an eerie silence.

I began to hear noises.

Slowly, I descended the stairs, one step at a time, trying to figure out where the sounds were coming from.

I followed them cautiously until they eventually led me to my parents' bedroom.

I leaned closer to the doorway, trying to listen to their conversation without being noticed.

“You're just like an ornament!” Dad shouted.

His voice was sharp enough to slice through the silence.

“You're calling me an ornament?” Mum replied, her voice trembling but still firm.

“I'll happily say it one more time,” he fired back.

I heard his footsteps moving around the room.

Then suddenly, the silence was broken by the sound of footsteps approaching the door.

My heart jumped.

I quickly ran back upstairs and into my bedroom, pretending I had never been there.

My heart felt uneasy as I wondered how badly Mum must have been hurting after being treated that way.

But I decided to pretend I hadn't heard anything.

A few minutes later, Mum came into my room to check if I was awake.

With a half hearted smile, she called my name.

“Willow, aren't you going to have breakfast?”

I looked at her face.

The sadness etched across it was impossible to miss.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

Even after everything I had witnessed, she still forced a smile.

“I'm alright,” she replied.

I knew she wasn't.

But I didn't know what to do.

I ate my breakfast and left for school with a thousand thoughts filling my young mind.

I couldn't concentrate in class.

I had no friends to share my problems with, no one I could lean on whenever I felt scared.

All I ever seemed to get from school were insults and bullying.

When classes finally ended, I went home earlier than usual, hoping to avoid being bullied again.

But when I walked through the door, I found Mum dissolving into tears.

I could already guess the reason.

Still, I asked.

“Mum, what's wrong?”

“Willow, something just got into my eyes,” she replied in an icy voice. “You should get some rest.”

I knew she was lying.

But I was only nine.

And I didn't know how to make her tell me the truth.

Saturday came.

It had been two days since I had seen Mum break down in tears.

We had been invited to dinner at one of my father's friend's house. He had just arrived from L.A., and everyone was getting ready to leave.

“Everyone should be ready! We should be on our way in forty five minutes, and you're spending hours getting ready!” Dad shouted.

I hadn't checked on Mum that morning.

Neither had Dad.

For the past two days, he had been sleeping in the guest room after another fight between them.

Maybe that was why Mum had been so tearful when I came home from school.

Everyone else was dressed and ready.

We looked like the perfect family just like always but Mum was nowhere to be seen.

I decided to go upstairs and check on her.

When I entered the room, I was shocked to find her still lying beneath the blankets.

“Mum?”

I leaned closer, gently trying to wake her.

There was no response, my heart began to race.

“Mum?”

Still nothing.

Panic slowly took over me.

I rushed out of the room.

“Everyone! Come upstairs!”

My voice echoed through the house.

“Mum isn't waking up!”

I turned back toward her, my voice breaking.

Then the tears came.

“This happened because of all of you!”

I collapsed to the ground, tears streaming down my face, broken sobs escaped my lips as I cried.

I didn't understand what was happening, I only knew that something was terribly wrong.

The weight of my fear and grief became too heavy for my young heart to carry, and then, everything went dark.