The space between us

It was one of those days that Elizabeth completely dreaded-one of the days when her mother decided that her office could be run efficiently without her physical presence due to reasons known to her alone. Elizabeth's stomach turned and twisted in severe panic as she listened to the sound of her mother's voice as she read loudly and slowly to Benjamin, the youngest child of the house- even before Elizabeth and Esther had even woken up. Elizabeth quickly sprung up from her bed and rushed to Esther's room. She began to wake her up by repeatedly slapping her lightly on both sides of her cheeks in a frenzied manner. "What is it?. Why are you in my room so early this morning?", Esther asked plaintively, sitting up on her bed. "Can you hear?", Elizabeth blurted, not caring to answer Esther's question. Esther wasn't exactly sure what she was supposed to be hearing, but the troubled look on her sister's face told her that it wasn't a very pleasant thing. "What?. Wait, is it..... mummy?", Esther asked. "Yes", Elizabeth whispered,"I don't think she's going to work today". " s**t", Esther said,"But calm down though, I don't think she's going to kill us". "Us?", Elizabeth nearly shrieked,"What do you mean by'us'?. It's my blood she's out for". "Calm down, Elizabeth, calm down. You're acting like a freak right now. I know how it is with you guys, but it's only mummy okay?, and you have me, I'll help you, I promise", Esther said soothingly," Just breath, everything will be okay". Elizabeth inhaled and exhaled deeply,"Should we get out of bed?",she asked. "Ugh", Esther groaned," I don't want to. I'ld love to sleep in today, you know how hectic yesterday was". "Yeah, I know, but...", Elizabeth's voice trailed off and her eyes flitted towards the direction of their brother's room. As if their mother had been listening in on their conversation, she suddenly paused her reading and started talking to herself. "I can't believe that these girls are still in bed", she started,"So this is how they claim to take care of my son whenever I'm not around..." The two girls did not wait to listen to the rest of their mother's monologue, instead, they immediately swung out of bed and rushed to the bathroom. After brushing their teeth, they headed to the sitting room and then to the kitchen. "She already made breakfast", Elizabeth observed. "Good for us", Esther chirped and began dishing out breakfast for herself and her sister. After breakfast, they returned to the sitting room, where they loitered around, pretending to be doing something. It was almost an hour later that their mother came out of Benjamin's room, carrying her laptop. She showed no surprise when she saw her daughters in the sitting room. "Good morning ma", Elizabeth and Esther greeted in unison. "Morning", Maria answered curtly and breezed into the kitchen. "Elizabeth, Esther, come here", Maria chirped barely seconds after she entered the kitchen. The two girls exchanged worried looks before heading to the kitchen to meet their mother. "What is the meaning of this meaning of this mess?", their mother asked harshly as soon as they walked in, sweeping her right hand over the entire kitchen. When Elizabeth realized that the mess her mother was talking about were the plates and cups she and Esther had used for breakfast, Esther was already trying to salvage the situation. "We,um,we were actually going to wash it after...erm...", Esther broke off and scratched her ear. Elizabeth nearly sighed audibly and it was all she could do to prevent herself from slapping her palm on her head. "After what?.After lounging uselessly in the parlour like people who have nothing to do?. You ate the food without even bothering to know who prepared it, and still had the nerve to leave your plates unwashed.And you", she turned on Elizabeth, "I'm still trying to understand whether you're a human being or not. What sort of an elder sister are you?. Never for once have you done anything right and when others are trying to set things straight, you're always plaguing them with your foul presence.I know you're the reason why Esther didn't wash these plates...." "What?!...Me?", Elizabeth interrupted in a half-outraged, half-pleading tone, her voice was shaky and her eyes were shining with tears."I did not ask her not to do anything,she had breakfast before me...I even found her plates in the kitchen, I only forgot to ask her to wash them". "Don't you ever interrupt me in your life.Do that again and you'll regret your existence, rubbish", Maria spat, eyes flashing. "I'm sorry ma", Elizabeth apologized quickly. "I don't care if you are, I don't even care what you do as long as you learn to keep yourself out of my way and stop irritating me", Maria said."And now, if you don't mind making yourself useful,do the dishes and tidy this place up. Esther,you'll come with me and keep Benjamin company, I'm very busy right now". Maria turned and gestured for Esther to lead the way out of the kitchen, giving Elizabeth an elaborate glare as she did so. "Get me a bottle of water", Maria suddenly snapped at Elizabeth. Elizabeth quickly scurried to the freezer and took a bottle of table water out of it, her hands quaking slightly. She managed to get the bottle to her mother without dropping it. "Don't you know you're supposed to give me a cup?. Are you that dumb or is stupidity now the trend?", Maria snapped again as Elizabeth handed her the bottle. Elizabeth hurried to get her mother a cup. She got that quickly and stretched it to her mother, together with the bottle of water. "Will you put that on a tray?....God, you're so unbearable, I can't stand you!",Maria exploded. When Elizabeth finally managed to place the bottle and glass on a red coloured,flower patterned plastic tray,it was furiously snatched out of her hands by her mother who immediately stormed out of the kitchen, angrily muttering to herself about how incompetent Elizabeth was. Elizabeth stood where she was, breathing shakily. She was trembling and her eyes glistened with unshed tears. She was still standing like that when a whimper escaped her lips and a teardrop rolled out of one eye. "No",she berated herself,"You will not cry, you will not let her get to you. You're a fighter, you'll be fine". She pushed a stool close to the old fridge Esther liked to sit on, rested her elbows on it after sitting and held her head in her hands. She was still trying to calm herself when she heard the sudden slam of a door, followed by her mother's voice. "Don't ask me any irritating questions. I've already had to deal with that imbecile you call your sister this morning and I can't afford to be disgusted any further. s**t your big mouth and take care of your brother like I told you to". Maybe it was because her mother had called her an imbecile or had insinuated that she was disgusting, or the fact that her mother despised her and wasn't making any effort to hide her derision, Elizabeth wasn't sure, but suddenly,her resolve to stay strong melted and she broke down, sobbing pitifully into her palms. She didn't care that the kitchen door was open, or that her sniffles were a bit loud and could probably be heard in the next room, she simply cried. Only when she felt her grief and angst and guilt and every other deadning emotion that was bottled up inside her being washed out by the tears would she stop.