IN THE DEVIL’S ARMS

Anna Anna Anna….., who’s calling me this loud early in the morning. Why can’t I enjoy my freaking sleep? I’m pretty sure it must be Audrey. She’s the only one that calls me this loud. Audrey is my friend and sister. We live in a small town cus we are from a middle-class family … My father is definitely not home. He probably got himself drunk again and slept in the gambling house. That is what he has always done ever since my mum died. Oh, I forgot I don’t even stay with him again after he almost beat me to death at age 5. That will be a story for another day … Anaaaa…!! Audrey, what is it …she entered my room and slammed the door! Anna, Haven’t you heard…. She asked Heard what I asked She gave me an eye roll and asked if I was kidding her. Audrey, I’m serious. What is it? I haven’t left this bed since last night. When I came back from my night shift you just woke me up. Well., remember that scholarship we applied for last month ?? She asked Yeah, I replied, What about it? She held my hands and smiled. Anna, our prayers have been answered… I asked how … We freaking qualified, she shouted … I couldn’t even believe my eyes cus I never wanted to apply. She forced me to do it because I knew my stupid father would not allow me to go to school…, he sees it as a waste of time and money. Instead, he would rather get me married… Anna! Anna! I heard my name, so I jerked out of my thoughts. What are you thinking about Anna? She asked Well, I scratch the back of my head. You know … You know what., see Anna, don’t bring your stupid father into this because I know where you are driving too. I sighed Look, baby girl, I know what your father is, but this is a big opportunity for us … we managed to finish high school with the help of my mum. We can’t burden her with college stuff, that's why we started part-time jobs to assist her and we both know that part-time jobs are not even enough to take us to college. Look Anna, we qualified for the scholarship. It looks like the heavens are on our side …, all we just have to do now is study hard for the exam so we can pass and finally enter college. Your dad doesn’t have to know. Remember our dream of becoming a wealthy young business person. We can still achieve it Anna, we just have to believe …. Audrey said I looked at her and couldn’t even say anything. I was just so emotional and hugged her… Audrey has always had my back right from childhood. She was the sister I never had, and her mum was like the mum I never had… Because, from what I heard, my mum died after giving birth to me …, Audrey’s mum and my mum were friends…. That got into labor on the same day. The only difference was my mum died, and she didn’t …. Right from birth my dad always hated me cus he felt I had killed his wife … Audrey’s mum breastfed me, took care of me alongside Audrey with the help of her husband…. My dad didn’t do anything to help …the only thing he did was to come check up on me once in a while … but that ended after some time. Audrey’s father died when we were 7 years old in a car accident while coming back from work and since then Mummy P., who is Audrey's mum, who is what I do call her, has taken it upon herself to take care of me and Audrey … She saw us through high school… never allowed us to suffer even when other kids talked trash about us …. All the time, my so-called dad didn’t bother assisting her. All he did was complain and told Mummy P that she'd wasted her money. There was a day he came to the house to cause his usual problems, calling me names that I had killed his wife then we had just come back from school… he was dead, drunk. Mummy P had to call some boys to hold him down… Then he said these words… DON'T THINK OF EVEN ENTERING COLLEGE CUS I AM WATCHING YOU…WHEN YOU ARE RIPE I WILL GET YOU MARRIED!!!! Mummy P slapped him hard on the face out of annoyance and told him never to repeat those words again …. She said and I quote My daughters will finish school, become graduates and be successful businessowners. Then he smirked… and said, We will see about that After that incident, we didn’t set our eyes on him again, but those words are still heavy in my heart and every day and I get scared of what if he comes back and takes me away from here …. It has been years since we saw him. All we do hear about him is how he gambles, drinks and does all sorts of rubbish. Now we are done with high school… Mummy P's business isn’t really going well, so behind her back we started part-time jobs because she will never accept the fact that her daughters are stressing themselves by working part-time …. Until the day she finally found out …after much talk she had no choice than to allow us … We have tried applying for several scholarships at the prestigious BROWN HILLS COLLEGE, but it was not working… this year we tried again, and I was just so shocked that we qualified. **** Audrey cut my thoughts off. Anna, it's okay, so stop crying. Let's just make Mama proud Hun… Then I nodded. Now let's go help mum at her restaurant. Audrey said Sure, let's have our bath first, I replied to her. *** MUMMY RESTAURANT (PAT’S DINNER) Mummy P POV *** I couldn’t help but sigh…. How time flies it has been so many years. Now my girls are all grown up preparing for college I just hope they qualify for the scholarship this time around … I looked around my shop and smiled with the help of my daughters. My business is now going well … despite the challenges we did it … I run this small restaurant with the help of my daughters… all we do is serve breakfast…, burgers …, coffee…etc. and customers are always trooping in thanks to my daughters. I remember when they were about to finish high school and business wasn’t going well, then I never allowed them to assist me in the shop, neither did I allow them to do any part-time jobs, but after many talks with them, I agreed … now look how I am smiling today… It was almost time for customers to start coming, and my girls weren’t there yet… I was about to call them on the phone again when I heard my name …..