Patching Up Pieces

Chapter 2

PROLOGUE

It seemed like she was counting her steps, her heartbeat a great deal faster than the movement of her quaking feet. The lump that had formed in her throat refused to be pushed down no matter how hard she tried to swallow. Her neck and armpits were damp, giving her light-complexioned skin a golden glow. She briefly looked down at the letter in her hands and caught the sight of her quivering hands. She darted her eyes back up, trying to calm down, failing woefully at it.

When she got to the curtain demarcating the sitting room from the inner house, she stopped and peeped through. He was there like she knew he would be, seated in his favourite chair, a newspaper in hand. He liked to read the newspaper in the evenings, especially when there was a power outage. Though he looked calm to anyone seeing him, she knew trouble awaited her.

If this was not important to her, she would have avoided going to meet him altogether, but everyone in the class would be going and the teacher described the place in such a way that she could already imagine herself looking into the eyes of the animals she only got to see on the television, feeding the monkeys bananas, and clinging unto her friends as they hear the roar of the lions in their cages.

She wanted to go to the zoo so badly, however, the decision lay with her father. She wished she could have had it any other way than this. Taking a deep breath, she walked through the curtain, towards him, halting two feet away from where he sat. It was safer.

“Daddy.”

He did not look up from his paper. Typical. Her voice trembled as she continued.

“My teacher gave me a letter to give you. It is for an excursion we have in two weeks' time. We are going to –”

“Shut up,” he bawled, his menacing eyes glaring at her now. “Which stupid excursion is that? The money I spend for your school fees is not enough? You stupid, brainless i***t. Go and read your book or clean the house. Don’t ever disturb me when I am relaxing again, you hear me?”

She did not move. She shuddered as his intense eyes pierced hers. Tears formed in her eyes, pooling and leaking down her cheeks. She wanted to go on this excursion so badly. She didn't want to be left out. Not again.

“Daddy, please –”

“Get out of my sight!” he cut her off and rose to his feet. She scampered out of his reach before his large fist could touch her. When she got to the curtain, she grabbed it and sobbed.

“Dumb i***t. If I get my hands on you, I will beat that stupidity out of you!” He hissed and went back to his paper, mumbling to himself.

As she turned to leave, shoulders slumped and tears falling freely, she caught a glimpse of her mother peering through the kitchen door.

Her eyes were sad.

She wanted to hate her mother for not standing up for her, for being just as weak and defenceless as she was, but she could not. She understood, however, why her brother chose to cling to their father, hating their mother. At least, he would be protected. She walked to her room with one thought: she would never be like her mother.