Tearful House

"It can't be!" "Not again!" She screamed. Tears gathered around her eyes. The food on the centre table wasn't delicious to her anymore. Beans and fried plantain she made herself happily after struggling to save money to buy the plantain now looked like poop and worm on the plastic flat plate to her as she pushed it away from her sight. She scratched her afro to think of a way to get out of situation alive and unharmed. Fear of seeing the worst she has always dreamed about makes her to go to the kitchen to carry a knife to stab the man but her bible doesn't permit her to do so. Different ideas entering into her head but her values wouldn't let her to do it. All she wants right now is for the ground to open and swallow her into the earth. Her mind moved to do the next thing that comes into her soul. She moved to remove anything that could serve as a weapon to the man to be used to inflict more injuries on the abusee. She can't come in between them and she can't pull him away from her either. "Stop!" She yelled. The room begins to flow with blood. Her screams too tiny to be heard by the neighbors to come to her aid. The ceiling fan coming close to her. The room shrinking away as every second passes. Her limbs too weak to hit him hard. And she can't use anything to hit his head either for fear of disrespecting him and bringing a curse on her life. Life escaping from the escaping the man is abusing second but second. She rushes to her mobile phone to call for help but card isn't in the phone. Thinking long and hard about what next to do, she runs straight to the room to grab her mother's phone to call the family friend for help. She fell on the ground sad at the sight of the phone asking her to type in the password. "What could be the password?" She asked herself as she paces back and forth the room cracking her head to think of a clue. "How wish you were around sis, you would know the password." Pounding was still being heard from the living room. The television was loud enough to cover the sound of the pounding. She can't turn the volume of the television for fear of the man beating her too."Mom is too smart enough to use a password that her husband can crack open?" Her brain blinked to try the first two letters of her and her sister's names since its a four letters password. Her sister, Zaila went back to the university while she came back home for the weekend as she always does to rest from the stress of obtaining a degree from the university. Her fragile health doesn't permit her to stay in the hostel during weekends. The doctor's advice to her was to come home regularly to be taken care of at home. Lean and barely fed by her dad, she doesn't have the strength that her age mates have. "Bingo! ATZA." Phone unlocked immediately and she hurried to call the family friend. The family friend was the only one who could speak to the man and make him to stop the abuse at least for today. "Hello, it's Athena…Everything is not fine...Its a life or death situation... You need to talk to somebody." Running to the living room, she stopped near her the man and said, "Lizzy wants to talk to you, Dad." Thompson shouted at her. "Tell her I'm busy you useless child!" He went back to what he was doing. The police can't be called into the matter either because her dad would kill her if she did it. Her dreams of burying someone she lives flashed before her eyes. A chilly feeling ran threw her spine. She went back to her room to cry for that was the only thing she could think of that wouldn't endanger her fragile health while trying to save her mom from her dad's abuse. The piano which she played whenever she was gloomy only made her to remember the way her Dad played with her mom's heart on their 19th marriage anniversary. Happily she ran home from school that day after an hectic day of narrowing escaping the teacher's unjust came, she saw her Dad on her parent's matrimonial bed with another girl young enough to be her sister. Her Dad's mother was in America so everyone tries to get in bed with him to get some of that money but only Athena, Zaila and their mom knows that the grandmother doesn't send money to anyone in the family including her own son. She decided to count with her fingers to keep her mind away from the situation at hand. "One, two, three... why me… Can't I have a normal week for once?" Athena stopped counting as the counting only made her to remember the countless times her Dad gave abused her Mom. She went to her Mom's room and opened a can of alcoholic drink. She sips as she blabbers away. "Everywhere we pack to, Dad sleeps with the community girls. Mom doesn't even have any family members to fight for her. If she leaves the marriage Dad will search for her and drag her back to his house. I can't even sleep at night for the sound of the poundings still follow me to my dreams. Heavenly Father, where are you? Your daughter needs you to save her mother who have been faithfully serving you since she knew of your existence and what you are." Done with the drink, she staggered to the kitchen to throw the can away into the dustbin. In the kitchen, she sits on the floor and tried to think of any happy moment that can save her from falling into depression. She curved herself into a ball and rolled on the floor till morning came to shine its sun into her face through the small window.