The taste of freedom

THE TASTE OF FREEDOM

As a child, I was a very happy kid. The most joyful, cheerful, funny, goofy, and innocent kid you could imagine. I had the most amazing and beautiful days as a kid. I was known as the brightest student in school, the one who was good in academics, sports, dance, and every other co-curricular activities you could imagine. Everyone used to look upon my family, as one of the elite people in the neighborhood. It was a small family of me, my mom, my dad, and my brother. My brother was also the most talked-about student in school. He was the sports prefect and all the girls used to drool over him, though he didn’t like that.

I was the little one in the family, the youngest and the most pampered one. I remember on my every birthday, the entire neighborhood used to come to my house for my birthday celebration. Those were the days when I wish I could turn back time and be a kid again.

But things slowly changed as I grew up. I could feel the slight change in behavior among people. In my early teenage life, I would notice boys in my school stare at my breasts and pass comments at me as I passed by. It was extremely humiliating and haunting. I would get nightmares about such incidents and couldn’t sleep all night. One night my mom caught me crying in the bathroom at 3 am. She was shocked to see my condition and said that she would come with me to my school and complain about those boys. She also told my dad and my brother about this and asked them to take care of me.

I was relieved and thought that this would be the end of it. But, this made the matter even worse.

After a few days, I caught my brother and my dad stare at my breasts. I couldn’t understand why would my brother and dad would behave in such a way after the school incident.

I thought I should tell my mom, but I chose to ignore it. But it didn’t help, it just made me very depressed. Some suggested to my mom that I should be taken to a psychiatrist. She thought it was a good idea as it would put an end to my sleepless nights. So, we googled the best doctor in town and took an appointment. When I discussed my problems with my doctor, he was extremely understanding and patient. He also discussed the same with my mom.

To my surprise, my mom refused to believe me and said that I was being paranoid. I chose to agree with my mom believing that my brother and dad wouldn’t do something like that to me. My doctor prescribed me some sleeping tablets which would help me with my sleep.

For a few months, everything went very well. School was great, those boys didn’t bother me ever again and everything at home was splendid too.

But as I grew older, things changed between my mom and dad. There was too much domestic violence in my house. My dad would beat up my mom for no reason and I would protect my mom from the animal my dad had turned into.

There was a time when I had my exams going on and my dad came home drunk, took a sharp tool, and hit my mom in her head. She started bleeding and fainted. I had to take her to the hospital and made sure she got her stitches. I used to ask my brother for help, but he used to simply ignore them and used to ask me to mind my own business. I didn’t know whom to go and talk to and felt helpless.

It didn’t take him long to turn into an inappropriate person. Whenever I used to be in the kitchen to serve him food, he used to sway his hand around my butt and made it look that it happened by accident. It really used to pain, the kind of pain one goes through when they are touched without their consent. This happened several times and I finally spoke to my mom about this. My mom was shocked to hear this and couldn’t believe that her husband would do such a thing.

Previously I had complained about him several times, but she ignored me saying that he is your father and he wouldn’t do something like that.

She said she would talk to my father about it. Soon, my father happened to leave for his hometown saying that his mom was sick and had to go meet her and take care of her. Me and my mom were very happy knowing that we had the whole house to ourselves and could do anything we want. The taste of freedom was splendid.

But this was a short freedom. Things changed after my dad returned. My mom got a call from the village saying that my dad has been sleeping around with his sister-in-law at my uncle's place in his absence.

My mom was shattered after she heard this. She happened to confront my dad about this and he didn’t deny the same.

As her daughter, I did suggest her to consider taking a divorce from my father. I thought my mom would say no because she thought I needed my dad for my upbringing, but to my surprise, she considered thinking about this.

It was high time now we got rid of the monster and a sexual predator we had in our house. We had to let him go as he was a terrible father and a husband to both of us.

I hugged my mom and we both cried. These were not tears of sorrow but tears of joy as we were finally free. Cheers to our freedom and our years ahead!!!

My family was perfect again and I didn't even feel the absence of my father in my life ever again. My mom was strong enough to support me and my brother. I got in touch with my innocence which I lost years ago. This made me a much stronger person and helped me turn into the wiser woman that I am today.