Half life

Powerful Eight Year Old

Yellow rays outside poured through the window lighting up my room in awe as I woke up the next morning feeling a bit relived. The headache has subsided tremendously. I stood up slowly and walked to the dressing table stationed at the left corner of the room. Peering intently into the mirror hanging on the wall I ran my hands through my unruly, unbounded cinnamon hair stocked to my sweaty nape. I sighed at the figure reflecting in the mirror. I looked really pale with swollen, red eyes. My stomach aches badly as I remembered I slept last night without having dinner. I picked up a comb from the dressing table so as to comb the messy hair, running it slowly through my hair and packed it thereafter into a ponytail with the aid of a ribbon. I walked out of the room in my pink fluffy foot wears. The foot wear was a gift from a distant Aunty based in Germany for my 7th birthday celebration. ”Yes please cancel all my appointments for today; I won’t be coming to the office today. “ Dad blared into his phone, with his husky voice filling up the doorway.Dad has a very croaky and deep voice and it was so bad that when he attempts to laugh you will hear him grasping for air in the process. I’ve never heard him sing but Mum told me when I was five that when they newly got married, daddy sang every night before they slept. Mum said he has a good voice and could sing classical music like Beethoven— Grosse Fuge, Elgar ---Cello Concerto After few seconds there was a dead silence to signify the end of the call.He must have been talking to his secretary at the office on phone. As I aisled down the stairs I kept wondering why he has decided not to go to the office today. On a normal day, the man I know to be my dad won’t even leave his work for just one day no matter the circumstance. It was shocking to hear him talk about not going to work this morning.I entered the sitting room and trudged towards the kitchen. The kitchen was neat with the marbled floor sparkling in radiance just the way mum have left it the previous day. The cupboard, tightly shut stood in the left corner adjacent to the micro wave. On the other side were two dark brown cabinets with two doors made solely for dishes, cups and ceramic bowls of various designs. The other cabinet contains boxes of oatmeal; Dad’s favorite. Next, was the kitchen sink with a dish rack placed on it. Slightly above the kitchen sink were various kinds of kitchen wares like knives and cooking spoons of various sizes and designs hanging loosely on the kitchen holder and racks. Lastly, the refrigerator lay few inches away in the dark corner beside the wall facing two forlorn stoves covered with thick transparent containers. In the middle of the kitchen, was a large, polished flat surface spreading out on both sides which served as the kitchen table and also doubled as the platform holding the cooking ware in place. The only window in the kitchen was on the opposite side of the wall. It is rectangular in shape firmly arched at the top and covered by shutters thus only beams of light could penetrate through it into the kitchen.“My princess, where have you been?I have been looking for you everywhere,” dad said in a flat and steady voice but yet tight as a plucked wire and waited to hear me speak as he made eye contact with me. Having realized I was holding my breath. I breathed out loudly and nodded after a long silence, trying to find my voice. I started but the bitterness in my heart betrayed my mouth and I trailed off. Not knowing what else to say, I turned towards the window and kept staring blankly into space. “You see dear, I understand how you feel right now but I promise you’ll be fine. I don’t know why your mum decided to leave us but I believe we will fine all by ourselves” Dad said, too fast but yet soft. How was I to believe this man now, mum told me dad asked him to leave, that he didn’t want her anymore and why is he now saying a different thing. I was puzzled as to who to believe in this case. Mum would never lie to me neither would dad. I turned to face him not minding the wide difference between dad and I in terms of height and body size. While he looked more like a boxer with a broad chest and protruding muscles threatening to fall off his arms any moment. I looked relatively small, naïve and fragile just like any other 8 year old girl was. Notwithstanding, I starred piercingly into his eyes and willed the anger in my voice towards him.“Why did you ask my mum to leave?”I thundered with all the strength I could muster, sending my shrill voice ringing across the whole corner of the house. For a moment I did hear the whole house shook violently with terror and there was a black out as I fell crashing down to the floor, hitting my head on the cold marbled floor in the process. ______________________________________________________ The scorching rays of sunlight peering through the window forced me to wake up as I kept rubbing my eyes rigorously. I made to stand up but could not due to the pain from my head .After some seconds; I made another futile attempt and finally decided to lie back in bed. Wearily, I tilted my heads towards the door in front; on it was written in bold;“FEMALE PAITENTS MAIN WARD”“Huh?, what am I doing in a hospital all alone?” I asked rhetorically. Just to be sure I wasn’t hallucinating, I scanned the large hall the umpteenth time. I wasn’t daydreaming it was real. I saw women; young, old putting on orange colored loose fitting gowns like mine and lying on medium sized beds as well. A young tall ebony nurse apparently in her late 20’s emerged from the door clothed in a white gown barely above her knees, breaking me out of my thought as she walked towards my bedside beaming with smiles.