A week had pa.s.sed since that morning. She had found refuge at the home of a relative who lived abroad. The house was dilapidated and abandoned. It looked a lot like a ghost house. The mere valuables that she had, she had sold to buy food for her family. She had also cleaned and adapted to this new house. Also her father"s funeral rites had been performed by her. And some neighbours were kind enough to agree to let their children take tuitions from her because of her strong English language skills.The tuition fees that she would have would help her to feed her family as of now.After dinner she was sleeping on the mattress on the floor. They didn"t have a bed, so they had to sleep on the floors. It was cold and dark. The electricity of this house was not functioning. So they were forced to live without it as of now. A candle was burning on the side. She tucked her sister in the large fleece blanket along with her mother. Then she turned to her side and her thoughts came to her. With the flickering flame of the candle, her past came alive before her.
She had never been this poor in her life. Even her late father had ensured that they were properly fed and dressed even if he hit them or abused them. She was educated in the most expensive schools. Though she wasn"t able to complete her studies due to being confined by her father. She was versatile in many languages. And her biggest a.s.set was her ability to express herself. She was well read. She could paint a canvas, sing a song, play the piano, dance. But none of that was useful now. Because none of that could feed her or her family. Everything was different. She really craved for that chocolate cake that she saw at the market. A man was buying it for his daughter. Even her father would bring it for her and her sister. But she didn"t have any money to buy that now. Her little sister would love to take just a bite. But she couldn"t even buy that for her. Her tears overcame her. Her heart felt heavy from the pain. Yesterday her sister wanted an ice cream so badly. But she couldn"t afford it. She felt so helpless. Everything seemed so futile. Was she so useless?
She cried and cried and cried. Her pillow was soaked with her silent tears. Why did everything go so wrong? Why had fate taken every bit of happiness from her? But there was one thing. Even in these harsh times she had her mother and sister by her side. No matter how much they suffered, they suffered the pain together while smiling peacefully. With these thoughts she closed her eyes. But after closing her eyes a black cloud had overtaken her. She could see nothing, nor could she hear anything. She couldn"t feel her legs or hand or body. It was as if nothing existed. She could only think. This was scary. At that moment a faint light was seen by her.
There was sound of birds cooing. She opened her eyes and saw a peculiar thing; surrounding her were giant trees. The sunlight shone from within the green leaves creating a serene atmosphere. She looked around but found no one. So she wandered amidst the trees and birds and all the things that were beautiful. To search for life.