I couldn’t bring myself to believe that my sister has
brought this much shame upon us. Or let me say I did know she would, but I
didn’t know it will be this quick. Now, for the first time in my life, the
first son, the second born, I witnessed the whole family of four enveloped in a
dark fog of darkness that may never leave again. I also needed to be blamed in
all these; I should have talked when I had the chance, and I knew my dad would
have taken a drastic measure. And probably, this wouldn’t have happened.
I remembered the day my dad asked me to go give my sister
some urgent money in school. Her numbers weren’t going, and she said the
deadline was going to be twelve noon that day. The first thing that went wrong
was that she wasn’t staying in the school hostel as she claimed she was. I was
directed to a friend, who directed me to another friend who said her friend
will take me to her friend who knew her place off campus, where she was staying
with her friends. Well, I got to the place, and I knocked without an answer.
The door was left slightly opened, so I pushed my way in. The sight was a
shame. My sister, including five of her friends was asleep and snoring like
uncultured animals. My sister was sleeping in a vomit of another one who was
naked, from waist to the top. I tapped her, and that was when I knew she was
drunk.
Outside, she begged me not to tell our parents, and I
agreed. Not that that didn’t have a price which she gladly paid. The dress she
was wearing was not more than a handkerchief, and her nipples were pointing
sideways. The skirt was a super micro mini like the ones I’ve only seen in
movies involving prostitutes. I wonder
how she managed to appear at home during holidays like a responsible girl she
was brought up to be. She should be a double agent. But I didn’t mind, she paid
me good.
Then, just last week, a concerned friend of hers called my
dad and told him that my sister was pregnant and was trying to self-abort it
after the doctor said it might take her life. My parents flew to her school and
carted her home. At home, my dad asked her to call the guy who was responsible
for her pregnancy, but that proved to be the wrong move. The guy said he has
already told my sister he can’t be responsible. This came about when the three
different doctors said she can’t abort the pregnancy because she has aborted
too many, and doing this will surely claim her life. He said my sister opened
up to him that she has aborted eleven times for different guys! The guy even
said he listened to her plea to abort the pregnancy after carefully considering
he couldn’t marry a girl like her. He said they always have sex inside the
toilet of the club where they met! He wasn’t even sure he was responsible. Guys
at the club call her ‘el-Sarah’. The prefix before her name actually means
‘easy lay’, but she has always been told it meant ‘almighty’!
My dad, for the first time since I was born, cried like a
baby, with his head on my mom’s bosom. My mom was trying to console my dad, but
she was also crying. Everyone except me was. That day, our house was like a
graveyard, silent, with a heavy air of darkness. El-Sarah cried throughout the
night. Eventually, amidst her noise, I slept off.
The next day, I woke up to the usual silence and the unusual
silence of El-Sarah. With curiosity, I headed to her room and found her dead
with a note with two words, ‘I’m sorry’. I took the note and went straight to
my parents’ room, I wasn’t feeling bad. My mom fell on the floor and started
crying, but my dad, surprisingly, was calm. He held my arm and pulled me
outside the room. I was scared; I thought he was going to accuse me because his
countenance was stern and piercing. But as soon as he closed the door behind
him, he looked into my eyes, raised the suicide note to my face and said,
“Son, I am sorry your sister had to take her life, we
probably were too harsh on her, but this is not a solution, it never should be.
If you are wondering why I wasn’t moved by this, it is because I am angry at
her for hurting us, and then leaving us in mystery. Your mom might never
overcome this shock. Suicide is never a way out; there is always a chance for
redemption. Son, no matter what you did, what you will do, remember, we might
get hurt, we might get harsh, but never take your life. That is never a way
out.”
I nodded and went back inside, angry at my sister, the
foolish one!
0 comments:
Post a Comment