Chapter four

CHAPTER 4

"Get out of my way scoundrel", Eli was shouting.

"Look at you, just an old reprobate, bad mouthing the very vessel that made you a man", Hannah cried.

"You can take your soliloquy to that dungeon of yours you call an hotel". Eli threw back.

Five years into their marriage had seen more chaos and drama than prison walls. The marriage was built on the motive of dark luck, Hannah had accepted Eli on the basis that he would pay the school fees for Eddy. Eddy was now in upper school but the lion was already showing its claws.

One beautiful evening, Hannah made her way out of the hotel with less hope than ever, business was extremely bad and there was very little to look forward at home. Eli was becoming a cannibal. The sun had long set behind the high storey buildings of the city, yellow sky was slowly turning dark and the lights at the center of the city were making patterns. Hannah watched the magnificent building of the adjacent Faraja estate which was dominated by kingly mansions and hated the very day she left her village. Then the slum came into view, she felt like throwing up.

At the wooden second hand chair, Eddy lay with her mouth tied, hands fastened from behind and all clothes dripping with blood. Hannah looked at this all at once and almost lost a tooth,quickly untying her.

"Tell me, who is this empty headed bastard, speak dear, who is this son of nobody who buried brains!"

Hannah was almost shouting, tears covered her sight so that some light that filtered through the many creaks of the house seemed like stars. Then she remembered something, 'when the sun goes down, do not weep, for the tears won't allow you see the stars'.

"Dad", Eddy managed amid sobs.

Hannah could not believe her ears, so the very silly Eli could assault his very own child? What kind of world was this? what kind of spirits could be this unreasonable... All these questions were competing for space inside her head when she remembered her daughter was in acute danger. Wrapping her ten year girl and heading straight to the slum dispensary. Thick dark spread everywhere.

The case ended just like any other petty theft, Eli knew one or two men in uniform so he bought justice. The poisonous marriage which had lasted for five years had just ended in premium tears.

Eddy looked the ceiling of the rusty room which was parked to capacity with young boys who had buried all their senses. Young girls who lay on the dusty floor after heavy injections. The room was filled with an heavy smoke of weed and afew other narcotics. She was now fourteen but since the incident she was never the same.

"Look at you Eddy, can't you see all the efforts I'm putting to keep you in school". Eddy looked at her mother and headed straight into the bed, her mind was heavy on some strong narcotic.

"Think about your life dear, you might just kill the very dream I've watered since that day at the evil forest".

"Evil forest?" Eddy shot, now on her right senses.

"Forget about it, it's nothing".

Eddy was almost over with upper school but the performance was far worse than projected, she was growing thin and almost dropping off. Then it happened.

In one of the usual weed sprees, two men in uniform raided their dinghy. Afew boys managed to escape but not Eddy and afew other girls. Her verdict to was soon placed on the table and Eddy was found in possession of illegal narcotics, she was to be sent to an approved school for two years now that she was a minor.

Things stopped making sense to Hannah, but she was ever hopeful, one or two times she visited her daughter.

The approved school was a nightmare at first, Eddy was struggling with addiction and the strict surveillance of the school could not even filter tea in, leave alone 'long' cigarettes.

Back at the slum Hannah was thinking of her mother, was she still alive? It was almost fifteen years with no communication with her old lady. Maybe it was time to make a permanent change, the following day she booked train tickets for two, for a period in the next one year during which Eddy would be done with the approved school.

She pictured the village, the king and her dying mother, Eddy and the evil forest... Only two nights!