1 On a rainy day

Quadriplegic father, an evil stepmother, villainous stepsisters, how can she not be Cinderella? Asiya was certain. There was no other character which fitted her quite well and she would know; books has been her only refuge from her rather cursed existence.

Fairy tales to be precise.

And as certain as she was of her similarities with her favorite fairytale character, she was also certain there was a Prince out there who is going to rescue her. How can there not be? They lived happily ever after, that was her saving grace, the hope that if she endured all the sufferings and heartaches, happiness will find her, eventually.

However at one and twenty, her certainty was fast waning. She was losing faith. No one had come for her and it was obvious no one was coming for her. But that doesn't stop her from dreaming anyway. She might never find her Prince Charming but she held on to her hope anyway even as her faith waned. It was all she had left, especially on days like today where she is forced to realize how fruitless her hope and dreams really are and accept the truth of her existence —that no one was coming to save her.

Perhaps if she were a beauty, she had always thought bitterly. However no one spared the mousy, bespectacled, shy girl much thought. It were as if she doesn't even exist.

Shivering, she wiped the tears clear from her eyes. Not that it mattered, the rain falling cats and dogs makes it rather impossible to view her despair streaming her eyes.

"What now?" She wonder, trying not to look at her father sitting helplessly on his wheelchair, drenched in the rain and his faeces. She was worried about him but what can she do?

Ya'u maigadi, the gateman, had refused letting them in on the instruction of her stepmother. He had been sympathetic when he had informed her that her stepmother had locked her father out in the rains simply because he had soiled his bed and she hadn't been around to clean him. That was an hour ago.

She had come home from the University and met him lying on the ground under the rains.   She'd been knocking crazily for a while now but no one was letting her in and she was certain they heard her, they were simply pretending. She feared what state he might be in if she hadn't left her college anyway when the rains had began. At least now, she had his head covered with a polythene bag and wrapped with her hijab albeit soaked with the raging waters.

It was nothing new; having no one to help and been ignored, it has been five years now, ever since her father had an accident and injured his spinal cord. She should be used to her stepmother's cruelty by now but for some odd reason, she couldn't. She keep expecting her to revert back to the days her father was hale and hearty. She keep expecting her to be the woman who had loved her wholeheartedly.

If only wishes were horses.

Dejectedly, she moved to her father.

"I'm sorry, Baba." She said softly circling her hands around his body as she used her body to shield him from the weeping sky.

Her father said nothing. He rarely says anything anymore. Perhaps his sadness lacks words to express. Perhaps he had nothing more to say.

Does he blame his stars like she does sometimes? Asiya wonder. What else was there for her to blame if not his ugly destiny? It has to be, the fault of his stars. How can it not be?

They were once a happy family; Her father, mother, her and her younger brother, Kabir. However her mother and Kabir had died in a plane crash ten years ago on their way back from performing the lesser hajj. Kabir was seven at the time. Her father never quite recovered from the loss. He had only remarried three years after the tragedy because he felt he was neglecting her and she needed a mother. Now, Asiya wished he hadn't. However how was she to know that her sweet and kind stepmother would change drastically after her father's accident two years after their marriage? None of them did.

Moments like this make her wonder if it wouldn't have been better if she was the one who had  died instead of her mother. Perhaps her father wouldn't have  buried himself into work and travelled a lot. If he hadn't, he might never have had the accident which have left him paralysed. However she knew it was destiny. There was nothing anyone could have done to change what had happened to them. Not that it makes it any more acceptable. It was still as difficult.

Her father began coughing rather badly. He suffers from pneumonia and she fears the exposure to the rains might have triggered an attack. However it was worse than she thought. He had began gasping all of a sudden, as if the air he was breathing wasn't enough and before she could think of something to do, he lost his consciousness.

Panicked, she ran to the huge black gates fencing their house and resumed banging like her life depended on it, screaming for help and crying her eyes out. Her father is dying, she kept shouting at the top of her lungs as she hit the gates as hard as she can, however no help came, no one answered either.

Blinded by fear and pain, she ran back to her father and shook him rather hard as she tried resuscitating him, however nothing worked, nothing was working.

Helpless, she prayed earnestly for God's help, realizing He alone can save her father now.