1 Escape

Tanya showered every morning at exactly 5:30 a.m. before the big yard came to life. It was her time to get away from the duties of boredom, the noise of the children and Chris's snoring. She found the cold water refreshing and vitalizing. Just as the rays of the sun would peek through the holes in the zinc, the lather of the body wash would cover the quarter browning's body. Her nipples tingled as she rubbed the rag over them and then down below, she washed away the ten seconds of Chris's stain.

After three children, her body wasn't way it used to be, but Tanya tried her best to keep in shape. However, her love handles and muffin top were the hardest fat to remove. Despite that Chris loved how plump her kitty was and even though he grew his locks and stopped eating pork, he loved going downtown before the main event. The only problem was that his cue stick could never past ten seconds before delivery and this left Tanya frustrated. She wanted to sweat and feel the meat at the centre for longer, but Chris complained that she was always too "eager to fling it up" and it made him lose concentration.

There was something else that made Tanya love this time of the morning. It made her feel sensitive and tingly as she felt that Mr. Big in the old two-story house would take a peek at her in the shower bathing, just like King David, because he would call her his Bathsheba when he passed her at the stall near the primary school. She attended Sunday School and knew the story quite well, but it brought a smile to her face knowing and feeling the excitement that had long gone from her own relationship. Tanya loved Chris, but over time he felt more like a sibling than a lover. When he came home at night, there was no kiss hello or a hug or even a whisper of anything naughty in her ear.

However, Tanya, like her mother, believed in commitment and was prepared to work at the relationship, despite the challenges of finances, feeling stifled or whether or not Chris had developed other love interests outside. It was difficult when she saw girls that she went to school with drive up to pick up their children from school and at first, she felt embarrassed to be seen as a vendor selling sweets and snacks to bring in her share of earnings into the home, but Tanya had ambition and started to build stalls out of palette boards and franchise the stalls to other vendors at Schools in the area. Tanya Brown was no slouch, but hard knocks in the University of the Streets did not allow her to matriculate to where she wanted to be at the brink of 35. Being pregnant at 16 just before CXC set her back and just when she thought she was ready to try the exams, her father the sole bread winner died tragically. With twins to feed and a sickly mother, Tanya became a hustler to send her siblings to school and feed her fatherless children until Chris came on the scene.

Tanya tried odd jobs but working in the Chinese wholesale just wasn't her thing, she hated counting other people's money and therefore, she decided to try a thing and even though her ass was getting bigger from all the sitting, her bank account was growing. However, there were some things she learned to keep from Chris, just in case he suffered from the same problem his father did. Life was a gamble and Tanya was just playing the hand she got, Chris was a good man and for ten years they have been struggling, but of late Chris has been a little off and it made Tanya worry, but the outside shower was her sanctum to wash away the worries of yesterday and to pray for deliverance.

Her suds filled finger would find the thick folds below her tummy and tease her toes into curling, ignoring the rusting zinc and pin holes of sunlight, she would utter small whimpers of pleasure as her plump thighs and cheeks would quiver uncontrollably before going back inside to fix porridge, boil eggs and orange leaf tea for Chris and the kids.

As she was left alone to tidy up the house after the departure of her family, it gave Tanya time to think and lately Tanya liked the idea of being Bathsheba, it made her look forward to the next morning. Something inside her said it was bad, but Chris had never once offered to wash her back of late. Tanya liked the tingly feeling of having an admirer. Mr Big was a proper gentleman and never tried to pass his place, but every once in a while, Tanya swore she would see him watching her out of the corner of her eye. The grey temple widower lived alone in the big house and went about ensuring the yard was spotless, even though sections of the houses needed renovations, Tanya knew it was impossible for her landlord to properly maintain the facilities, based on the measly rent the two other tenants paid.

Life was indeed a vicious cycle and Tanya swore she would have to break out of it. It was as if the poor was to stay poor and the rich get richer, but her children would get the best education if it killed her and that is how she felt at times. The twins were both in university on partial scholarships with Chris's son being diagnosed autistic only made matters more dire.

The routine of life to walk and pick up after the young adults and yet be enough to see to the special needs of Joshua wore down Tanya and even though the twins held their own academically, they were bums at home who could not lift a finger to cook, wash or clean. However, the most hurtful part was they would use tertiary vocabulary to make her feel inferior. This irritated Tanya and made her think of using the mop stick to bring about parity, but these are modern times and violence was not supposed to be a part of her home. Tanya's frayed nerves were bolstered by her reading on autism and how helpful Joshua was when he stayed with her at the stall, he was a math whiz and always provide the correct change no matter how many customers were haggling for their goods. There were days when Tanya wondered when all of this would end, and Chris would come home the young man with fire in his belly filled with ambition to let them move from the confines of the yard to a space where the family could call their own with three inside bathrooms and a big yard with a lawn.

However, the mechanic had fallen into the routine of greasy overalls and dirty nails. Tanya felt at times that she was at the bottom of a dry well and there was no way of escaping life except using her God given gift that was three spans down from her chin. Tanya had seen and heard the mayhem using the gift of pleasure had caused on her sister's life when jealousy raised its head. Three nights of pleasure turned into fifteen years of incarceration when Tanya's brother-in-law caught her thanking the benefactor with oral sex. Ryan went berserk and stabbed the man who gave his woman the Honda SUV

Life was designed not to be easy for some people though. Morals and values don't normally equate to riches and happiness, but she was determined to rise above her circumstances without compromising her values. Even it took her ten more years. Her dream was to set up her own shop but keep the lucrative business of selling at the gates of the numerous schools within the area. The uniqueness of her stalls attracted attention, but it came at a cost. Higglering was not something the twins were proud of when they were trying to join the upper echelons of the society on campus. Tanya, heard by the way that she was their aunt and not their mother. However, sticks and stones could break her bones, but words whispered in the dark could never harm her mindset.