The day began on the wrong note, it wasn’t my day to begin with. As soon as I woke up, I started getting into arguments with everyone in my family. My mood swings were taking a hold of me. I went ahead to do some of my daily chores but nothing seemed to work for me. My mind was elsewhere and I failed to focus on anything because of what happened the day before. This particular day and the day before seemed to be two of the worst days of my life. The day before was going by ordinarily until my father called for me to help him with some work. I took my laptop and went into his room to help him out. He told me what I had to do and I began with it. A few minutes later, he asked me for my laptop. It was strange as he didn’t know how to operate a laptop well but still, he asked me to hand it over to him. I was a bit nervous because it had my chats opened in it. He was looking for something when I told him that I’m coming from the loo in a moment. I came back but it was not the same atmosphere I left the room with. My father was looking at me but his eyes were not the same.
His eyes were different. I never saw him like that before. I asked him what was wrong and he replied “Come here”. I went and sat next to him. It was what I did not want it to be. He saw my chats. He saw my chats with my mother, his first wife. I knew that my parents didn’t have what they call, ‘a healthy relationship’. Me talking to my mother was unacceptable by my father, that was the only restriction that he put on me. And yes, she wasn’t a good person but that didn’t change the fact that she was my mother! My stepmom gave me love and affection but it never felt authentic. My father was dejected and somewhat broken when he saw that I was still in touch with my mother. When he saw my last text to her, “Goodnight Mom, Ily”, he felt splintered because he blamed himself for not being enough and being a faulty parent. Suppressing all his emotions, he calmly asked me to stop talking to her and block her number but as soon as I said “No I won’t do that”, he raised his voice at me for the first time that I can recall. I got goosebumps running up my spine and I started shivering. I took my laptop, left his room and locked myself in mine. I could not stop crying and that’s when my phone started buzzing. I picked it up and it was my mother, calling me.
I had to pick it up otherwise she would’ve called my father and things could’ve gotten worse. When she heard my mournful voice, she got worried and started consoling me. I could not share the reason behind it and I didn’t know better than to make a petty excuse. She wanted to meet me but I knew that my father wouldn’t allow it. I skipped dinner and stayed in my room and prayed all night for my father to allow me to stay in touch with Mom.
Back to the next day, the sun was about to set but then to my surprise, just as I had become hopeless, my father came into my room and hugged me. He told me that I could talk to and meet my mom. At that moment, I could see before my eyes how my days quickly switched from being the worst to best!