A Chapter Of Our Lives

• Victoria Aligbe, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2015

I looked at her as tears trickled down her dust stricken face. They stopped and pooled around the edges of her lip, mixed with the sand like mud on a rainy day. She did not look like she was crying; her mouth was a line of certainty. She didn’t bother to wipe the tears away, now I understand why. Why try to rid something, why try to be a better person, why try at all, when you know that you, like everyone else, is destined for the same fate.

They taught me at school that no matter what, if I try hard enough, I can become anything I wanted to be. The one question nobody ever asked, and nobody ever answered, was, why try to achieve, in a country that is unaccustomed to achievement.

“Would you please stop crying?” She croaked out.
“Are you talking to me or more to yourself?” I asked back instead of answering.
“To the both of us, Hmm, us. That word does not mean a thing in this country of ours. It’s every person for him or her self.”
“Have I ever told you that when I was a child, my mum left me because I was apparently baggage. Who even says that to a twelve-year-old child? She re-married and got rich. She searched for me and when she found me, she apologised. She wanted me back, as her daughter again.” More tears ran down her face but again they pooled around her lip, they never made it to her chin. It’s like in this country; you’d think that you were making it but something will stop you along the way, give you a reality check and swallow you whole without a chance to re-consider your choices. She kept quite for so long that I thought she was too tired to even talk, her favourite thing to do. “Do you know why I said no? Do you know why after fifteen years of suffering, why I didn’t surrender to her apology? Because I knew I was better than that. I wanted to show her that I would make it without her help. Because if she couldn’t love me in our tough times, than she didn’t deserve me in her time of wealth.”
“Do you regret it?” I ask her even though the answer is obvious.
“What do you think?”
“You tell me.”
“I regret it and I still do till this day. It’s amazing how one choice made on a single moment in your past can affect your whole future.” The last of the flame flickered and died. It’s soul gone forever, never to be seen or felt again. Because there can only be one of something. Even toys made by the same machine have a unique difference. Whether it’s a scratch or a dent, they are unique.

You are going to be the one living off of what you make. So live your life to express, not to impress.