Whose Child?

Al was always intoxicated by life and success. This child will make it. Dad said this child will win over men and change lives and make a living out of desperate males. They will part money at first then they will seek her out.

She danced before she talked.

She became spoilt.

Before that, she had been quiet and observant and did not mix matter when she was out. She was pleasant without being unpleasant or gasping. She did not ask for money all the time.

She had a beautiful nature she had natural curls and did not mix matters when she sat down. People came to see if she was okay.

She was a baby doll.

I had curls too I was nasty and always would be.

"She can take it Al cannot." Her mum would say.

She would take this for granted until it bored her.

Mother said she was separated from love. Her family and friends. So what? I continued to play.

The grief continued and did destroy the atmosphere there was nothing left but that hatred in her eyes as she looked at me. Her waiting eyes her continual sadness and the whole foolish escapes she had. What a mess she had made of her life.

Someone was knocking on her door she said death lurked she did not matter anymore if only her child were safe.

Dad had accidentally knocked her and taken her virginity. Al's when she was eleven. Auntie did nothing to stop him.

Zeks felt foolish she had exchanged her own child for me. To make her safe.

The soft furnishings and the wealthy lifestyle made her blind.

We were alike. I was the rough one. Deserved the poor house her child deserved the best she had said. I Pulled Al's locks.

"Always accepting things from strangers." Al did. She was a nice child.

"Why not."

"Wrong."

Al was Zek's child. Zeks was the mother.

A mother's love for her child.

The whole thing happened because the wool had been pulled on her eye.

"He had her in the bath." The friend said, "he had to have her. He took her."

"Took her my Al?"

Auntie did warn mother.

"What was she supposed to do?"

"Of course because she scrubbed his back and then." She paused for good effect. "He had her. She laughed in her usual manner.

"Nothing stands in his path when he wants someone." Auntie shrugged.

"I trusted you to be in his way." Said Zeks.

"Sure as if I could." Sighed the woman who was such a good friend and mother.

"She earns no money left home and has done so much better."

The whole thing was swept aside.

"You are to blame if you had been a man." Screamed mother.

"What are we to do," I asked Fidel.

He said," let her die." And then he crashed out the whole raw deal from his mind.

"Drunk already?"

"Well, she and he are now happier." Said the friend. She was married to the man but her own children were safe.

The dreaded incest would not happen to her own children.

The whole thing was taken so good-naturedly.

Auntie her best friend was forever foraging for more cruelties to inflict on poor Zeks because she took her virtue. The important virginity. Her girlhood taken her marriage was not happy.

They had been such pals and she and she had slept under the blankets licking each other.

"We did not earn enough money to feed the birds."

"I went and when sacked over and over again bought something for the birds and it cost me it just cost me so much."

Abdul owned the factory. of course but she never realized that. She must have been so vulnerable. She was lost.

Now she was lost forever no hope even for her own child. Jammed inside that rabbit hole as the wastrel as the clown.

"Are you all satisfied she doesn't want me," Mothe said?

Just because her child was a woman at eleven.

She spoilt she is not a child anymore.

"She has to marry." Zeks said.

"Never give up your child. Promise me." She said hugging me to her as if her heart would break.

Then another snippet would come and she would boil again.

"But she is only eleven." Said the mother.

"Can you bring her back?"

"If she wants to." Sighed her friend.

"She doesn't want to because Zeks is so comfortable with me." Said her best friend and former lover.

Life has infinite possibilities of cruelty. Zeks lost she knew she had.

"Because she takes after you Zeks. A whore."

"Here's mud in your eyes."

Mother put down the phone and went out and out and never wanted to come back.

She went raving mad she took to the bottle and she drank away the hours. Mood swings and all the rest. My husband, she would say would be nowhere in sight. She was looking at women.

Then she took to being stolid and still as if something had been broken she became unkempt and ill-tempered nothing touched her no one would see her. She then would wear herself out.

She took in bored wives.

"There lurks demons and stuff."

"That was who I am and what to do is that." She said as another woman a good friend came to visit her.

"Neighbours will know them." I thought she did not pretend anymore.

"Someone must see me." She cried.

"We mean nothing to come out of them."

Just because Al was removed from society's ladder the irresistible.

"She will never become a wife and mother." Ha ha.

Al was a new delight.

They all came to tell Zeks the good news.

"She has made a mint." Said the aunties she dances so well. The seven veils have to be seen to be believed. All at the women gathering we have such fun. See you Zeks.

They would wave jump on their broomsticks and leave.

"This child will become important. "

"You ended up with a nerd." Ha ha.

"You are working for Al now. She is the one who has to be dressed. And nobody else."

"Of course with my life." She hissed.

Death beckoned her.

Cucumber sandwiches did not do it for her.

The trousers at home were odd.

Then it blew in all our faces.

She wanted her family she had to have her family back.

"What do you mean mother we are your family."

"That is right." She laughed.

She did not tell us what she messed up on. But she had messed the whole thing up. There it was she lost her child she would rub her hands into her face. Telling herself what it felt like her little girl's touch.

The child was hers and she had given it away.

Tears run down her cheeks.

"I did not even allow her to kiss me." she said, "I was a savage with an evil mind."

"This is the last time you will kiss me or else."

"It is not right mummy," I said could not explain it.

"You don't love mummy?"

She did not wait for me to answer. There was no mummy left.

She tried to hit me then her hand went down under her. She seemed to cave in. Take this child away. She went to the phone and said take her away.

"We will not we got the clever one."

Part exchanged with me as the girl child to replace that.

She missed her baby girl Al.

How she longed for her child back. She had made such a mistake.

She had sent her away to learn to be a lady. Al did not visit her anymore. She could not stomach the woman whom she came from.

Her mother drained by her lack of feeling just went downhill.

"I don't want them anymore the children in the house."

"Oh." Said Al.

"My daughter is now a whore."

"But you said my friend you would look out for her?"

"I did." Said her best friend. "I gave her a profession."