1 - A New Beginning
Katrina groaned as the beeping of her alarm clock worsened the horrendous headache she brought home from last night’s unfortunate events. It was the last time Geode and Salis would ever convince her to party after her already long, 5-hour shift as an exotic dancer. She winced as she stood up and tried to gather her balance before she hurried off to the room adjacent to hers. She walked in and gently rubbed her sister’s forehead, she was sleeping peacefully as always. Katrina hated that she had to break the little one’s slumber, but it was time for Tanella to rise and shine. Tanella also groaned and eventually rolled until she fell off her bed, causing Katrina to burst into laughter and once again triggering her vicious headache. She headed off to the kitchen as she left her 14-year-old sister to shower and get ready to come to breakfast. Katrina stared at the almost bare cupboards and sighed as she knew on her list today would be to go shopping so that her sister and her would still be able to survive this rough, unexpected life they were gradually beginning to cope with. She decided eggs would have to do it and as she turned off the stove and plated the eggs, the toast popped up from the machine and that was Tanella’s cue to come running into the kitchen. “Dear God, I’m famished sis”, Tanella said as she dove into her breakfast while walking around the island to the fridge. Katrina watched as Tanella poured the orange juice for herself and smiled. That girl was one greedy kid, but she was a kid that Katrina loved dearly. Katrina pressured Tanella to get ready for school, so she wouldn’t be late for her first day back, but as always Tanella moved at the pace of a slug. As Katrina placed her heels on, and took up her day job grab bag, with all the essentials a girl could possibly want and need, she shooed Tanella out of the house.
Monday was always a hard day for Katrina, she worked as a junior accountant, crunching numbers by the day for a medium-start up called Lashley & Solet Enterprises. Every Monday to Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM, Katrina was busy, trying to provide a steady income to help raise her sister. This could be considered quite a burden especially for a 22-year old fresh out of university, but Katrina quickly learned that circumstances dictated the pace of one’s life. Her day job might sound luxurious but could not comfortably take care of herself and her sister, so she did what she had to do 6 days a week, on evenings, no matter how tired she was. She smiled to herself as she watched as her sister turned left on the corner of Gordon street, making her way to Queensway Secondary School. Katrina made the right and waited for the bus as her sister disappeared around the block. Katrina was tired and today definitely was not a day for her to make the fifteen-minute walk to work, so she sat back and waited patiently until the number 7 bus came to whisk her off to work. As she waited for her stop on Crumpton and Evergreen street, she thought of her parents. She tried not to think about them when Tanella was around because she could always tell something was wrong. Her parents meant everything in the world to her and just like that they were gone.
Sean and Tracy Crawford were relatively successful businesspeople. They paid their taxes and went to church on Sundays and cared for their two lovely daughters who they had raised with only the help of each other. The only reason Katrina was even able to have hope for Tanella’s future was because their parents had the presence of mind to have a college fund for her, and by the grace of God, Katrina had finished her university education abroad before their parents’ unfortunate demise. Without that money put away for Tanella’s education, Katrina firmly believed she would have had to have three jobs, just to save for her future. Katrina prayed every day that time would rewind, and she would be able to see her parents faces once again. She wished she could hear her father encouraging her to finish her studies, and be patient with herself, always giving amazing advice. She wished she could feel the touch of her mother’s soft hands across her shoulders as she urged her to be confident and proud of who she was. She could only imagine how much Tanella missed them as well, which was why she rarely brought up the conversation. She longed for Tanella to have a complete family, especially in these most critical years of her life, but she knew better.
