Zora

“Zora you have to go home now, you are so reckless sometimes. Do you not care what he will say? What he will do?” Seth said.

He worries a lot and as he should. He is likely the only one with a grain of sense between the two of us. I am probably going to get beaten tonight again, so what else is new. Welcome to the life of Zora the reject. My father would call it parental love. I may have believed it when I was 2 but now at 17, I know it for what it is. If only he could get rid of me, but wait, who would pick up his crap after him if not his daughter-cum-slave.

A bit about me. Well, I am the fruit of a relationship my father did not want and his family did not want. I am the reject, the outcast. The one that should not have been and the product of my father dipping into forbidden waters.

You see, my mother was from a different tribe, she thought it could work out with my father I assume, but these bitter waters run deep and she even she was not strong enough to take all the hate, so one day when I was just a few months old she got up and left. Yes, she left her own blood and went back to her kind. She decided to leave this half breed to deal with it. I do not know her, I do not hate her.

I feel nothing for her.

As I am nothing to her.

Seth is my best friend. His father, the brother of the Chief, left when he was young to go to Tepa, the Largest City in Zedan, our Country. You may not have heard of it, and I am not surprised as not many people have. We are a small country in West Africa.

Seth’s father did want to get stuck in this hole. He was lucky enough to go to University in Tepa and get a job with a multinational company. Now he heads up one of their major divisions.

So what the hell is he doing here you ask? Why come back to this no man’s land that is not even a blip in our small Country. That is what any reasonable people would ask.

Seth’s father has this thing about ensuring his children know where they come from, understand their roots, so he brings them back a few times a year for a week to understand this. Personally, if it were left to me I would leave this hole and never come back. There is nothing but bad memories full of bitter villagers who have nothing better to do with themselves than to gossip and foster hate.

Seth and I have been friends since forever. He is the first person that saw me, rather than who I am supposed to be. I am not an unwanted child. I am not the daughter of a whore. I am not the daughter of a drunk. I am not a half breed. To Seth, I am Zora, and looking at him now it looks like he is about to lose it.

“Seth, you have to calm down. There is nothing that will happen that has not happened before.”

“Are you kidding me right now? Do you actually enjoy being beaten?” He says through clenched teeth.

Yes,it looks like he is going into the deep end now, he might actually rupture something if he does not take it easy.

“We already know your father is a lunatic and if it was not for the stupid laws of narrow-minded people..”

“Yes yes yes, if it were not for the stupid laws you would what… punch him silly, carry me off to the sunset like Mr. Romeo..” I laughed. Sometimes he amuses me, like he could actually do something about my situation.

“I suppose you would make a good effort though, A for effort, Seth.”

Seth thought he was my savior but even with his machoism, there is little he can do. What could an 18-year-old do.

My little village with their narrow minds would frown upon any interference between parents and children. You would think that having a child regularly bruised would spark some sympathy but with their little minds, they feel that the child it the responsibility of the parents alone to do as they wish, even when blatant.

You see, so stupid. I cannot wait to leave this place.

“Stop it Zora, why does everything have to be a joke to you”

“Because Seth!” I was no longer amused.

“Because..that is how I can handle it” I hit him squarely in the chest.

“You leave tomorrow.” Dammit, I don’t want to do this but I can feel my eyes misting.

“You are leaving me, just like you always do and I am here. The jokes….this is how I deal with it all”

And the night started out well. I wanted to go for a walk around the lake just one more time with Seth before he left. Now it has gone to shit. Now I just wanted to leave. I could not see the beauty in the night anymore.

I started to walk in the direction of my home.

“Zora! Wait..”

I kept on walking, I was afraid if I stopped I would fall apart.

“What Seth..I am going home just as you wished.”

Seth ran up to me and blocked my path.

“No Zora…not like this. You cannot go home like this”

I kept my head down. I was barely keeping it together.

The fragile walls holding me up were crumbling and I just wanted to go to my bed and sob my heart out. Every time he left it got harder and harder to say goodbye. Harder to wonder how I would last the next few months before he came back again. Harder to wonder how I could remain sane when all I wanted to do was to run away. But I was not that stupid.

Where would I go, with little money? I knew no one aside from the people that lived in this patch of Earth.

Seth moved his hand and tilted my chin to look at him.

“Hang in there for me” Seth whispered

I looked into his piercing brown eyes and drew strength from his gaze.

“Okay?”

I nodded. I could do this, I had no choice.

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