I loved Mother's house - Despite its hardships

I used to stare out the window, waiting for the big bus with lots of children in the same fancy outfit to roll by.

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The girls usually had their hair packed in what mother called “pigtails”. I wanted to be like those girls. I wanted a lot of things and mother always complained about that.

I wanted to visit the place those kids on the bus went to every morning, mother refused to tell me but Old Nana said they went to school. A place to learn, I too wanted to learn.

I also wanted to go into the big city and see the movies at the cinema. Mother took me there once for my 10th birthday but refused to take me back there after that. That day, I had eaten popcorn for the first time, I called it sweet snowballs causing the ladies selling to laugh hard.

It was the best day of my life.

I didn't loathe mother for refusing to take me back to the cinema or letting me join those kids to school. I saw how difficult it was for her to feed us. She had to go into the big city to scrub the walls and toilets of Mrs. Adeline in order to get some money so we could buy food.

She used to babysit for Mrs. Rashid too but they recently returned to Asia so money stopped coming in from there.

But despite all of these unfortunate incidents, I loved my mother's house. I didn't realize this until I was a thousand miles away.

3 years ago when I was only 14, my mother's only relative, Uncle Sam, came to visit. He drove a black car, had black shades on and only took his black jacket off when he was in the house.

I noticed that 2 of his front teeth were missing, “From serving my country during the Second World War!” He announced proudly when I asked mother about it in his presence.

Uncle Sam was a funny man. Throughout his 3 day stay with us, he made mother and I laugh a lot. It was almost like our family was complete.

The night before Uncle Sam left, I was asleep on the couch in our small living room when voices woke me up. I crawled to the small bedroom mother shared with Uncle Sam and heard them discussing

“My Eva is not ready to go out into the big city. She's still very naive”

“You cannot continue living like this, Vera. Eva is big enough to take a job in the city. There are lots of girls her age who already earn enough to feed their families”

The iron bed creaked indicating that her mother had just risen from it.

“Sam, Eva belongs here with me. I can take care of my child!”

Uncle Sam left the next morning without so much as a word to either of us. I could see that he wasn't happy but I couldn't ask anyone what was going on so they wouldn't suspect that I listened to their conversation the night before.

2 years later, mother developed an ailment that caused her to stop going into the city. At first, she didn't let me know she was sick, she said Mrs. Adeline also traveled and she was looking for another job, but as time went on, it became more difficult for her to leave her bed in the mornings.

I became scared for mother's life. If anything happened to her, it was over for me. Especially since my dad died 6 months before I was born.

I was the one who called Uncle Sam to ask him if he could still take me to work. I didn't let mother know I spoke to him until he came the next week. By then, it was too late for her to say no.

Uncle Sam took me to a fish distribution company in the city, and that's where I am now, just staring out the window.

If I were still at Mother's house, I would have been watching those girls in pigtails chatting excitedly as their big school bus drove past, mother would have called me in for a plate of pancakes and warm milk and I would have rushed over to Old Nana’s house when she left for the big city.

Here at the company, I was only allowed to go out twice a month when myself and the other girls had to get supplies for the entire workers.

We were always crammed together on cartons of fish at night and if you weren't careful, you could have bones stuck in your arm from the carton.

We ate only after we made all the deliveries before noon and were allowed phone calls at the end of the month after our pay.

I cannot complain, I know it is my turn to take care of mother just the way she took care of me all these years but with each passing year, I cannot help but imagine how different things would have been in mother's house.